Lead Like Leonidas to Play Chords Like a Spartan

Having a great leader can mean the difference between winning and losing. Success and failure. Life and death.

One of my all-time favorite leaders is the Spartan king, Leonidas, from the movie 300. Not only is he a total badass, but he leads his men by example. He fights right in the think of battle side-by-side with his warriors, he refuses the temptation of wealth and power to betray his country, and even sacrifices his own life to protect Sparta. A true leader right to the end.

Okay, you might be wondering what this has to do with the guitar, but believe it or not, you can use the idea of having a great leader help you improve your playing. Here’s how…

Learning chords for the first time always feel like a big fight. Your fingers just don’t seem to go where you want them. They are disorganized and undisciplined like a brand new group of army recruits, fresh off the bus. It takes them forever just to get the right frets which when it comes to playing progressions is a disaster waiting to happen.

What you want is to get them trained up and working as a team – what they need is a good leader!

From working with my own students, I’ve seen that most people will approach chords exactly the same way… they start by putting down their first finger and then try to add the others into the mix. In most cases, this is slow, disorganized, and just doesn’t work very well.

This is where the leader comes in. For every chord, there is a particular finger that will be your team leader, your squad captain, your King Leonidas. It is that finger that takes the lead position in your chord and gets all the other fingers ready to play their part.

As an example, take a look at an open C Major chord. The way most people get to this chord is by putting the first (index) finger down and then adding in the rest. It seems like a good way of playing the chord, but in practice, it’s just too slow. Why is that?

Let’s try it to find out. Try putting down your 1^st finger on the 1^st fret of the 2^nd string and don’t add the others in for the moment. As your 1^st finger sits on the string, keep your hand relaxed and notice where the other fingers naturally rest. Chances are, your other fingers are floating far away from your strings, which means that when it is time for them to be added in, it’s going to take a lot of effort to put them in the right spot.

Okay, now take all of your fingers off of the strings and try this instead. Put your 3^rd finger down first – on the 3^rd fret of the 5^th string. Notice that when you do this the other fingers on your hand are forced to rest much closer to the fretboard – they might even be sitting right over the exact fret and string that they will be pressing. In fact, try to make the other fingers move further away from the strings. Pretty uncomfortable, right?  When your 3^rd finger is down it’s actually easier to keep the other fingers close to the strings than to have them floating far away.

Let’s try another example – G Major.

As before, try putting the 1^st finger down (2^nd fret of the 5^th string). Once again, the other fingers are floating off in space over the fretboard and getting them down for the G chord is pretty hard.

Now try putting the 2^nd finger down first (3^rd fret of the 6^th string). As before, the remaining fingers are forced to sit close to the strings and may even hover right over their positions for the G chord. By leading with the 2^nd finger it has prepared the remaining fingers to press down the right notes.

Are you starting to understand why choosing the right finger to lead makes such a big difference?

Believe it or not, every chord has a leading finger that will make the chord easier to play. To help you with finding the leading fingers, I have created a simple reference sheet that shows you exactly which fingers are the choice best to lead to the most common open chords on the guitar.

You can get it here.

Master the leading fingers and make switching between chords a breeze.