BC-123 • The Dmin Chord

[Shinboner]

I'm having terrible trouble with this chord.
One thing that seems to be helping is putting the capo on the third fret and practising from there. No muted strings or buzzes!
When I go back to the open chord from there it seems to be much easier and better. I'll keep trying that and see how it goes!

[bigbl5]

I'm having terrible trouble with this chord.
One thing that seems to be helping is putting the capo on the third fret and practising from there. No muted strings or buzzes!
When I go back to the open chord from there it seems to be much easier and better. I'll keep trying that and see how it goes!

Yes, actually one good way to practice this chord is to play "A girl like you."  Capo on the 3rd fret.  Dm is tough for many people, me included.  I eventually just moved on and forgot about it.  When I went back a few months later after moving on several stages, it was a cake walk. 

[GregS]

I just moved into Stage 2 and this is certainly the most difficult chord so far.  I'm having issues stretching finger 3, like just about everyone does.  I'm finding that I have to put my fingers at an angle right now or I mute the high E string.

But this is my first day working on it, so it will come.  I did look at Justin's stretching exercise and I'm not where I can avoid muting strings with finger 4 yet.  I'll keep working at it.

Not really looking for any help, just came here to voice my issues so those that come later can see they aren't the only ones with issues.

[ajc24]

Not really looking for any help, just came here to voice my issues so those that come later can see they aren't the only ones with issues.

Much appreciated on my end. I've had quite a few struggles with Dm. Oddly enough my troubles began with my first finger on the thinnest string of the 1st fret. I regularly got a muted / muddy sounding note from it. Figured out, as I went along, that I was having two problems:

• My finger wasn't strong enough to hold down that string effectively while stretching.
• When I forced it down harder, it ruined my stretch to the other two strings.

It has just taken constant practice to build up the strength in my fingers (which also indirectly sorted out the stretch along the way) and now I'm hitting that side of Dm pretty well. My issue now is with my 3rd finger muting the string below it, which still happens more often than I'd like.

All I could suggest to anyone struggling with Dm is to play these two songs from Justins Beginners Songbook:

• A Girl Like You by Edwyn Collins
• 505 by Arctic Monkeys

Those are the two tracks I chose because A Girl Like You has a consistent switch between Am and Dm and 505 has a switch between Em and Dm.

Play them. Over and over. Every day. You'll soon find your Dm chord getting better and better.

[darlostrummer10]

Hi All,

First post so be gentle..

Got my first guitar for Christmas at 49 years old, so working through the BC currently and have been really enjoying the practice until stepping into stage 2 and the dreaded Dm. I came here out of sheer frustration and it's very encouraging to see that even experienced players still struggle with this Chord, so will be digging in for the long term.

The 1 minute changes are a real struggle, particularly Am to Dm, but also Amaj to Dm. i'm looking at my fingers and they just seem to belong to someone else when Dm is in the mix.

Tin hat on, provisions in the larder..... i'll report back in a month or so.

cheers

[MrBumble]

Hello Darlo and welcome to the forums.

As you say lots of us have problems with some chords. There's no fixed pattern, my personal problem is with F, but I am not alone.

I did struggle with Dmin at first, and for a while I gave up on it. Then later on when I decided to have a go at "A Girl Like You" I found that it suddenly clicked. Often I think that the tricky bits are easier when you need them for a song rather than just for practice. There's more of a point to being able to play hat difficult chord.

Anyway, good vibes to you for asking your first question, hopefully the first of many.

[joueur de guitare]

Hi All,

First post so be gentle..

Got my first guitar for Christmas at 49 years old, so working through the BC currently and have been really enjoying the practice until stepping into stage 2 and the dreaded Dm. I came here out of sheer frustration and it's very encouraging to see that even experienced players still struggle with this Chord, so will be digging in for the long term.

The 1 minute changes are a real struggle, particularly Am to Dm, but also Amaj to Dm. i'm looking at my fingers and they just seem to belong to someone else when Dm is in the mix.

