How to Change G C D Chords Avoiding Common Beginner Mistakes

The 3 chords G C and D major are used in 1000s of songs including:

Blowing In The Wind – Bob Dylan
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison (plus an E minor)
Flowers in Your Hair – The Lumineers (plus an E minor)
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day (plus an E minor)
I Feel Fine – The Beatles (plus an A minor)
Knocking On Heavens Door – Bob Dylan (plus an A minor)
Love Me Do – The Beatles
Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynrd
Steal My Kisses – Ben Harper
To Her Door – Paul Kelly (plus an E minor)
Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon

So you can see that its essential to know how to play the G C D chords and to be also able to change smoothly between these chords. Many beginner players make the same mistakes when first trying to change between G C D chords as they don’t move the correct fingers first. These chord changes are a bit more difficult than A D E chords (link to other post) and require more practice to achieve a consistent smooth change. These tips will improve your G C D chord changes and eliminate common mistakes that many beginners guitarists make.

G C D Chord Shapes
So to get started here are the 3 chords with their chord diagrams and photos showing you where to put your fingers. Also note that C and D major are 5 string chords so you don’t strum the 6th (thickest) string as shown by the X in the chord diagrams.

Watch the video showing you how to play the G C and D major chords.

Changing From D Major to C Major
When changing from D to C all 3 fingers have to change strings making it a more difficult change than going from A to D. Beginners changing from D to C tend to move finger 1 to its 1st fret position on the 2nd string then move their other 2 fingers up to the positions on the 4th and 5th strings. This results in a 2 step movement when it should be a 1 step movement. This is due to finger 1 being more dominant than the others as people use it all the time for pressing buttons, texting and typing etc. To play guitar well the other fingers need to be trained to be as independent and dexterous as finger 1.

These images above show an example of a bad change from D to C with finger 1 moving first then the other two fingers moving next.

The tip to change well from D to C is to first move fingers 2 and 3 up to their C chord positions on the 4th and 5th strings. After this movement you will find that the 1st finger will move towards the desired 1st fret position on the 2nd string. Practice this chord change back and forth working on leading with fingers 2 and 3 when changing to C. Don’t forget to always check that your chords are ringing clear and if not make the necessary finger adjustments to fix the chords.

These images above show an example of a good change from D to C with finger 3 moving first with all 3 fingers landing on the fret board at the same time.

Changing From C Major to G Major
Next we change from C to G. Again this chord change involves all 3 fingers changing strings. With this change focus on moving finger 3 down the 1st string while as moving the other 2 fingers up to the 5th and 6th strings.

Watch the video showing you how to change between the G and C major chords.

Changing From G to D Major
The final chord change in the song is G to D. The issue here is that many people tend to move fingers 1 and 2 down to the 1st and 3rd strings OK but then lift finger 3 off the fret board and it wanders in space before landing back on the 2nd string. This bad change is shown below.

To fix this we need to move finger 3 first as it only needs to move from the 3rd fret on the 2nd string to the 3rd fret on the 1st string. After moving finger 3 you can then move the other 2 fingers. This good change is shown below.

Once you’re comfortable with this change work on moving all 3 fingers at once. The concept here is the same as the D to C chord change working on developing the independence and dexterity of the weaker fingers.

Watch the video showing you how to change between the G and D major chords.

This is a small sample from the book Learning To Play The Guitar – An Absolute Beginners Guide now available at Amazon.co