If I quit blame the D Chord!

Thanks again for the help everyone...As some of you have noticed I started out making fast gains in my playing and this is my first BIG wall I have hit. It is frustrating the heck out of me...I was hoping to make it a bi farther before I had an obstacle to overcome (like barre chords!).

Don't hang up that guitar Mike, and don't let a little chord like D get to ya. We all hit a wall at one time or the other.

I'm struggling with Emin-Dmaj-Cadd9-B7 pattern my teacher had given me. The Cadd9 to B7 I get hung up on.

Just keep at it, man.

Now mike, maybe your flooded with comments like "i had to practice weeks and months and then i did it."Some of them are right and some are wrong.What i feel is that when you are not able to change chords you press the strings too hard (to get clean sound and no thuds).Or maybe you want to lift your guitar high up in the air and smash it on the most hated person of your life :lol: .But then thats not we are gonna do cauz we are the GN fraternity and so the only way out of your problem is to believe in yourself. :)

The problem you have right now with the Dmaj chord , i use to have that problem with Cmaj.Oh my god , i almost believed that i would be able to play anything if i can play Cmaj.

And i did it.One day i did it.Yes it happened .It was strange , it was bewildering and it was very much close to a magic done to myself.I was utterly confused as to why i wasn't able to play Cmaj earlier and i think i still dont have a proper answer.(If i remember it took me around 19-20 weeks to do Cmaj :? .)

SO TAKE MY WORD : YOU WILL SHIFT Dmaj CHORD AND ONE DAY YOU WILL ALSO SHIFT BARRES SMOOTHLY. I CAN GUARENTEE YOU THAT (but only if you keep Playing , running is NOT a solution) Cmon , just keep up 8)

Strange, I found that one of the easier ones…now that flippin' “Amaj” chord…

Anyway, I did not read all the posts, but my suggestions as a six month player are:

1) “form” the chord in your mind just before the change and your fingers will hopefully form it for you during the change
2) don't plant a dominant finger first, move as a unit
3) close your eyes to remove any temptation to look at the fretboard, go by feel.

It is a cliché here, but one day it will happen—keep playin' man !

Now that I have thought about it, you probably SHOULD give it up... Ohh and BTW I have PMd you my address to send that beautiful guitar to me. heh..

Keep at it, you'll get it. No doubt in my mind. I remember lots of posts where you didnt think you would get this or that, and you always do, and you always will

Geoo

An earlier post referred to the position of the neck, and of the guitar.
This is often the root cause of difficulty with muffled or dead notes in a chord....many beginners have a tendency to want to 'look' at the chord position they are playing, so they turn the neck up toward them to see better...this causes strain on the back of the hand, and 'flattens out' the fingers onto strings they shouldn't touch.
Try to keep that neck vertical, it's easy to get into a bad "turned neck" habit, particularly if you are practising sitting down.
If you want to 'see' the chord better, bend your neck now and then.
Keep working hard.
Back in my beginner days, the guy that showed me the basic chords started with D, G & A7, and wouldn't show me anything else until I could play those three clearly. My guitar was a "Kay" with a neck that later seemed like a 2 x 4...you will get that D, believe me. :wink:
regards;
Mike

I used to, or partly still do have the turn neck habit even though I play while standing up. What I did was break songs up into simple patterns, since most songs are simple patterns, I'd look where the first note/chord was and could usually make my way to the next notes by feel without having to look. If I know the song well enough, I can find the first note by feel too.

But I'm way worse while practicing chord changes, but one way I found to keep myself from turning the neck up and looking was to practice while watching TV. That way, I look at the TV, rather than my fingers.

I

I

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I

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I know man.. I been sitting here for a day hold my breath. Hoping that the next post he types is

GOT IT!!

Geoo

I

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I know man.. I been sitting here for a day hold my breath. Hoping that the next post he types is

GOT IT!!

Geoo
I think the "I" was the first part of I GOT IT but he just did not want to commit yet. :lol:

In all honesty I had written "I Quit!" I was SOOOOO frustrated yesterday that I slammed my music stand to the ground (almost slammed my LP!) and just gave up. I even broke a string which infuriated me and to make matters worse I didn't have any extras!

PLease understand, I have other "issues" going on in my life and I tend to make the little problems into bigger one's. If things were going good right now I probably wouldn't care as much about a D chord.

I put the guitar down and went for a drive and ended up a Daddy's Junky Music bought some new strings (Great deal on Blue Steels...comes with polish and a cleaning cloth!). I then when to Guitar Center which is up the road from Daddy's and began checking out guitars. Mostly Tele's but then I went to look at the acoustics. I was playing with an Ovation when someone said "Hey! You sound like Bon Jovi!" (I actually sounded TERRIBLE since ALL the guitars had action that was AT LEAST 1/4" from the fretboard!). He began showing me some of the "filler" notes for Wanted Dead Or Alive. I even played a $2200 Taylor knowing I will NEVER own something that expensive on my salary! It was a beautiful cutaway and played FANTASTIC.

I eventually calmed down and came home and restrung my LP. It was too late to get a full practice in but I managed about 30 minutes.

So now you understand why I get so frustrated...there is more to it than just the "D chord"!

Thanks

Hey Mike, I've been there, too many times. Thankfully my tele's built like a tank and I'm not as strong as Pete Townshed.
Continuing to play's the right attitude. You might want to take a break from the D chord for a couple of days, then go back to the slow-mo practice and slowly build up. Best of luck with whatever else is going on in your life.

Keep at it, you'll get it. No doubt in my mind. I remember lots of posts where you didnt think you would get this or that, and you always do, and you always will

Geoo

Geoo, I appreciate the vote of confidence but I have a funny feeling that this is one fault I am either going to have to learn to live with or just give up the hobby all together...

People keep saying "Don't practice it for a while." Well that's not an option since 99% of the songs I like include the D chord. If you take away those songs then you take away my motivation for playing...and if that's the case what's the sense of playing.

I practice this sometimes 2-3 hours per day...doing nothing else...and I still can't get it. All the songs I know as of now include the D chord so I can't even concentrate on them. If I haven't gotten it by now I doubt I will ever get it.

I might as well get used to "You need to practice fretting better!" and "Slow down!"

I'm just saying for two days, don't practice it. Then start over. And practice other things. You're getting too wrapped up in it. The tension is making it harder and your brain needs some time to assimilate what it's learning. Just a short break, everyone keeps saying it, because we know it helps :). And learning to play the guitar is a long term process, many people take months to get anywhere near proficient with even the basic open chords. There's plenty of time to work on it amongst other things.