Tin hat on, provisions in the larder..... i'll report back in a month or so.

cheers

Try using your little finger instead of your third on the B string.

Are you actually in Darlo?

[stitch101]

First off welco e to the forum.

Don't do the one minute change until you can play the chord. It will only frustate
you.
Try this make a Dm or any chord and stum it. Lift your fingers off the strings and
place them back down and strum again. Make sure it play clean. Repeat until you
can play the chord clean every time (or at least most of the time).

Next play the chord take you hand completely off the neck, them p,ay the chord again.
Like you doing the one minute change with 1 chord.

Once you can do that do the same thing but this time take your hand off the neck and
touch your knee thenplay the chord. Like doing the one minute change with 1 chord
and your knee. Do these exersices for 5 minutes every day and in a week you'll have
no trouble adding the Dm to your OMC practice routine.

[darlostrummer10]

First off welco e to the forum.

Don't do the one minute change until you can play the chord. It will only frustate
you.
Try this make a Dm or any chord and stum it. Lift your fingers off the strings and
place them back down and strum again. Make sure it play clean. Repeat until you
can play the chord clean every time (or at least most of the time).

Next play the chord take you hand completely off the neck, them p,ay the chord again.
Like you doing the one minute change with 1 chord.

Once you can do that do the same thing but this time take your hand off the neck and
touch your knee thenplay the chord. Like doing the one minute change with 1 chord
and your knee. Do these exersices for 5 minutes every day and in a week you'll have
no trouble adding the Dm to your OMC practice routine.

Just wanted to report in on my progress with Dm, this excercise has really helped with the Dm shape and I am now working on the suggested chord changes in the suggested stage 2 1 minute changes.

I still have a way to go, I am finding the A major to Dm the most difficult - currently at around 28 individual changes per minute. This was in the teens when I started however so do feel like I have made progress. I need to look at the chord fingering and strumming hand each time which really is eating up time as can't seem to pick out the strings yet for this combination, which is bizarre because I can some of the time with A Major to D major. just muscle memory I guess?

also is it typical to lose some of the progress made on other chord change pairs when you are learning new ones? I had stage 1 pairs at around 40 individual changes before moving to stage 2, and now these have dropped to mid 30's 

[stitch101]

Sounds like you're making progress. 
Just keep at it. Slow and steady wins the race. Not that learning should be
a race.

[Peakoverload]

I'm hitting a bit of a brick wall with Dmin. I mean I can play it fine but changing from pretty much any other chord to Dmin is much more of a struggle than any other, including Dmaj.

It's just that my hand struggles to find a secure 'grip' on the neck and I think it's when my first finger is on the first string. Any chord where my first finger is on other string and it's fine. When I try and do a Dmin quickly my fingers don't naturally fall into the right place and the guitar starts to feel a bit uncomfortable.

As a reference my 1 min changes for most other chords are in the 60's but all other chords to a Dmin are between 35-45 by comparison.

I think it might be down to my thumb position on the back of the neck as because I have big hands I really struggle to keep my thumb behind the neck and more often than not it ends up almost on top of the neck. If I consciously move my thumb lower down the neck I can feel that it is easier to form the chord shape for Dmin but as soon as I change to another chord, up it comes again.

Any tips on keeping my thumb low/moving my thumb to suit the chord?

[joueur de guitare]

If your hands are that big just throw your thumb over the neck as an anchor.

There will now be howls of outrage. Ignore them, if it doesn't work try summat elsw

[DarrellW]

It's all down to practice and adapting to playing it, you will get it and when it clicks you will wonder what all of the fuss was about. Don't worry about it and don't let it unnecessarily hold you back!

Sent from my phone using JustinGuitar Community mobile app

[tobyjenner]

If you can play it clean in the pick/strum/pick exercise, just stick with the chord changes. Just do it real slow and allow your fingers and muscle memory to develop and find their place. Don't matter if its a change per minute, just get there slow and comfortable and then and only then ramp the speed up ... in baby steps. All of us find a chord combination that seems like a brick wall that we'll never conquer. But you just need to approach all of them slowly, get them clean and then think about speed.
Slowly slowly catchy monkey. 

