Overview
There are many positions (ways, variants etc.) to play the D major chord on the mandolin.
In this article you can find the most common chord positions – displayed on the slideshow above, fingered for your convenience. To help you understand how to play them, I have included step-by-step instructions, describing where to place each finger and what note this will produce. Finally, the article includes a chord chart with all possible chord positions for future reference, feel free to print it.
What is a D major Chord?
The D consists of:
Two finger, D major fingered for mandolin
This is how you place your left hand on the fretboard:
Note that because the first bass note is the fifth (A) and not the root (D) , we call this chord second inversion and we write it D/A, meaning that this is a D chord with the first note being A.
Barre D major, fingered for mandolin
This is how you place your left hand on the fretboard:
Note that because the first bass note is the fifth (A) and not the root (D) , we also call this chord second inversion and we write it D/A, meaning that this is a D chord with the first note being A.
Four finger D major, fingered for mandolin
This is how you place your left hand on the fretboard:
Note that because the first bass note is D i.e the root of the D chord , we call this chord just D, meaning that this is a D with the first note being D.
D major Mandolin Chord Variants
As with all chords, there are many variants of the D chord for the mandolin. I have included nice-looking photorealistic descriptions of the most common ones. Nevertheless, if you want to explore more, see below a Chord Sheet that presents all variants for you to practice.
How to Practice chords on the mandolin
There are many good articles here at theMandolinTuner for practicing chords. I suggest you start with:
Call to action
Ok, it is now time to practice. Grab your mandolin and try to play the F#/Gb minor chord variants slowly at the beginning and then fast!
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