I've been playing a song by Shooter Jennings called "4th of July". Its a pretty fun, beginner, song to play and it helps me on my strumming/singing. But there is a D to F#m that gives me so many fits. It just seems impossible to go from D to F#m.
Not to mention that my hand is pretty cramped by the end of the song.
I know the answer is practice but ARGHH. Here is a snippet in case anyone wants to see.
A E D
Alone with the morning burning red in the canvas in my head
D F#m E
Painting a picture of you
Geoo
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
Try a different voicing of F#m (or D, for that matter).
F#m
e X
B 7
G 6
D 7
A 9
E X
for example. You could use your index finger as a pivot (stays on the B string).
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Havent thought about that and not exactly sure how you are suggesting I make a D. Very much a newbie.. But it will be good for me to look it up and see how that works
Thanks :)
Geoo
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
What's your barring like?
If you can do a decent barre then you could lay your index finger across fret 2 after the E, and then do the D with the barre. Much easier to cross to F#m from there. Like so:
222222
Then dab the middle or ring finger on the second string to get the D
xx2232
Leave the barre there and move the ring and pinky across to do the F#m
244222
Then lift the barre and keep the ring and pinky on the 4th and 5th strings but slide them up from the 4th to the second fret. Plonk your middle finger on the first fret of 3rd string to complete your E.
0221000
Not too bad, with a bit of... umm...we weren't going to mention that P word... with a bit of chocolate.. :D
Doing an E with the middle, ring and pinky fingers instead of index, middle and ring is a very handy shape as you can barre over it and just slide it down the neck and get F, F#, G, G# A, etc. (I think it's something like E, B and A this way that give you "Wild Thing!" :shock:)
Apologies if you already knew all the above. :wink:
aim straight for the F# on the low e string with your index finger from the d shape. don't think about the bar. think about getting the tip of your index finger on that note. your hand position from the d chord will naturally straighten things out.
then move the ring and pinkie together to the fourth frets.
D:xx0232 F#m:244222
anyway, if what i am saying doesn't work, just take it slow and repeat the transition 25 times back and forth so that it gets into your muscle memory.
I really appreciate all the great tips for my problem. Thanks for taking the time to write them out so well. I will give it a shot later when I get home.
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
Of course, if you were sliding in Open G, barring (with the slide or fingers) at the 7th fret would give you your D major chord. Barring with the slide at the 11th fret and fretting behind the slide on the 2nd string at the 10th fret would give you your F#min.
:lol:
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Well meaning but probably destructive advice from a 2 mo. beginner, so take it for what it's worth...
Learn your F#m. It pops up again and again in all sorts of songs (even Country) particularly in bridges for some reason. (Someone more schooled in music theory can prob. tell us why.)
Obviously, all your fingers should land at the same time, but for now, the easiest way for me to get a clean F#m semi-consistantly, is to concentrate on getting the pinky and ring finger on the 4th fret first and THEN lay the index across the 2nd fret. I can get from D to F#m to D pretty quickly this way.
Good luck. This chord used to be my nemesis.
John A.
Midland, TX
John A.
They say only a pawnshop guitar can play the blues. An eBay one does it better. A guitar's bound to feel unloved if her owner plasters pictures of her over the internet for all to see and then sells her off to the highest anonymous bidder.
Once you have your F#m down pat, just slide your ring finger and pinky down one more fret to the 5th fret, drop your middle finger on the G string 4th fret, bar the 3rd fret with your index finger and you have another G to work with.
Use what you have and what you can do to your advantage and let it lead to something else that is close and things build up faster. 8)
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
Learn your F#m. It pops up again and again in all sorts of songs (even Country)
Well, I have been working on several of the suggestions in this thread and its been VERY helpful. The funny thing is that I did what Dustdevil suggested and just practiced the F#m chord over and over switching between it and the D and after only about 10 mins I was able to hit it everytime. I havent tried it in the song yet but I am starting to feel a little more comfortable with it.
Not to mention I have learned alot of other ways to make the chord thanks to all you guys.
Thanks ALOT
Geoo
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
:D
I just spent a few minutes trying Dustdevil's suggestion, and it worked well for me too - in fact better than the way I'd suggested :wink:
I try to always land the fingers nearest the top of a chord first, on the theory that if everything isn't quite in place at the first strum I can just be selective about which strings to hit, and get the full handful on the next stroke. :?
Landing the pinky and ring, quickly followed by the top tip of the barre seemed pretty quick, and I'm getting faster at 'settling' the rest of the barre (I'm not the best at barres yet :( )
Great! I've learned a new chord to put in the kitbag. :D
Great! Glad it worked for you guys!
To be perfectly honest, I can't take credit for the idea. There was a discussion somewhere here about doing barre chords this way and whether it was correct or not. I'd hate to appear to take credit for someone else's idea. But hey, it works for me on F#m....
I still wonder why it pops up so often. Why not F#? Why not G#m?
John A.
Midland, TX
John A.
They say only a pawnshop guitar can play the blues. An eBay one does it better. A guitar's bound to feel unloved if her owner plasters pictures of her over the internet for all to see and then sells her off to the highest anonymous bidder.
F# is in the keys of A, G, E and D (and a bunch of others). It's the 6th note in the A scale, the 2nd note in the E scale and the 3rd note in the D scale. The 2nd 3rd and 6th degrees are the traditional minor chords in a given key. That means F#m is one of the minor chords in the keys of A, E, and D, which happen to be very popular and easy keys in which to play on the guitar.
~Sam