[Peakoverload]

Well that was interesting. Just did a 1min challenge Amin to Dmin but this time I forced myself to keep my thumb behind the neck and actually didn't set out to try and be fast but instead to be accurate. First attempt 55! And all of them sounded much better, much better in fact than any chord changes. So I'm going to go back and do all my chord changes again but rather than focus on speed I'm going to focus on keeping to a rhythm and being accurate.

The chords changes I do where I score in the high 60's low 70's are not 'bad', I don't count ones where my fingers are on the wrong strings, but I'd say that 5-10 of them might have a finger not in the best place in that if I were to to pick each string there would be a string that buzzes or is being muted slightly. The other 50-60 are all correct.

In fact whilst on the subject of accuracy. If I'm playing a song or something then 99% of the time (I think) I'm hitting the right strings with my picking hand but when doing the 1 minute changes I often find that the faster I get I start to miss strings, typically missing E and A strings (so my D chords sound great  ). Should I discount those from my count? I thought the purpose of this exercise was more about getting the left hand to move quickly and accurately and the pick/strum/pick exercise was about playing the chord correctly but I've read different opinions on this.

[stitch101]

I thought the purpose of this exercise was more about getting the left hand to move quickly and accurately and the pick/strum/pick exercise was about playing the chord correctly but I've read different opinions on this.

Your correct in you assumption but and this is a big but. "Practice Makes Permanent"
If you ever want to make quick chord changes practicing sloppy changes will make
you very good at fast sloppy changes.
If you want to make quick clean changes you must practice clean changes.

I'm not a big fan of the OMC exercise. To many people start doing it way to soon and
put way to much focus on speed. You must first be able to play the chords correctly
before you can become fast at changing between them.

I personally think your better off learning song and getting your chord changes up to
tempo. There are very few beginner song that need more than 1 chord changes per barre
and at 120 bpm that 30 changes a minute.

[darlostrummer10]

I personally think your better off learning song and getting your chord changes up to
tempo. There are very few beginner song that need more than 1 chord changes per barre
and at 120 bpm that 30 changes a minute.

This makes total sense to me, I think I have been placing too much emphasis on OMC as a measure of progress. Notwithstanding I'm learning walk of life (maybe should have gone with another track from the stage 1 songs where there isn't a change mid barre with the benefit of hindsight), I think I will focus on trying to achieve 30-35 clean changes instead of pushing too hard. 

[stitch101]

Speed will come with practice. As your finger get the muscle memory you will
 naturally improve. If your forcing the changes and practicing mistakes speed
will also come but with thise mistakes being part of the speed.

Walk of Life is a good one to start with. With the 2 chord in the barre if will force
you to make a fast change and it will force you to keep in time.
It is also one of those song that will grow with your playing. As you get better
you can play harder versions of the song.
Lay Down Sally is another good one that will grow with you as you improve.
Simple 4 to a barre A D E to start as you improve you add to the song.

[Kmcc]

I'm glad that I finally got around to reading posts here.   Not only is it beneficial to learn that others are having exactly the same problems that I’m having, but it’s also good to pick up ideas that others have used to improve. Regarding Dmin, the suggestion of placing finger 3 down first helped me quite a bit.

I’m still in the early stages of learning Dmin.  When I keep my wrist and palm straight with my fingers parallel to the frets, I do OK.  Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of unconsciously over-flexing my wrist and curling my hand up towards the neck which places my fingers at an angle in relation to the frets. 

I’m sure practice will eliminate this.

[darlostrummer10]

Hi guys,

Still working hard on my minor chord changes, things are improving slowly, but improving they undoubtedly are. I'm still in the low 30's on one minute changes with the D minor chord in play, as such I don't feel I should move on to stage 3 just yet. Can anyone recommend a song from the beginners songbook that incorporates D minor, which will keep the practice interesting but also help with my transitions? I have learnt and continue to practice 3 little birds, that's alright mama and the walk of life.

