Eight open grips: a cheat sheet

This is not a second exam. If a grip already rings, do not form it today. You are only looking for the one the fingers do not remember.

An open grip is one where some of the strings ring open. There are eight of them here: Em, A, D, Am, E, G, Dm and C. F is not an open grip and it has a lesson of its own.

Eight grips, from the narrowest

A filled dot is a finger. An empty circle at the nut is a string that rings without a finger. A cross: you do not strike that string.

Fingers for one grip

In the table the notation is: finger number, then string slash fret. “1: 2/1” means index on the second string, first fret. Index is 1, middle 2, ring 3, pinky 4. The sixth string is the thickest, the first the thinnest.

grip	fingers	how many	bass string
Em	2: 5/2 · 3: 4/2	2	sixth, open
A	1: 4/2 · 2: 3/2 · 3: 2/2	3	fifth, open
D	1: 3/2 · 2: 1/2 · 3: 2/3	3	fourth, open
Am	1: 2/1 · 2: 4/2 · 3: 3/2	3	fifth, open
E	1: 3/1 · 2: 5/2 · 3: 4/2	3	sixth, open
G	2: 5/2 · 3: 6/3 · 4: 1/3	3	sixth, 3rd fret
Dm	1: 1/1 · 2: 3/2 · 3: 2/3	3	fourth, open
C	1: 2/1 · 2: 4/2 · 3: 5/3	3	fifth, 3rd fret

If the change is failing too

First one grip. Only then a pair. In Am and E the three fingers keep their layout and move together by one string. Open Chord Changes on that pair. The tool's starting tempo is ♩ = 72. Slow it if the hand cannot keep up.

If that pair already works, skip it. Am and Dm, and Em and D, are in the same exercise as other pairs. C and G are in the lesson on the first two grips; G is with the pinky there, as in the table above.

One string after another

On the grip you are looking up, play each needed string on its own. Dead: a neighbouring finger has gone flat. Buzz: the fingertip is sitting too far from the metal fret wire. First closer to the fret and more upright, then firmer.

In Dm and D you skip the two thickest strings, in C and Am the sixth. Otherwise the bass will be wrong even when the fingers stand well.