The first chord we are going to work on today is the G major chord.
For this we want to use our second finger on our low E string third fret.
Our first finger on our A string second fret.
Our pinky or fourth finger third fret on your E string.
Again that is second finger third fret on your low E string.
First finger second fret on your A string.
Third fret on your high E string fourth finger.
We talked about in the last lesson doing something called chord pushups.
This is fretting the chord and making sure it's clean.
Shaking your hand out.
Putting it back on and taking it off and making sure that it's clean.
This chord has a little bit more spread in terms of what strings you are fretting on compared to some of the last chords.
This one is kind of the hardest one out of the batch for many people.
Don't feel bad if it is hard right out of the gate here.
The next chord we are going to be looking at is C.
That is going to be third finger A string third fret.
Second finger D string second fret.
First finger second string or B string first fret.
So your frets and your fingers are doing the same thing they are all lined up.
There is your C.
Now on this chord you are not going to play or you can but most people think it doesn't sound good to play your low E string.
Start with your C note on the third fret there and strum down.
So going from G to C can be a little bit difficult sometimes.
For the C chord in the last lesson we talked about thumb positioning
while I subscribe to the rules I talked about last time
I generally find that chord C and the D chord
the next chord we will be working on it is easier to move your thumb up just a little bit.
You don't want to be way over like this but if you move it up just enough the hand positioning is a little bit easier.
By the way that was the next chord we are going to work on.
D.
First finger second fret G string.
Third finger third fret B string.
Second finger second fret high E string.
Again that is first finger second fret G string.
Third finger third fret B string.
Second finger second fret high E string.
So if we connect these chords.
Many, many, many songs have been written with just these three chords.
So if you are able to get these chords down in addition to the last ones we worked on
you are going to be well on your way to playing your first songs.
Let's do a quick strumming review here.
Down stroke.
Upstroke.
With this track today we are going to be working on utilizing both of those things.
This track is going to utilize all three of these chords. It's not going to utilize the E and the A chord at all.
We are just going to be focusing on these three.
Between this lesson and the last lesson it should be pretty easy for you to get a grasp on using these chords in context.
Generally in most songs you are going to be playing your G with your C and your D chords.
You are also going to be playing your A with your E chord most of the time
because of the way music is made up.
We will get into the reasons behind that later.
For now let's go ahead and transition to the track.
I will go ahead and play the track.
Then we will talk about it afterward.