Order of Placement

Order of Placement:

When teaching beginners to play guitar chords I give the order of placement.  What this means is that I’m telling you in what order to place you fingers down on the fretboard to achieve the given chord you are learning.

This is important for a number of reasons:

• The fingers learn to play thru muscle memory; without consistency they get confused.  For example, if I wanted to learn directions to a place I have never been before, it would make most sense to take the same route every time.  It would be much easier to remember how to get there that way then if, I was to be taken a different route each time.  Put your fingers down in the same order every time and they will get used to it much faster.
• The other reason for placement order is that it is hard to visualize and form a shape that you have never done before.  If you try to form a guitar chord all at once the fingers tend to all just shuffle around looking for the right spot like a group of kids playing musical chairs.  If instead you put one finger down first it gives you a reference point to see where the others go and is in turn much faster.  A guitar fretboard can be confusing to look at.  After a long enough time your fingers will be able to form the shapes of chords before they even reach the string but this will take forever if you don’t give the some order at first.