The D Major Chord on Guitar
In this video we're learning about the D major chord on guitar!
We’re going to cover how to create the D major chord, what music notes it is made of and talk about some songs you can find it in!
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Transcription
Today we're going to go over the D major chord! Now in the open position you make the D major chord by muting the E and the A string, then you have the open D string, then you have 2nd fret G string, 3rd fret B string, and then 2nd fret B string. So the fingers I would use, I'll start on the G string, are the index finger, then the ring finger on the B string, and then the middle finger on the E string at the bottom. So that's one, three, two for fingers and 2, 3, 2 for fret numbers. A lot of beginners struggle with the D major chord not because of the shape, but because of the E and A string muting up here. What I would tell a lot of beginners is, it’s okay to have maybe the open A string because the A is in the chord itself. D F# A make up the D major chord. So having the open A, it's technically an inversion, D/A. But it's still going to sound pretty good. It's not going to be the perfect way to do it, but it's going to sound pretty good. The E, however, is not in the chord. So we don't want to get that open E string in there. So that one we do have to get muted at the very least. So a way to start is to at least get the E muted, and then as you get better at the chord, try to get that A string muted. For making the chord quickly, I try to get my first and third fingers down together at the same time, and then my middle finger, my second finger, will go down last. If I'm going really fast… So at least that way, if I'm going to down strum, I'm getting those top two strings first. It gives me just a little bit of extra time to get that middle finger down. By the time you get really good at it, you almost don't even notice that the middle finger is coming down second. That's how fast it's going down. So that's how I would concentrate on getting the chord down. As opposed to some people, who will try the first and second finger like that, then they get their third finger down. I see that, and it ends up being like a two-step process. Like one, two, and it's a bit too slow. At least this way, it kind of folds into it. Especially when you pull in your wrist a little bit. That middle finger kind of rolls into that bottom string. So again, if you're a beginner, I would start by starting with the D string, getting that open and clean, and then getting these other strings sounding really good. And then working on first muting the E string and then muting the A string as well. So again, the D major chord is made up of the notes D F# and A. You can find the D major chord in the keys of D major, A major and G major along with their relative minors of B minor, F# minor, and E minor. So if I was sitting at the piano, I would hit the notes D F# A. Being on guitar, four strings that we’re using for it in the open position. We're going to get a little bit of a mixture of those notes. So of course, we start with those muted strings, both the E and the A, then the open D string, then we're getting A, then another D, and then F# at the bottom. The D major chord is a super popular chord. So you're going to hear it in a ton of songs. Just a few are Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Hotel California, Wish You Were Here, Thinking Out Loud, With or Without You, just so many songs. Of course there's a bunch of other ways to play D major. So I'll play a few of them for you here… I hope you had a good time learning about D major today! If you enjoyed the video, please like! Subscribe if you want to learn more guitar! Just remember to have fun when you play and Happy Practicing!