Fingering

[bondolah]

My left-hand fingering from chord to chord is, well, pedestrian at best. Does anyone have some good exercises to help me move on a bit?

Cheers

[craftsman]

I really wish I could help, but thats my weakest point... I think I will wait for the others to jump in and I will take the advice too!

[Sooze]

Hope someone can come up with some good advice - I have the same problem!

[Danny]

Well, an expert I most certainly am not but.....

What I find best is to find 1 finger to be a lead finger, and follow on from their. I.E. If I'm changing chords, and my 2nd finger needs to stay on the same string but go up or down a bit, then I'll do that finger 1st, and use that as a framework for the rest.

That probably doesn't make much sense written down, but trust me, Find 1 finger, and let the rest follow.

[Tom]

Yes i agree with Danny, have a lead finger and move all your others around that one. At the end of the day its all about practice.

I never thaught I would be comfortable with "the bloody chord of death" but practice makes perfect

[alanj]

Chords get a lot easier over time.

I used to play guitar a lot as a kid but just got out of the habit of spending my spare time playing. So i decided to take up the banjo after years of not playing anything regularly.

My guitar chords never went away, its like Dear old Dad says, once its in your 'muscle memory', its there.
Like riding a bike and all that.

A friend of a friend who plays 5-string bluegrass recently gave me some time just to help me on banjo. When we got to discussing chords, I was saying that I lose it completely when changing chords on the banjo as my left hand doesn't really 'know' the chords very well yet but I know it will come with practice.

My favourite exercise is to play a simple chord progression in any key.

In C, just play the chords C C F F, C C G G, C C F F, C G C.
you can use G7 instead of G.

Over and over again till it's smooth(er)..... well... smoother than it was before you practiced.

In G: G G C C, G G D D, G G C C, G D G
You can use D7 instead of D.

In A: A A D D, A A E E, A A D D, A E A.

Its just like 'Boil me cabbage' practice in any key.
But you only need to do the popular keys.
Don't think I've ever had to play a song in F or B, ever!!.
Most of the main chords get covered.

Don't even worry about your frailing hand.
Just strum 1, 2, 3, 4. Its a chord changing practice.

Another point is to do with what fingers you use for
making the chords.
I had (and still have) difficulty going from C to F.

My C chord is
1st string 2nd fret Ring Finger
2nd String 1st fret Index Finger
4th String 2nd fret Middle Finger.

My friend suggested trying my C chord as
1st string 2nd fret Pinky Finger
2nd String 1st fret Index Finger
4th String 2nd fret Ring Finger.
This leaves the middle finger kinda hangin in mid air.

But when you go for the F position from this (C) position
you only have to slide the Ring finger and pinky along one fret
and drop your middle finger on the 2nd string 2nd fret to
make an F. It definitely helped me, anyway.

Regards
Alan

[Sooze]

I'm going to give those exercises a go - I need that bit of discipline! Will also try the way you described doing the C chord, Alan. Thanks!

[bondolah]

Thanks for the exercises they're great!

Oooh, you should have seen my D chord fingering...I can't talk about it.