What do you do when you have a chord you can 't seem to hit?

[barrymclark]

...and you sort of need something now?

I am working on this tune and playing it through inversions at the standard Drop 2 and Drop 3 positions. There is one Major I chord that is just giving me fits. So much so that I can't even really hit it cleanly VERY SLOW or fingering the notes one at a time. It is like my fingers just don't go that way.

I won't give up on it, but I have taken to sub'ing in the iii chord and that works fine for now.

What do you guys do when you just don't have time to work out a chord fingering. What might you do for the major I as a theoretical approach?

[princeplanet]

Erm, play a non drop 2 or 3 chord? There's no rule that says you have to only play those grips ya know... OK, for the exercise maybe just keep practicing, try laying the fingers in pairs, works for me. Actually, I was about to ask a similar question when I saw the one above, so I'd like to, if I may, add it to this thread. Again in involves drop2 exercises. I'm ok with all the unaltered grips, but some of the #9 shapes are real finger busters. I'm assuming I answered my own upcoming question above when I suggested to play a non drop2 voicing for the tough chords. Are you guys the same? Or is there a way some of you have found to play absolutely any chord as drop 2?

Oh, one more related question (sorry if I'm hijacking), when coming across a chord simply marked "alt", drop2 or not, what is your first choice? b9 b5? or something else? Cos b5 b9 gives you the the tritone sub. Anyone ever just replace say G7alt with plain old C#7?

[matt.guitarteacher]

I saw this in another thread a couple of days ago: Jody Fisher Guitar Quick Tip - "Learning Chords" - YouTube

Jody Fisher on changing between difficult chords. Pretty good stuff.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Sub then think, yeah, I meant to do that. Playing a iiimin7 instead of a IMaj7 gives you a major ninth sound, an excellent choice. There's also playing a I6 or a I9/6. Lots of options.

2. Which alt chord? Mix it up. My goto chord, if the progression is Valt7 i would be a #5 b9 (or #5 #9) -- they sound "minor key" to me. I often go for that plain old C#7 if the next chord is C7. I'm tempted to say "it's all good", though.

[coolvinny]

I'd just drop a non-essential note out of the chord.

[joeasi]

The you tube video referenced in the matt.guitarteacher post above is good.

One of the things he goes over... once the grip is in place you squeeze very hard, don't strum just hold it very tight for 30 seconds, relax your grip, repeat...

It helped me immediately with chords I have problems with. I was skeptical before trying it.