A Guide for Beginners - Major Chords - Page 6

by Christopher Sung The D Major Chord
Of all the chords we've covered so far, I find the D Major chord to be the hardest to finger. The first chord in "Hey Jude" by the Beatles is a D, and I remember struggling for hours trying to get all the notes in my D chord to ring properly. These things take time, but eventually, it'll sound great. The fingering for a D chord is shown below:

Thus, the chart for the D chord above tells us the following:

• 1st String - Put your middle finger on the 2nd fret
• 2nd String - Put your ring finger on the 3rd fret
• 3rd String - Put your index finger on the 2nd fret
• 4th String - Play it open
• 5th String - Don't play it
• 6th String - Don't play it

So try it out. Put your fingers in place and strum it. It's OK if some notes don't ring. That's natural. If you like, you can let the 5th string ring as well as it fits in with a D chord. The only reason I didn't include it in the chart is that, in general, chords sound best when the lowest note that you play is the same note as the root of the chord. That is to say, if you are playing a D chord, the lowest note you should hear is a 'D'. This is the case if you don't play the 5th string, because the lowest note of the chord is the open 4th string, which is a 'D'. The open 5th string that can optionally be played is an 'A'. This observation may be more information than you needed to know. If it sounds good, then play it.

Try playing the music example below, set your loop count to "Forever" in your preferences at the bottom of the page, hit the play button, wait for the music to start, and try to play along with the example. It'll help you become more comfortable with the chord.