Diminished Responsibilty

Evening All!.

I am working through Uncle Rod's Boot Camp pages and have managed to organise my thoughts in order to raise a couple of questions:

How many of you finger a chord in a different way if you know that a particular chord is next?
If you do, do you make this change automatically or have you forced yourself to learn it?.

Take these two examples, both transitions to a diminished chord:

1) In the Key of C Sheet #1 (C --> CDim)

Chord: C CDim
Frets : 0003 2323
Fingers: xxx4 1324

Nice and easy since your pinky (4) is in the same position, Even with the further transition to Dm7 this remains in the same place

Now:
2) In the key of F Sheet #2 (F to Abdim)

Chord: F AbDim
Frets : 2010 1212
Fingers: 2x1x 1234

This is more tricky, involving as it does a reversal of your 1st and second fingers.
BUT if I were to do the following:

Chord: F AbDim
Frets : 2010 1212
Fingers: 3x2x 1324

Then I would only need to keep my 3rd finger still and make a very easy transition.

Problem is, the former F position is regular and helps with many other changes but the latter, in this instance, is easier.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I think that I would prefer to master the former.

Cheers,

Barry

The other related observations:

Whilst it is easy to barre the first fret then fret the 2nd fret notes with two fingers in the AbDim I notice a great difference in quality of fretting.
Also - how do people feel about throwing the thumb over for a T213 approach to te same chord?

I finger pick mostly and will use whatever left hand finger positions which will help with future future finger placement on strings. I hope I said that without being too confusing. Because I learn finger placement along with memorizing the tune, it has been no problem. I also find that after I learn the tune and can play it without looking at the tabs and after having played it awhile, I might modify finger placement to make playing the tune easier.

Aloha Gnomethang,
As in guitar or ukes...when I switch chords, I always try to keep my fingers as low as possible with as less movement and find a string that the two chords have in common and pivot on that....
Less movement is always better if possible...and to try to find which finger position works best...or to barre or not....diminished chords don't bother me, but i'm not a big fan of them..I hope it helps, Good Luck, MM Stan

gnomethang said:

How many of you finger a chord in a different way if you know that a particular chord is next?

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Absolutely. When learning a song you should "map out" the chord changes and plan how you will get through the song accordingly. Many people think of songs as being made up of chords. This is incorrect. Think of songs as being made up of chord transitions. When you start looking at songs this way it becomes much more natural to plan which chord fingerings you'll use where.

If you do, do you make this change automatically or have you forced yourself to learn it?.

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A little of both. It's automatic for me to think of a particular transition between two chords as favoring particular shapes, but that's only because I learned to map songs as chord transitions, instead of chords.

John

OldePhart said:

Absolutely. When learning a song you should "map out" the chord changes and plan how you will get through the song accordingly. Many people think of songs as being made up of chords. This is incorrect. Think of songs as being made up of chord transitions. When you start looking at songs this way it becomes much more natural to plan which chord fingerings you'll use where.

A little of both. It's automatic for me to think of a particular transition between two chords as favoring particular shapes, but that's only because I learned to map songs as chord transitions, instead of chords.

John

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Thanks John, that was where I was leaning and you have summed it up very well. In fact I am going back over songs/progressions that I am learning and finding much better ways of moving between chords.

Barry

One of the things I like about Rod's Boot Camp is the practice sheet approach to chords.
I believe it is important to study a song before jumping into it.
Look at the chords and like OldPhart said "map out" the transitions.
If you are going to add any melody and/or passing notes between chords take that into consideration as you plan your chords.
Of course at a jam you may be tossed into the fray, there you just gotta cope.
Learning a song and merely playing it can be completely different.