The "Rev. Gary Davis" C7 -- is there any hope?

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by tdq

I had a look at that and can't manage it - but I can manage using my third finger to hold down both the 5th and 6th together - perhaps try that?

But the 3rd finger also needs to hold the 3rd string (7th of the chord)!

[Wyllys]

Originally Posted by funkapus

I have a question that relates mainly to my morale.

I call this chord shape the "Rev. Gary Davis" C7 because that's the context in which I've been taught it, by a variety of instructors. It was used a lot by RGD, and seemingly it comes up whenever someone wants to teach me a RGD song.

It's a moveable chord involving all six strings -- that is, all six strings are fretted. There is no barre. The chord is 332313. It's formed by first using your four fingers to form a common C7 shape, with index and middle fingers used on the 2nd and 4th strings like an Am7, ring finger on the 3rd string 3rd fret, and pinky on the 1st string 3rd fret. That's not an uncommon C7 at all. But then, one wraps one's thumb around from the top, and catches the 6th and 5th strings in the third fret.

You can see Stefan Grossman doing it up the neck around the 0:18 mark of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqyGM36lXiU

If you're familiar with this fingering and use it from time to time, I'm hoping you can tell me whether it seemed like your hand just wasn't big enough when you started trying it, and what changed, and how you changed it.

I mean, once upon a time I couldn't make barre chords, or couldn't wrap my thumb around to catch an F in an F chord or the F# in a D/F#; and now I can, if clumsily. So on that basis, one might think that if I kept at this, eventually I'd get it. After all, other people have. But it seems *so hard* to wrap that thumb around, given that I'm doing so in the 3rd fret rather than the 1st (as in the case of the F), let alone catching two strings. I'd love to compare my left hand size/finger lengths to folks who make this chord, to find someone with a smaller hand/shorter fingers than I have who does it; that would be encouraging. Given that that's not so feasible online, I wonder if your hand/fingers seemed too small too when you started with this fingering. Is this really going to come if I keep at it?

Personally, I prefer to use as few strings (tones/notes) as possible, avoiding close intervals in the low end and octave redundancy. Emulating a Master is fine, but I guarantee they didn't always play the same every time. And just because a string is fretted it doesn't follow that it's being played...especially in fingerstyle.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by mattyc71

.....I'm guessing that all of the greats, to some extent, just do what comes natural to them. Why shouldn't we? Good luck on your journey!

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

......Do what srick suggested: get into the spirit of his playing. I would also suggest finding alternate ways of playing those chords that will do the job.

Originally Posted by tdq

......I'm a Rev fan, but never really looked too closely at his fingering - I'm happy with "sounds like" and "close enough".

A lot of great nuggets of wisdom here. One of the hardest things to do is play note-for-note just like your guitar heroes. They have their own unique hand shape and physiology, and their own understanding and vision of what they were trying to say musically. Some times good enough is..... good enough. Every time I've learned a new finger style piece in whatever style, some adaptations have to be made.