Originally Posted by: Simon Keyes[p]Can anyone tell me ; are G Major and D Major the really tough ones to transition too, as those are the ones where I stall a wee bit. ...snip... PS ; I'm preferrring the "pinky" G as it reduces my finger movement....
Hi Simon. Welcome to Guitar Tricks forum.
As you've gone the Fundamentals 2 and power chords prior to consolidating Fundamentals 1 basics of using the open chords musically in effecting progression transitions, is it safe to assume you're learning on an electric guitar?
Open Gmaj and Dmaj aren't hard per se, rather they just involve rather large cross fretboard changes without a common anchor finger assisting the transition using conventional fingering. Like all chord changes, they've actually a lot easier to finger on electric. G-D & D-G are easy enough if the tempo is moderate or one has at least half a bar to play between each transition. If it seems difficult now, time and repetition will alter that perspective.
That said, yes people vary in which chord fingerings they find harder than others when they're learning, but that's another subject entire. The key with all is simply repetition and time. Guitar is a skill bound to each individual's comfortable rate of assimilation ultimately restricted in all of us by the human condition of saturation which occurs once concentration is exhausted, whether it's for a sesson or for the day.
As you continue, you'll discover, learn and adapt, if you want to, to several different fingerings for playing open Gmaj. Each is useful. Whilst I still use the most common conventional open Gmaj fingering (fingering A-E-E strings for G-B-G notes) most of the time I am playing open chords for numerous reasons I won't expand upon here or this post would be even longer and divergent than it already is, some progressions either demand or benefit from alternative fingerings.
'Pinky' G for instance is prerequisite to play the G chord acoustically in the progression transition at the rate required to also time and play the high E liftoff and get to the following G something or other with the first finger (I can't recall the convoluted name of the actual chord) at the brisk tempo of "Lyin' Eyes" for instance. Then there's another form of open G frequently referred to as 'big G' or 'all finger G'. This is a very common and is a compromise of the original conventional G taught where fingers one and two finger the A and low E strings respectively for the B & G notes, but both the B & E strings are fingered with the third and fourth fingers respectively for a D note off the B string whilst still retaining the higher octave G note on the high E alongside the lower octave G and open G string G notes.
The advantage of this 'big G' in transitioning to Dmaj is that the third finger can stay anchored on the D root of the B string at the third fret whilst fingers one and two only need to transition to the second fret G & high E strings and the 'pinky' merely needs to be lifted off the high E string. And of course, the reverse applies for the transition back to G. It feels awkward at first, but once learnt, the anchored third finger on the D root remaining in place provides that faster transition you're wanting much like the alternative form of fingering open Amaj where the first finger albeit sliding up one fret for the E, never actually leaves the G string between A-D-A-E-A ad infinitum. Clear as mud no? Read it through a couple of times and look at the diagram and elaboration provided here. All good stuff to add to the repertoire.
