Trouble with D chord

I realy struggle with this chord. It seems impossible for me to consistently get clean notes out of both the B and high E strings. I can place my fingers in the right position if I stop and adjust them, but it's nearly impossible for me to move to this chord during a progression and get my big fingers all bunched into the correct places. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I noticed the great reponse TrojanMan got on his C chord post and thought I'd give it a try for the D chord. Thanks

I've had similar problems with the D and it really baffles me because it's a pretty easy chord to finger. The biggest problem with me was just getting my fingers on the G and E strings to land solidly without muteing other strings or buzzing. I found that if I just didn't worry much about it and kept at it the problems eventually solved themselves. Fingers just have to get used to going to the right place which, like with barre chords, they eventually do. Trick really is just to not give up.

There's another way to play the D chord which I had a problem with too. You can put your middle finger on the G and either your ring or pinky on the B string and strum strings A through B. To me it sounds the same and it makes it easier to switch off to C, AM and D7. Of course some may tell you not to do this but I guess it depends on what your goals are

Make sure you're letting the tips of your fingers fret the notes. When I first started I found the D often frustrating too -- hard to fret cleanly. But the more often you do it, the easier it will get. Arch the fingers, use the tips so that you're not laying the finger at an angle across a string and muting it accidentally.

The photo of the D on the lesson Chords 101 from Play Guitar Magazine might be helpful.

I had a hard time with the D chord myself.
My biggest problem was fretting the B string without muting either the G or E strings. And of course slow chord change.
Now the D is no problem at all and in fact seems to be one of the easiest chords to play.
It all boiled down to time, patience and alot of practice.
Keep at it and it wont be long until you wonder why you ever had a problem with it.

Thanks for the encouragement ...

Sometimes it is not just us but the guitar has something to do with it too sometimes.

D is part of my daily routines and I play this chord hundreds of times a week without a problem with my Dean acoustic. But I also have a cheap Fender acoustic and I have a problem playing a clean D on that one for some reason and this should not be. I have to get used to that guitar every time I pick it up and practice a while before my D becomes clean again on that guitar and even then I have to really pay attention to get my fingers exactly right to play clean with that guitar.

time people....time

Timeeeee, why you punish me ... :)

I realy struggle with this chord. It seems impossible for me to consistently get clean notes out of both the B and high E strings. I can place my fingers in the right position if I stop and adjust them, but it's nearly impossible for me to move to this chord during a progression and get my big fingers all bunched into the correct places. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I noticed the great reponse TrojanMan got on his C chord post and thought I'd give it a try for the D chord. Thanks

I read this somewhere else but I'll try to explain it so it makes sense. Before my calouses (sp?) developed the "E" string was so small it would dig it's own ... "nitch" into my middle finger so it would never ring true - no matter how hard I press? It still does it sometimes. I hope this makes sense. I think I read from the website that's above this post.

BJ

Part of the reason it takes time to get the D and a few other chords to ring true is that something else that comes with time is not fretting too hard. The harder you press the more your finger tips spread out. I had found that the more I progressed the lighter my touch was on the strings and the less likely I was to mute other strings while still pressing enough to hit the frets solid.

Also have to keep in mind the most critical thing regarding keeping the fingers as perpendicular to the strings as possible.

I may be oversimplifying things, but I noticed some buzzing the other day when playing a D chord, and noticed it was one of my fingernails touching a different string. This probably isn't your problem but keeping my nails nice and short helps with the fretting hand and keeping things sounding clean.

Speaking of the D chord, I have a question. Most of the instructional books and chord charts I've seen show D being played using the index finger fretting the G string, the middle finger fretting the E string, and the ring finger fretting the B string. I personally find it easier to swap my index and middle fingers (index on the E string, and middle on the G string). It seems to make chord changes a bit easier (for me, anyway). Does anyone have any thoughts on this? What about barring the E, B, and G at the 2nd fret, and using the ring finger on the B?

Snarfy,

it doesn't matter how you finger a chord. You'll find that a lot of guitarists will finger a chord according what they're coming from and what chord they're going to.

I would guess that 95% of the time I play the D chord with a mini-barre across the G B and top E strings, then play the 3rd fret of the B string with my 2nd finger....that leaves two fingers free for extending chords, like sus4ths etc.....

Vic