The next finger we want in the C chord is the middle finger, the second finger in the second fret on the fourth string right there.
Now again you're going to probably realize early on that it's kind of challenging to keep the little chubby part of this finger
off of the third string underneath it.
What we want is to be pushing this string here, open here, pushing the string here and open here
so you've got two different opportunities to see how you're fretting is going.
It should ring like this. It should all be clear and nice.
Now you are strumming or picking four strings, we've added one.
If you do too much down here and you pick up the fifth string you're going to find out he doesn't belong either.
That's probably a jazz chord.
Did you know a jazz chord is you probably just make a mistake and if you call it a jazz chord it's not a mistake anymore.
For our purposes we want to play a nice sounding C chord.
Four strings, two fingers, just like that.
Again, you may be hearing this.
That would mean your fingers are laying down too much or you're pushing too hard, you need to get them pointed straight in.
If you're having trouble with that here is one way you can try to correct it.
Look at where my thumb is. We haven't talked about where this guy is supposed to sit yet.
There is no right and wrong on these unless your taking classical lessons and in that case my left hand would be getting smacked with a ruler
because in classical style they want that thumb down behind the neck almost like you're pushing a button back here.
It's not a bad idea.
What that does is it brings your wrist position around which naturally causes your fingers to point straight into the frets.
That's very nice for solving the problem we're talking about. Getting good clear ringing sound.
However, the style I like to play and the style a lot of people like to play prefers this thumb up here for a stronger grip
and also you can do a thumb over, you can actually fret a note up there.
That's a useful thing and we'll talk about that down the road.
I naturally play with my palm up against the fret and my fingers know their job well enough that they stay straight in
but if you are having a problem getting clear notes you might try moving this thumb down.
Watch what it does to your wrist you'll see you'll roll it out and you'll see those fingers go straight in.
It may be that for starting out you need to play down here for a while until you get good sounding tones and later if you can maintain it and bring
your thumb back up here and play like us rednecks then go ahead but get your tone right now that's job one.
Your thumb is important later.
So put your thumb where you need it to be to get these to sound right. Let's strum these together now.
I hope you're tapping your foot.
One, two, three, four. Four strings at the same time.
One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
Now we're going to add another finger and you might see some posts out on the forums that sometimes this is where people get in trouble.
This is adding enough complication and enough of a stretch in your hand that this doesn't come easy for everyone.
Let's talk about where we need to get to first.
We need to keep that tune that we have.
Two fingers pushed down and two clearly ringing open strings and we're going to add the third finger in the third fret on the fifth string.
So we have five strings of the guitar involved in this chord now.
It should sound like this.
Now listen carefully with that and what you should notice is we're playing a C chord remember
and I told you this one is a root note, that's a C note but we've just added another one.
Same note, that's the C note and that's the root note of this chord.
It gives it a nice full sound and we have a little less of a problem with the next string down it's not necessarily bad.
It's another E, well that should be ok because we have an E up here in the top.
It's quite happily a part of this chord but having an E note down on the bottom probably doesn't sound quite right to your ear.
What you normally want is you want a root note of the chord to be on the bottom
and to be the first sound that you hear that anchors the sound of that chord.
We'll talk about other base options later but for now we want a five string, three fingered C chord.
Maybe you're hearing this. It's a very common problem.
If you're hearing that do not be frustrated you are just like everybody else.
Take some time, focus on dropping maybe your thumb down to get your fingers pointed in, try not to press too hard.
I think one of the problems that happens for new guitar players is the fingers are curled at significantly different positions.
We've got our first finger curled almost as tight as it can go around the bottom.
The middle one is kind of in the middle
but then we're asking our third finger to reach most the way across the board, still be perpendicular and push that note in.
I think this causes a lot of trouble for people because it feels like a funny stretch.
It feels like that finger is doing something that the muscles aren't in condition to do and it will take a little practice.
If you think though that flexibility is your issue what you might try doing is fretting in the opposite direction that I just taught you.
Start with number three up here. Third finger, third fret, on the fifth string.
Now hold that in position and go for the next one.
That's probably not much of a stretch and then add this one down here and now you might find that's where the pain is coming from.
That's where I'm uncomfortable is changing that.
Try fretting it both ways.
Go one, two, three, come away from it and do three, two, one.
If that's still a problem I've got one other option for you.
Remember we did one finger chords, two finger chords and then three.
There is another two finger option that may give you more of a break, something else to help you get through this phase.
Do a two finger chord from up here using your second and third finger.
This finger is probably tired by now let it take a break but don't strum that string because it's not part of the job.
We'll get three strings in the middle. Five, four, three.
If you can do that with your right hand that's not a bad sounding chord right there.
It's only two fingers, three strings and your first finger is getting a break.
Then when you feel like it add your finger back on and try them all.
I told you I would do this earlier.
This is a foundational building block and you need to get this down before we go much farther.
There is a lot of basics that work here.
Proper fretting, proper hand position and you're working on some hand strength that you probably do not have.
Give yourself some time, practice it and keep going over it and then when this can operate without you watching it spend some time
and watch what's going on over here.
Don't pinch the pick too hard.
There's a lot of people that worry about what they should be doing over here.
