My Fingers are not doing what I want them to!

Hey DevilCat,

Yes it is practise and getting used to doing it by repetition, but here's a cheat for you:

When you do a C chord I'm assuming you use 3rd finger 5th string 3rd fret, 2nd finger 4th string 2nd fret and 1st finger 2nd string 1st fret. What you do is concentrate on getting your 3rd finger to the 2nd string 3rd fret and allow your 1st and 2nd fingers to "find their own way" it will take a few attempts but you should see quicker progress; the ring finger along with the little finger are hard to develop control over, this should get you there quicker. Also working back to the C from D, start with your 3rd finger and let the rest find their own way.

If these two are causing probs, practise changing between them.

Also when finding chords with the fingers, start from the bass strings as these strings are usually played first and you can still be finding the rest of the notes while you start playing the chord.

That last disagrees with the first tip a bit, but the C to D change is one of the exceptions. I was struggling with the second chord in the verse of "Your Song" and kept stumbling on this until I remembered "bass strings first" now my fingers kinda find their own way!

Good luck and get back if you need more help or I've been as clear as mud!

I've been learning for a few months aswell and I'm lucky enough to have pretty good hand/eye coordination.  I had a similar problem but I found I was concentrating too much on getting the fingers planted where they needed to be! 

Now I know the general opinion here is slow down and get the sweet sound before speeding up, but at the time I just had these  urges to play fast, I don't know why but I did, so for a few minutes after each practice session I played fast and I found that my fingers were much quicker and pretty accurate when I wasn't thinking about where they should go!?  Sorry if it doesn't make sense and I expect every teacher here is cursing me!?

I guess in my experience it was a case of me trying too hard rather than relax and just letting it happen, still need to practice, practice, practice tho, just do it more relaxed?

You'll get there yes ... after a while, your fingers (even without touching the fretboard) will go into the chord position without you even realizing it ... mine do that with powerchords or major Barre Chords

Hi DevilCat ,
   Welcome to Chordie !!
   This is a funny subject for me because I know two long time players who still use that " one finger at a time " method when going to some chords ... They're fast enough and it works for them ... The only beef I have with it is that if I'm just jamming along , I'll just follow what the other player is doing and when they do it this way sometimes it's hard to see where they're going untill the actually get there and of course they're just getting there in the nick of time themselves , so it's hard to follow along , L O L .... It has worked for them all these years ... Having said that though , there's a lot of good advice here , hope someone has helped ....
                   Jerry

Something that's been useful to me has been 'bouncing' my fingers on the strings.  Get into your chord-form, and release some of your finger pressure, but keep the fingers in contact with the strings.  Bounce them from here to full pressure and back a few times, and gradually get less contact with the strings, until your fingertips are about 1/16 inch (a mm or two) off the strings, but still in the shape.  Move on to another problem chord shape, and do the same.  Spend 5-10 minutes a day doing that, and soon you'll be dive bombing those changes; your fingers will start hitting the shape as you approach the strings, almost like magic.

Hi DevilCat.....keep at it...you will do it eventually! I agree with GSE....I have a couple of friends who play a C chord like that (one finger at a time) and it is very hard to tell what they are doing until the last finger is dropped....haha. Also if you can  make an AM....then going from an AM to a C....you only have to move one finger....likely your ring finger to your A string. No need to move your other two fingers at all....try it . Or from C to an AM..... like you said practise...it makes perfect...so they say...lol

Life isn't about how to survive the storm, But how to dance in the rain...

As it seems everyone here has said, yes it will come with practice. Of that there is no doubt so be encouraged by that - we've all been there.
Also, don't convince yourself that your fingers all need to be landing on all the right strings in all the right places at exactly the same time each time you form a new chord! This simply isn't so. Before responding to you here I picked up my guitar and strummed a few chords with changes between them and tried to pay attention to how my fingers form the chords (this of course led me to play "Last Dance with Mary-Jane" as soon as I heard the Am - it just popped into my head, but I digress, lol). But that was an interesting exercise because like most here I chord instinctively now after over 20 years of playing. But I noticed that I have developed my own style whereby I tend to "root" my finger location with one finger and the rest follow immediately. So for instance with a D my 3rd finger hits the 2nd string in the 3rd fret first and the others are almost instantly in place right behind them. Of course this is also a technique you can play with by expanding that laps between the "root" finger landing and the others following - kind of a hammer on type of thing, but for now just relax about it, know that it will come in time and don't stop practicing.

And...  I also wanted to add a thank you to everyone here. This is an awesome site, full of a bunch of awesome people. Thanks for all the time and info you've given to us newbies.
Maybe one day I'll be able to pass down some skills and info that will change someone's life forever.

My teacher made me do a bunch of barre chords.  due to some some tunes I lust to learn about, Bm to F#m, and after it was over..................it dawned upon me the shortcuts and whatever.

I have a great teacher......http://www.sethausten.com/

The bottom line is, that it's all about muscle memory.  As a past teacher of mime, once told me, "Do it a hundred times and you know it, do it a thousand times, and it's YOURS," 

I can now switch from G chord to A, D, Am, E, Em, D7, etc, etc, etc.  Now, I'm working on Bm to F#m, G#m, etc, for muscle memory. 

In other words, practice, practice, practice................makes perfect!