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Help on breaking a bad habbit.

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(@geonjules)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 50
Topic starter  

I've been going at it for five months now. The open chord changes are coming along pretty good, except for the C.
My fingers keep going down one at a time instead of all at once (idex,middle,ring). This is the only chord (so far) to give me this habbit I can't seem to break. Any suggestions?

" Thoughts that pay homage to frustration will attract frustration. When you say or think theres nothing I can do,my life has spun out of control,and I'm trapped,thats what you will attract ".


   
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 jimh
(@jimh)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 144
 

C doesn't get me as bad as G.

Music is the universal language.


   
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(@boxboy)
Noble Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 1221
 

When I struggle with forming a chord, I tend to work on it all on its own. Form it, do arpeggios with it, see if you can do hammer ons with each fretting finger. It gets your hand to relax and sort of wires your brain for where the fingers are in relationship with each other. Then I go back and introduce it into a chord progression.
I struggled mightily with both C and F open postion and now, for the life of me, I don't know why! Keep at it; it'll come. :)

Don


   
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(@demoetc)
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Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 2167
 

One thing you could try is place all your fingers down, then lift them up at the same time - just a quarter inch or so, holding them in the same position like they're frozen - then place them down again. You're not even strumming or anything, just placing the fingers, lifting, placing. You'll get used to feeling how they should be shaped when they're off the strings.

After you've gotten comfortable with that, then when you lift your fingers, put them in a random place or just shake your hand out, and then place them back in position, over and over again. I've been playing for awhile, but there's still some chords that I get sloppy on - or that are hard to get to from another chord shape - so I stop and just work that one problem chord over and over again until the fingers figure it out.

Best regards.


   
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(@Anonymous)
New Member
Joined: 1 second ago
Posts: 0
 

Time wil help. But don't worry the Am7 to C that you are making sounds good usually :shock:


   
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(@timba33)
Eminent Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 24
 

I 2nd DemoEtc's exercise !!!

Form the chord shape just above the strings, then place them down, and lift them up again. Concentrate on moving all the fingers at once, up and down. Always forming the chord shape just above the strings first, then come down on the strings together. Change to another chord, maybe a change that you have trouble switching between, like C to D, and do the same thing, then come back to the C chord, hold it just above the strings, then come down with all fingers at the same time.

I had trouble with C and D chords, and this helped me through it. a few days of this and my fingers were trained.


   
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(@eirraca)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 215
 

I'll agree, C is hard. :|


   
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(@dogbite)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 6348
 

I have found it easy moving from Am to C for some reason. maybe because my index is already planted.
try that a bunch of times.
you might be able to train the middle and ring first. :idea:

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(@tiffer)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 35
 

Yeah, what boxboy said about hammering on, I was similar when I went onto the Cat Stevens- Wild World lesson, i think, and it has a part where you do a hammer on with the index finger on the C chord and I started off putting on the chord and then lifting up the index finger before strumming, which took too long, so it made me learn to put the other fingers on first and then just kinda helped me have good fast C chord


   
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(@hyperborea)
Prominent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 827
 

When I had chords where I was putting my fingers down not all at once I would practice putting my fingers down in a different order for a while. So for the C chord in your case where you are putting them down in the order index, middle, then ring you could try putting them down in the opposite order of ring, middle and then index for a while followed by practicing with the middle finger going first. It seemed to me that I was using the first finger down as a "pivot" for the other fingers and changing up the ordering helped to break me out of that.

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(@johnnycobra)
Eminent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 13
 

go extremely slowly so that you have conscious control over the movement.

repeat a billion times and gradually build up speed.

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(@purple)
Reputable Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 343
 

I've been going at it for five months now. The open chord changes are coming along pretty good, except for the C.
My fingers keep going down one at a time instead of all at once (idex,middle,ring). This is the only chord (so far) to give me this habbit I can't seem to break. Any suggestions?
As far as I know this isn't a 'bad habbit' per se but part of the learning process. I never specifically worked on not putting down my fingers one at a time. Just the more I practiced chord changes, the better I got at it and slowly the one-at-a-time became faster until it was all-at-once. The most important part of chord changes is making sure that you finger the chord correctly each time. Placing all your fingers down at the same time but consistently making errors I think is far worse than placing your fingers down one at a time but they end in the right location.

C (and G as someone mentioned above) are tough chords and simply take time and practice. Guitar is a journey not a destination. You aren't going to place all your fingers down at the same time for C and go ok, that chord change is perfect now. After years of playing you will still continue to see improvement in chord changes. Hope that helps.

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(@nirvgas)
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Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 171
 

Try practicing the E-C transition. Since your middle and ring fingers are so close to the C frets, maybe this will promote the habit of planting your ring and middle fingers first. Maybe. :)

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(@geonjules)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 50
Topic starter  

Thanks for the help. Time to practice.

" Thoughts that pay homage to frustration will attract frustration. When you say or think theres nothing I can do,my life has spun out of control,and I'm trapped,thats what you will attract ".


   
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(@jkf_alone)
Active Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 13
 

how are you making your G chord? there are several different ways to finger it, shifting from G to C and back is hard with some fingerings and easy with others. try finding as many different fingerings for the same chords in the same positions as possible, that way you get your head around WHERE the chord lies rather than what finger goes where. i find myself grabbing open chords 3 or 4 different ways depending on the situation.

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