The Next chord - d major

After the initial 3 easy chord changes from lesson one we move onto a D major chord as this will naturally fit into the previous three and instantly open up some very usable four chord progressions. In fact, one of these progressions is used in a famous pop song but it’s purely coincidental. In Guitar in a Nutshell we separate learning guitar from learning songs - they are very different things!

The move to four chord progressions is important as most of the songs you’ll encounter later on will consist of them. In a way you are growing up fast on guitar but it’s done in such a way they you don’t even realise it, each lesson just seems a natural and logical step forward from the last. The other important thing is that you’ll get to apply your strum to a complete four chord progression and you’ll learn a very helpful new technique that you can apply any time from now whenever you encounter a chord change you find challenging.

In Guitar in a Nutshell we don’t believe in letting anything stop our forward progress, when things are hard we offer an easy way around it so that you can continue to progress into playing songs. Later as time goes by the things you can’t do now will come into reach, until then we keep moving forward and it’s this constant succession of success and achievement which will keep you motivated and fuel your excitement to learn more.

Often you’ll be able to get to the easier chord changes with a complete strum however on harder changes you could struggle to make it in time with the drum tracks. We suggest here that you half the strum, in other words, just play half of the strum and then use the rest of the time to get your fingers to the next chord shape. This keeps you playing in time with the drum track and will allow you to continue through the progressions even if you can’t make all the chord changes.

You’ll find that simply learning chord shapes such as D Major is not at all difficult and most students can do it with ease. The real challenge lies in being able to change from one chord to another fast enough to keep up with the song or drum loop. That is where most of your practice will have to be focused in the early stages and it’s actually what stops most beginners from being able to play songs. If you do not follow the practice guidelines as outlined within our guitar lessons you could find yourself forever stuck in a ‘beginners limbo’. There are people who never make it out of beginners guitar and into fluently being able to play songs!

Some people get stuck for years, many of them blame their lack of talent but this isn’t the case at all. It’s simply because they never learned to put their chords together and employ practice techniques which really work. By following the program as outline in this beginners level, all of that is taken care of for you.

Continue onto Closely Related Guitar Chords