Hi there,
I've got to the stage now where I can play a few chords or so and get a decent sound but changing chord seamlessly is rather difficult at the moment. Obviously, as a newbie it's going to be. If you expert folks here can share your experiences and or tips I'm sure the next time I practice there may be some small improvement.
Changing from G to D has been a pain because the 3rd finger needs taming... :!: ...and has a mind of it's own. The fingers are a little tougher now so the pain isn't an issue like it was right at the start.
Thx in advance.
It really is a question of practice and of letting muscle memory take over so that you don't have to think a lot about what your fingers are doing. Look for economy of motion -- e.g. if you change from an Am to a C, you only have to move one finger. Think about the changes beforehand and see if you can discover efficient ways to change and move your fingers as little as possible. And play them over and over. After you've played a change about 514 times, it starts to feel natural.
It will happen -- believe me!
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
+1 to that. :)
The hardest part of playing guitar is developing the patience to repeat things over and over - slowly and accurately - until you've built up the muscle memory. Did I say "over and over"? I meant "over and over and over and over and over and... etc" :wink:
You can often find 'anchor points' (one or more fingers that can stay in place, or slide up and down a string while you move the others) and sometimes you can hold all or part of a shape and move it But mostly it's just time and patience. Lift off, put down again, lift, put down again, lift a little higher, put down again. Keep repeating until you can make large movements away from the starting shape and still return accurately. And so on. Practice strumming patterns while you do it, if it get too boring. Sing the chord name while you're at it - might as well get some singing practice in too... :)
The odd thing is that once you can play something, it quickly becomes hard to remember exactly how and why you couldn't do it. :? It's like walking, eating with a knife and fork, or whatever. Once you train the muscles it becomes automatic and quite simple. It took me forever to make the first chord changes, yet I can now do several changes per second without thinking about it at all. But when I start on a completly new chord or technique and I still have to put the hours in.
Chris
D is particularly hard. Do you have G to C down yet? I am not saying not to practice D but it is definately one of the harder chord, IMHO. Just keep at it, one day you'll wonder why it was do tough.
Jim
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
One more thing...
If you want to give yourself a bit of encouragement, try this progression:
Play a G.
Then, leave the index finger where it is and move the middle up alongside it to make an:
Eminor.
Leave the Middle finger where it is and move index and ring to make:
C.
Leave the index and middle where they are and move ring to make:
Aminor.
Go back down the chain again - or move backwards and forwards between any 'next door' pair (Em and Am work too). You can even make up a few songs, they're all chords in the key of C major so will work together. Once you feel confident try jumping across between ones that need a complete lift off... :shock: But take your time. :D
Chris
Hi,
At the moment I'm learning the basic chords in the key of G, next stop will be C which shares some of the same chords.
G Am Bm C D Em - Playing these chords is just about OK. Bm is tricky because it's four fingers!.....I'llm get practising a little later and let you know how it goes.
My only advice, is doing it slow, and building up speed. Another thing that helps, is that you play the G chord, play Open Notes, and then play the D chord. So it would be DOWN- G UP- open DOWN- D Of course, like Musenfreund said, "Think about the changes beforehand." That, and practice.
+1 to practice....and then even more practice! 8)
There are certain changes that gave me trouble a week or two ago, that I now have up to speed. Just practice every night, learn songs that use the troublesome change. It happens pretty quickly if you just sit and do that chord change over and over.
My only advice, is doing it slow, and building up speed. Another thing that helps, is that you play the G chord, play Open Notes, and then play the D chord. So it would be DOWN- G UP- open DOWN- D Of course, like Musenfreund said, "Think about the changes beforehand." That, and practice.
At the moment I've just been doing downstrokes but I suppose it would be best to do the up strokes as well. This will probably be the next challenge!
BTW, changing from G - D, G - C and G - Am have gone quite well and as someone pointed out having an anchor point or a lead finger that makes contact with one string first has helped a great deal.
There was a recent thread about using fingers 1,2,3 or 2,3,4 for the G chord. I think the change from G to D is way easier if you use the 2,3,4 fingers for the G.
