Chord Changing.

the ache? Maybe watch your posture and relax. You don't need a vise-like grip to fret the chords. Try the Chords 101 exercise on Acoustic Guitar's page to practice making smoother changes.

do you play electric or acoustic?

I play elec and to remember chords I like worked on all the major chords in first postion (near the nut, closest to the head stock) and make diffrent chord proggressions up to practice switching between them and memorizeing where my fingers go...

Whenever anyone asks me the best way to practice chord changes I tell them about the 'round robin' method. I'm not sure where I heard about it but I'm pretty sure I didn't come up with it on my own.

Take chords that you want to work on. Let us say, A C D E G, simple beginner's major open chords.

Play the A chord for 4 down strums, play it slowly enough to make the chord ring true. Then switch to the C chord for 4 down strums, then back to the A for four strums. Use the A as the HOME BASE chord for all the other chords.

A to C to A to D to A to E to A to G to A.

Then use the C chord as your home base. C to D to C to E to C to G to C to A to C... and so on and so on.

Play slow enough so that all chords ring true and that you don't have a time separation between chords. It should be played smoothly.

As you become comfortable with your chord changes add chords, add Em Am D7. You can take out chords that you feel you are competent with but keep those you have a problem with. Don't cheat, you are only cheating yourself. Eventually you'll even add that dreaded F chord.

Make it interesting. Change strums, D DUD or D D DUD, works nicely. Play it with your eyes closed.

Make it part of your daily practice or warm up routine. It is a system that works if you work the system.

As for your pain I would guess it is from tension, which can also be a function of posture. Look at yourself in the mirror or get a teacher/ experienced player for a few lessons to work on your posture / technique.

Let us know how it goes,
Michael

Is it important to maintain the strumming rythm when you practice chord changes like that? I should imagine so...

I'm trying that technique with the Bm Bar chord, but it's taking a while:-) The C, D, G, E, A and so forth I used that technique occasionally, and it's helpful.

There are two things that helped me. The first is learning by doing a sort of round robin, but using one of each chord. Say you want to learn C - you play C, then change to A, back to C, then B7 (it's easier than B), then C again, then D, C, E, C, F, C, G, C, then back to A.
The other thing is that you strum one chord, until you can picture the NEXT chord in your mind, so, if you're play A and are changing to C, you must picture exactly where your fingers are to go, to form the C chord. Only when you have the picture very clearly in your mind should you, then, make the change. Do this for every chord change - it doesn't matter if you play one chord for 5 minutes, it's important to have that image firmly in your mind - once you have it, your brain will make the fingers fit the image.

Greybeard put into words what I meant when I said 'Play with your eyes closed.'

Use your minds eye to visualize where your fingers are to go. Feel the shape of your hand, imagine what has to happen for your fingers to move to the next shape.

Go slow. Finger independence isn't easily mastered. I'm currently working on finger picking where the thumb plays a moving baseline against the fingers playing the melody. So it feels like I'm back to the very beginning again only with my right hand instead of my left. Very difficult but also very rewarding. Going slow is key.

Michael

You might consider using a metronome, also.

Start with maybe 80 bpm and when you can do your chord changes comfortably, bump up the speed maybe in increments of 10 BPM and do it again. This will not only help with overall timing but will give you a benchmark of where you began and where you are.