Tootler
Well-known member
I don't find the E chord comes up all that often for me so I don't give it regular attention. For me the most common PITA is actually D to Em I'm drowning in Drunken Sailors and Waheyed till nothing rises up in the morning .
I'm much the same. If I do find I need to play in E, I either capo 2 or play my ADF#B tuned soprano and play D shapes. I notice a few of my guitarist friends do the same.
In getting Hallelujah into a singable key (for me) I found I needed an E chord. I tried 444x and also E7. I thought E7 sounded better and it made transition to and from the surrounding chords so I went with E7. I was lucky on that occasion because E7 doesn't always work.
I got comfortable with Em by playing G and putting my pinky down on the third string and even now I finger Em with 2nd, 3rd & 4th fingers and I find that also makes D to Em easier. I've recently been trying to play Em with the first three fingers as it's a bit easier on the baritone that way but it's taking time because I often resort to the 2 3 4 finger method.