Cheers

[joueur de guitare]

Hi guys,

Still working hard on my minor chord changes, things are improving slowly, but improving they undoubtedly are. I'm still in the low 30's on one minute changes with the D minor chord in play, as such I don't feel I should move on to stage 3 just yet. Can anyone recommend a song from the beginners songbook that incorporates D minor, which will keep the practice interesting but also help with my transitions? I have learnt and continue to practice 3 little birds, that's alright mama and the walk of life.

Cheers

If you have the Beginner's Songbook, take a look and pick one!

For starters there's:

Staying with Marley, 'Natural Mystic' is all minor chords - Am Dm Em. So is 'A Girl Like You', and 'All My Love'. That's reggae, indie/pop rock, and blues to go on with

[brianlarsen]

Can anyone recommend a song from the beginners songbook that incorporates D minor, which will keep the practice interesting but also help with my transitions?

Tom Waits' Chocolate Jesus- Am, Dm, & E
Great song and Justin goes through a variety of ways to play, from very simple to 'more intricate' 

[darlostrummer10]

Hi all,

a while since i posted so i thought i'd update on progress, maybe it will help others following in the future.

I eventually went with Ain't no Sunshine by Bill Withers to try and support the Dmin practice. This uses all the stage 2 minor chords, so thought that would be a decent option. It isn't in my songbook, but Justin has uploaded a quite recent video tutorial.

Changes to Dmin are now around 45, which i'm pleased about so moved to stage 3 a fortnight ago and as such i am now working on Gmaj and Cmaj.

The song however is still a challenge, the change from Emin to Dmin is  a real ****** when trying to keep time, so i find myself limbering up with a couple of minutes of Emin to Dmin changes before attempting the song practice. I'd say i'm hitting it 50% of the time, or so,  as trying to force the change rather than slow down. As such the song very much feels like a number of separate practice sessions rather than a fluent play through, i think the middle section also is stopping this, it doesn't feel particularly natural playing Amin over and over for the "i know, i know...." section.

anyway just thought i'd share.

[DavidP]

Hi all,

a while since i posted so i thought i'd update on progress, maybe it will help others following in the future.

I eventually went with Ain't no Sunshine by Bill Withers to try and support the Dmin practice. This uses all the stage 2 minor chords, so thought that would be a decent option. It isn't in my songbook, but Justin has uploaded a quite recent video tutorial.

Changes to Dmin are now around 45, which i'm pleased about so moved to stage 3 a fortnight ago and as such i am now working on Gmaj and Cmaj.

The song however is still a challenge, the change from Emin to Dmin is  a real ****** when trying to keep time, so i find myself limbering up with a couple of minutes of Emin to Dmin changes before attempting the song practice. I'd say i'm hitting it 50% of the time, or so,  as trying to force the change rather than slow down. As such the song very much feels like a number of separate practice sessions rather than a fluent play through, i think the middle section also is stopping this, it doesn't feel particularly natural playing Amin over and over for the "i know, i know...." section.

anyway just thought i'd share.

Good for you.  Keep working at it and over time it will get better, sometimes just demands more patience than we'd wish for.

I'd also encourage recording and posting to get feedback and encouragement.  Often times I find we are our own harshest critics and in the ongoing quest to continually improve don't recognise all we have achieved.  And the Community helps with that.

[Sewerrat]

Ok, I have moved on up to the D minor lesson and it seems to have helped with keeping my fingers in a tight group for D and allowing me to see that my ring finger was a bit out on its own sometimes, thereby I was placing my index finger down and then using that to anchor in my ring finger.

Another question now relating to Dm. Justin is suggesting using the little finger instead of the ring finger, however later on you would probably end up using the ring finger? Is it going to be better just to start off that way if I have the reach to fret it properly most of the time anyway?