Tricky chord transition

[Fatfinger McGee]

I’m learning a fairly simple Mark Hanson fingerstyle arrangement of The First Noel in G. You know the tune, goes down and up to “No-o-el”, B C D, with a chord change in the middle of the word. I go from fretting the C in the melody with my index finger to a D/F# chord with my middle finger on the bass and ring and pinky on the A and D. And I just can’t seem to stick the landing cleanly, either the wrong strings or the pinkie’s too close and buzzy or I have to stop and stare at it.

Suggestions, other than practice a few hundred more times? I’m at the slowest speed I can go, I’ve started doing hand stretches before I practice, and I’m starting to think it’s a mental block.

[rick-slo]

to a D/F# chord with my first finger on the bass and middle and pinky on the A and D

[mc1]

Let's have a look at this. I don't think it's a mental block, I think it has more to do with the difficulties of getting the fingers to move independently, a need for a new way of moving your fingers, and the precision required for clean accurate fretting. Having the ring finger planted makes movement of the pinkie difficult.

So here are the bars in question:


I added left hand fingerings in purple to the notation at the top.

So right away there is a technical hurdle, because the left hand ring finger needs to jump from the G bass note to the A note on the third string. That creates a short window to move fingers around, which makes this, as you aptly put it, a "can you stick the landing" issue.

I can think of a couple of things to do to help with this:

- after you play the C melody note, but before the next bar, lift the ring finger off the bass in preparation of the next chord. You'll be giving up sustaining the G for the whole measure, but it will make the transition easier and more fluid, and more fluid is more musical in this case. Also the ear will forgive the shortened bass since it's focusing on the melody and it's such a minor change.

- after you play the C melody note, and are lifting your ring finger, start preparing for the D/F# by hovering your middle and pinkie fingers over their next notes, so the distance they need to move is minimal. The chord should already be basically formed, or as much as can be, but just above the strings, so that when it's time to play the D/F# the index and pinkie basically just need to be placed down.

To practice this, make up a little exercise, like this:


Back and forth, back and forth, nice and slow, preparing the fingers for the next change. If you can't play this exercise cleanly and fluently, you won't be able to play the tune cleanly and fluently. But if you can play this exercise smoothly, that part of the piece shouldn't be a problem.

[rick-slo]

You're better off with I-M-P (1-2-4) fingers. Going to the D/F# is less awkward and you can play the following two notes of the measure
while giving the D/F# notes a full measure time value.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

You're better off with I-M-P (1-2-4) fingers. Going to the D/F# is less awkward and you can play the following two notes of the measure while giving the D/F# notes their full time value.

Although that means there will be an awkward jump with the index finger that's fretting the C melody note, it now has to hold the melody then quickly jump down to the F# bass. That seems worse to me.

I agree the melody F# at the end of the measure is bit of a issue, but you can still hold the bass for its full time and let the melody note D ring past its full time (if that's what you want) by lifting the ring finger to fret the F#.

And let's get a little more context:


Something you wouldn't have been aware of is that in the written text Mark does give some fingering instructions:

[rick-slo]

Yes, I have a copy of the book. Can't say Hanson's suggestion is gospel. You can finger it either way. Pick your poison.

[TBman]

I don't have my guitar on my lap, but you might get away with just barring the 2nd chord and just lift for the open 1st string, then drop it again. I have the book, I'll try it tonight

Keep in mind there are flat finger barres and side finger barres with variations in between.

[Fatfinger McGee]

Mc1, thank you for the excellent analysis and suggestions, I will practice those exercises and keep plugging away.

Rick, I do appreciate the suggestion to play it with the index (which is typically how I play it), but it’s less musical here to my ear because I can’t keep the melody flowing (not that it’s flowing yet). Also, if I leave the index in place it’s ready to play the C in measure 4. And finally, there are several places (like measure 16) where you need to master this fingering, so you can play the C with the index over the F# in the bass.

Fun fun. Knock on spruce, I should have something halfway decent to play for the fam at Thanksgiving.