I deliberately didn't make a big deal out of that because what I want you to do is focus on the left hand.
Focus on one hand at a time.
This should feel pretty natural to you.
If you are holding a pick right someone should be able to walk up and just almost easily pull that out of your hand.
If you're gripping it with a death grip and you're getting sweaty, again, just like with your right hand, your left hand is working it too hard.
Take it easy and relax.
This should be a nice and just barely really at the volume that we're playing at just a little bit more than a touch across these strings.
We don't need to play Led Zeppelin yet.
We're just getting used to how these things sound and what touching them does.
Position wise here you want that pick to be hitting, kind of dragging I guess is a good way to put it, at a little bit of a downward angle,
it should slide across those strings very easily and you're holding on just enough to where it doesn't fall out of your hands
but certainly you can probably see it is moving in my grip.
When I push down on a string the pick is flexing up in the grip of my thumb and first finger now it's ok.
Now you have your three fingered C chord, played on five strings and we're working on strumming that with your right hand.
This is a very good stopping point for today but I want to give you a couple of things to think about before we're done.
Repetition is your friend right now. I know it's not very exciting but it's about the only way to get there.
Remember you've got to build some endurance, you're training the muscle memory in your fingers to remember what they're supposed to be doing.
Here's a little trick for you.
When I teach a chord one thing I'll talk about is a chord shape.
We would call this a C chord shape.
This is one that you want to be very familiar with and when I see this I see a picture in my mind of what that chord shape should look like.
You actually don't even need a guitar to see this.
You can take this flat part of your arm and that should look like a C chord to you.
That's the C chord shape.
I just think in terms of that shape.
Later on what we're going to be doing is we're going to add melody around that.
Your pinky is still a free agent it can move around and it can play all kinds of notes and really basically stay in that chord shape.
There's a reason why we're focusing hard and early to get this down and getting it clear because this will be a big tool in your tool box from now on.
Then on the right hand.
If you're comfortable with this already doing the basic strum.
Maybe you're doing it with your fingers and thumb. If this is you playing without a pick that's fine.
Another alternative for strumming by the way is the back of your nails.
You could strum it this way and that's fine too.
We are looking for smoothness, a good even hit on all of the strings, consistency and enough volume.
If that's not loud enough for you then you may need to go with a pick.
If you're a budding finger style guitar picker and you're wearing one of these you have a couple of options.
You'll be strumming with just your thumb, you should also get familiar with your finger as well.
You will trade off and do both.
Both have their place and they are both effective they just sound a little bit different.
Before we are done for the day what I want you to think about while your practicing strumming your three fingered, five stringed, C chord is the feel
and the groove of what you're playing almost always comes from your right hand.
We do this and we can count that. One, two, three, four.
There's not a lot of music that sounds like that.
What music tends to sound like is little variations on the rhythm.
I haven't talked about an upstroke yet but I will.
If you're feeling good enough with what's going on take a little liberty with your right hand and change it up to a C and then a strum.
See what that feels like.
Again, I'll break these down for you in a structured way coming up but to keep some spice in your playing and in your practicing right now the goal is
to get some time, some muscle stamina and practice on getting the left hand down good.
Experiment with your right hand a little bit and make it fun.
Don't make it hard. We're headed toward music.
We're not headed toward drills and boring repetition
but we have to have our bottom bricks in the pyramid need to be in place before we start building up.
Just remember I guess one other beginning tip for you is how often should I practice?
How long should I practice?
There's no right or wrong there it's an extremely individual choice that
depends on your schedule, depends on your hand strength and stamina, it depends on a lot of things.
I do want to encourage you to pick your guitar up at least a few minutes everyday.
Even if you don't have time for a fifteen, twenty, thirty minute practice session everyday.
I have guitars everywhere and there are many times I'll pick a guitar up and play for five minutes.
That's not wasted time and it's good for a lot of things.
I even have an old beater guitar that I bought in a pawn shop that I carry in the back seat of the truck with me everywhere I go.
If I'm meeting somebody and I've got ten minutes to sit I am perfectly comfortable getting the guitar out in the seat of my truck
and spending ten minutes working on a new song.
What the goal there is, is that the longer you go in between times of play you start to rapidly losing conditioning.
Your calluses start to go away, your hand-eye coordination will go away.
Chet Atkins said: "When he forgets to play his guitar everyday his guitar tends to forget who he is."
There is some real wisdom to that so I encourage you to play everyday even if it's not a marathon practice session.
I also want to encourage you to not to play until you're fingers really hurt.
The first place this will be happening especially for you steel string players is on the calluses or lack of calluses on your left hand.
If you play until you are really making them hurt then you are probably not going to be able to play tomorrow.
I would much rather see you play in daily five minute sessions than play for half an hour one day
and not be able to play the next day because you've borderline got blisters on your fingers.
That's not constructive.
So play whenever you can, as much as you can and still keep it fun.
Remember keeping it fun is the most important thing and if you're not enjoying your guitar playing no one else around you will.
That's an important factor so have fun.
Get that three fingered C chord down and on the next lesson we'll add a couple more chords and a few more right handed techniques
and then things will get a lot more fun.