Noob frets about D and A7

pootsie

pootsie

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
1,461
Reaction score
2
Location
Central Ohio
So I saw this contest thing going on today. Oddly enough a little ditty bloomed in my cloudy noggin yesterday and hey, if I have time for a quick vid before midnight Hawaaiian time tomorrow or whenever this things ends ... why not try?

I am currently trying to slog through Uncle Rod's bootcamp (THANK YOU UNCLE ROD!) and I'm up to ... um ... page 1. D and A7 are not on page one.

So I tool around the internet (a.k.a. my music teacher) to find what are these chords anyway. And now I've gone and discovered there's always more than one way to form a chord. Bother. Like one isn't hard enough.

So what is the easy noob-style way of forming D and A7? Easiest fingering?

Thanks for your help!
 
Probably the easiest for the D is barre the second fret with your pointer finger and put your pinky on the A string at the 5th fret. The A7....simple, put your pointer finger on the C string at the 1st fret.
Hope this helps!!!
 
Last edited:
In Uncle Rod's Boot Camp practice sheet #5 has both those chords on it.

Hope this helps.
 
Thank you both. As you can see, Carol, I haven't gotten to that page yet :eek:
 
Many ways to do it, none of them necessarily "right" or "wrong." For myself, when I'm going to be playing those two chords together I use my index and second fingers for the D chord - I put them down on the G, C, & E strings at a slight angle - how much of an angle depends on the size of uke (i.e. how much width I need to cover).

This leaves a very easy transition back and forth between the D and A7; almost no hand movement at all for either the one finger A7 (0100) or the three-finger A7 (2130). Playing the 2220 D using the ring finger as a barre also works well, but only for transitions to the single-finger A7.

If you play either the fully barred D (2225) or the 2220 with your index finger as a barre on the three strings it leaves you out of position for the either of the A7 forms; more hand movement.
 
When I'm fingering the D chord, I do it the same way I did the A chord when learning the guitar. I place my my 1st (index finger) on the C string, 2nd fret. I place the 2nd finger on the G string 2nd fret and my 3rd finger on the E string 2nd fret. If you were looking at a diagram of the finger placement on the 2nd fret, the fingering would be 2130. When moving to the A7, I just lift my 2nd and 3rd finger and slide my index finger to the 1st fret. (it's already on the proper C string) This makes it very easy to go back and forth between the two. When forming the D, it really helps to push your wrist away from your body so that the neck of the uke is between you and your wrist when looking at it from above. (i.e. the wrist isn't under the neck of the uke)
 
Last edited:
Here is some bad advice from a old bad guitar playa....ha ha use your left thumb and barre the top three strings....GCE and to the next Am with the index finger.....ha ha
LOL it is easy....but don't listen to me...ha ha
 
Last edited:
i just wanna say i am SO glad this was posted. I've thought the D chord was 'easy' and I was just horrible at it by trying to place my middle finger on the GCE strings. I will still practice it that way, but barring the second fret and placing my pinky on the seventh was a eureka moment. you people seriously rock. I am gonna play the helloutta Mad World in celebration. thanks!
 
i am laughing because as soon as i started practicing Mad World after posting this, I found that the transitions using this new fingering were harder for me than just forging away and using the original fingering i was having issues with. in less than an hour i managed to actually see myself get a little bit better at that original fingering. either way, win! love this forum. always teaching, encouraging, and helping to push forward. great stuff. (even if i do little more than lurk most days) ;)
 
Groove on, mamachandra

Mad World is on my list of songs to learn down the road.

Do you have a link to tabs for it, by any chance?
 
mamachandra said:
i just wanna say i am SO glad this was posted. I've thought the D chord was 'easy' and I was just horrible at it by trying to place my middle finger on the GCE strings. I will still practice it that way, but barring the second fret and placing my pinky on the seventh was a eureka moment. you people seriously rock. I am gonna play the helloutta Mad World in celebration. thanks!
Click to expand...

i think your pinkie needs to be on the 5th fret mama
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
New UKE Frets way off? Noob error?
Replies
15
Views
776
OldePhart
OldePhart
LinguaUke
Noob repository
Replies
12
Views
505
LinguaUke
LinguaUke
Wildjoy
Help for a noob (nut orientation)
Replies
7
Views
261
Wildjoy
Wildjoy
R
Hello from another noob
Replies
9
Views
409
Joe T
Joe T
N
Noob questions about Low G
Replies
18
Views
1K
nublele
N
Top Bottom