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Hi, How you doing

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Justin here

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for our lesson: 132

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which is the C chord.

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The last of the big eight

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which is, the main eight [br]Open Chord shapes that you learn

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when you are[br]starting your guitar journey.

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And this is the last one,

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this is the C chord.

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Now, a lot of people find the C chord[br]a little awkward.

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It's maybe not quite as stretchy [br]as the G chord.

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Well, at least not acrosswise

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but it is lengthwise.

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It's a little bit funny.

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So let's go to a close up

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and see if we can sort out[br]the different ways of getting this stretch.

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It is just a matter of practising it.

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I've never ever-ever-ever had a student [br]who's not been able to do it.

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I have had students instead[br]who really struggled

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and they felt like[br]they were never going to do it.

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But, if you persevere

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you will find that the C chord [br]is pretty damn easy.

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Let's have a look at it.

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Here we are looking at the C chord.

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Now, hopefully[br]it doesn't look too bad

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but it is a little bit of a stretch.

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So, let's go through the problems [br]and solutions for this chord.

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So, first one :

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first finger : first fret, second string.

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Nothing on the E string, [br]and nothing on the G string.

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There's nothing on the first string,[br]and nothing on the third string.

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Second finger is reaching over here

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to the second fret, at the fourth string.

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And then, third finger's gonna stretch over here,

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to the third fret of the fifth string.

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Now, there are a few different tips[br]we can give you

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for getting this stretch nice

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First of all,

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if you play really square

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like this,

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it's actually quite difficult to do

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with the fingers parallel to the frets.

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I can feel that's stretching my hand[br]doing that right now.

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Now, if you look at the way[br]that I'm doing it,

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I'm kind of laying the fingers over[br]a little bit.

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Now, if I took my hand off,

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they kind of[br]that looks like that they are in a line,

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they're all kind of touching each other.

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And you can see that the angle now [br]is kind of that way a little bit.

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it's actually [br]they're kind of pointing at my eyes.

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Whereas that way[br]they're pointing at the ceiling.

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We just turn it round a little bit like that,

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and you get a bit more of a...

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It definitely makes it easier to play .[br]Yeah ?

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So this way, you really have to stretch [br]the distance between your fingers.

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Here, you're just changing[br]how far each finger is reaching out.

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That makes a big difference [br]for that one.

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Now, you can probably see[br]that my thumb is flopping over there.

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But actually, we want to get [br]that thumb behind for you now.

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Later on you can use [br]your thumb over here,

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but for you now, [br]back behind.

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Now, the other important thing[br]with the C chord

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is that we want to make sure

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that the tip of this third finger

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is muting, the sixth string.

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So, it shouldn't press down on this string.

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The very tip of the finger [br]just touches the string

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and stops it from ringing out.

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Now, the thing that you'll find here[br]with this chord as well,

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especially when you're going to do [br]the strum - pick up - strum,

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is that there are quite a few places

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where fingers can lean over [br]and touch other strings. So,

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. . .

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There is the correct sound for it

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Now, the first note,[br]which is the fifth string,

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you're probably not going to have [br]too much trouble with it.

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Pretty straight forward.

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The next note,

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here which is the fourth string,

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it's very likely here that your third finger[br]is going to be leaning over

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and touching that fourth string.

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So, that's the first thing[br]you wanna look out for

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is making sure that finger is nice and up.

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Then we have the Open G string,

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which, of course,

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this finger, [br]if it's leaning over a bit too flat,

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will mute that G string.

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First finger[br]should be ok.

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Not many people have trouble with that note.

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But then,[br]the open E string

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if the first finger is leaning over [br]a little bit too much

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you'll get the open E string muted.

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So, really, the trick with C chord is, one :

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don't be too squared like this.

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Allow your fingers to be [br]a little bit of an angle.

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And also to make sure that[br]you're really on the points with the fingers.

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Don't let them lay down too flat

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or you'll just always be muting [br]the strings next to them.

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Ok, I hope you had fun [br]stretching out for that C chord.

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It's a little bit of a tough one

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- but it's not that bad -

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and it just seems impossible right now,

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but, after a week or two,

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your fingers will have all limbered up

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and it'll be a lot easier.

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After a month or two,

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you'll wonder why you ever had [br]a problem with it at all

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because it's not that bad [br]in the grand scheme of guitar chords.