Str-Str-Strumming Away with Three New Chords!

 

After finishing the A minor, E major, and C major chords, I know have four realizations:

1. My fingers are very short and chubby
2. It is WAY easier to press the chords down when my nails are shorter
3. My mic on my laptop distorts the sound quality of guitar playing a fairly recognizable amount
4. For some reason, I struggle with having the minor chords sound clear, whereas the major chords always sound clear from my first strum

If anyone can help me with a possible reason/solution for the last two realizations, it would be greatly appreciated!

I also realized that I have never guitar tuning app that I use called Guitar Tuna (App Store link only for iOS devices). I actually really enjoy using this app because it is so easy! All I have to do is strum, then adjust the tuning keys while the chord rings out until it reaches the correct tune. Sometimes this can take three or four strums to get it exactly right for each string but it is still so quick and simple, especially for someone who does not have the talent to tune by ear. Guitar Tuna (Google Play store link) also features a metronome, a chord library, and free games to practice chords and chord progressions.

 

Now, on to the actual playing!

So this week, I learned the A minor, E major, and C major chords. The A minor and E chord actually were easier for me, but the C chord was a bit of a stretch, leaving my hand a little sore. I found this video came in handy afterwards!

 

This time around, I found videos by Jen Trani through the YouTube channel mahalodotcom, it appears that this channel has various lessons to teach various skills as well. I loved her videos because they were super easy to follow along to, straight to the point, and had a diagram of finger placements and chords to strum all while she is teaching you how to play the chord! For this reason, I used all 

I enjoyed her videos so much that I many have liked using her videos more than the Marty Music videos, yet I still used his videos as a point of reference, so I will provide them below.

Finally, here is my video after I completed these lessons on the A minor, E major, and C major chords!

My next lesson will feature the F major chord, my final chord to learn before I can play, and hopefully eventually sing, Riptide by Vance Joy!