Guitar Club – Week 2

Welcome back!

This week we will focus on correct hand and finger positions of the guitar fret board, practicing the Em chord and learning the Dsus4 chord.

Well done to everyone that has practised.  The secret to learning the guitar, or any instrument, is regular practise.

The first part of our lesson will involve us recalling the Em chord we learned last week.

Good, we all should be able to remember where to place our fingers to make the Em chord.  Last week I noticed that we where muting some strings that we should not have been.  Muting is where your hand rests gently on the string and stops it from vibrating to cause a sound.  When we hold a string down we need to use the tips of our fingers and make sure the rest of our hand is not touching any of the other strings.  This will feel a little uncomfortable at first but your muscles will soon learn this new hand position.

If you look closely at this photo you will see the fingers are only touching the chords that need to be pressed down and that the fingers are reaching over, but not touching, the other strings.  It is tricky but you will do it if you practise.

Now lets try this on our Em chord.

Fantastic.  Now for a whole new chord.  This is a Dsus4 chord.  If you want to learn more about the Dsus4 chord look here.  This is quite a trick article to read but have a go and remember, I will answer your questions!

The Dsus4 chord looks like this.

Just like the last chord diagram, the 0 at he top means to play the string open.  The other numbers are suggestions for the fingers you should use.  However, on this diagram there are some Xs at the top.  These mean DO NOT PLAY these strings.

Good luck and keep practising.