I don't know, maybe it's because my dad (an ordinarily very mellow and humorous guy) was so downright rigid about correct technique when I was a kid taking drum lessons from him, or my grandfather when I briefly took clarinet lessons from him, but for many years I was absolutely unbending with my students about the "right" way to play chords. My way or the highway. I don't care how (fill in the blank with the name of a famous guitar player) so-and-so plays an A Major, you MUST use your first three fingers in first position! Or so I thought.
But in recent years I've been teaching more and more adults who are essentially self-taught and have come to me to take their same old, same old playing to the next level. The problem is - when someone has been playing a first position G Major with their first, second and third finger for 30 or more years, when I tell them a much better way is with the second, third and fourth fingers, they sometimes resist. There's a reason, I tell them, and a good one. Playing that and other chords with the fingerings I prefer foster faster and more accurate chord changes, not to mention (many times) a clearer, cleaner sound.
I stand by that, for the most part. I'm a firm believer that the less a player moves his or her fretting hand, the better their playing will be. Plus, it's just easier! Or so I thought.....
What I've come to realize lately is that a self-taught player who has been playing chords a certain way for a long time is really not going to benefit a whole lot from re-learning "my" fingerings. Most of the time, anyway. If a student can make the changes without breaking the beat and his version of the chords sound OK, why change?!
I still introduce chords to less experienced players using the fingerings I prefer. And I absolutely believe that person will ultimately learn their chords faster and with more accuracy than a player who used alternates that may have been initially easier but made changes - the essence of keeping a beat through a piece of music - much more difficult.
So I guess all I'm saying is, if you're comfortable with the ease and sound of chords you've learned on your own, so be it. But if you've been struggling with a certain progression or a section of a song, think hard about the fingering of the chords you're playing. I'd bet 10-spot that's the root of the problem.
Peace & good music,
Gene
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