Practicing chord changes

Hey there!

The only way to get better at changing the chords is to practice practice practice. If one chord or another is bothering you, the force yourself to change to that chord for any other chord like, say the D chord, go from:

A, D, E, D, C, D etc. Just keep on going and you will get it.

Also try to get all your fingers in the right place at the same time. It's difficult to do at first, but you'll get it!

Hi and welcome to Guitar Noise.

This is something that everyone has to work through and there will probably be a lot of advice coming your way. Personally, I think that if you're practicing "strum strum strum....pause, that finger there, those two there...strum strum strum," then you're going to working that pause into your changing and you'll find yourself doing that even when you're better at the chord changes.

Remember that you're building muscle memory so don't let the pause become part of the memory. Also remember that you've just started out so there's no reason to expect your fingers to change chords quickly and / or smoothly yet.

A good way to get going is to pick two chords and then play one for eight beats and then change and play the other for eight beats. Do this slowly and be more concerned with keeping the beats even than with making the change first. You'll probably find that it takes you two or three beats to get your fingers set so that the whole chord is ready. That's okay. As you practice this, that lag time will whittle down to two beats, one beat and (hopefully) eventually it won't even seem to be there.

When you're good with this, then try changing the chords every four beats. Then every two. And then finally every beat. Then try the whole process with two different chords. Then try three chords.

You'll probably surprise yourself at how well you progress.

As I mentioned, you'll undoubtedly get a lot of advice. Everyone learns a different way and some things come more easily than others.

Looking forward to hearing about how things are progressing and also to seeing you around.

Peace

Thanks guys. That is essentially what I've been doing, playing a couple of measures, changing, playing a couple etc. I just wanted to make sure. Can I also say that your lessons have been excellent. I have been learning from Guitar for Dummies, which is very good, but a little boring (Kumbaya anyone?). Finding your Easy Songs for Beginners was great, because the little extras like alternating bass lines etc. are within my range but sound cool. Thank you and keep up the good work!

An epiphany! I've just experienced my first 'doing it without thinking' moment in guitar. There I was, practising with the Hurt lesson, strumming away at A7sus4, and bam! I went straight in to the Fadd9 without even realising I'd done it! Of course, now I'm thinking about it too much and can't replicate the feat, but it's very encouraging nonetheless. Thanks again David!

An epiphany! I've just experienced my first 'doing it without thinking' moment in guitar.
May you have many more of these moments. (And you will.)

Hi,

As David said, we're all a bit different. But there are some tricks that just about everybody should be using. I just looked up that Hurt lesson that you mentioned and it has some great advice from David in there about leaving some fingers in place while you move others. That strategy of using anchor points to keep you located is a very useful tool.

You can't always find convenient anchor points when you switch chords, but many of the changes in that song do give you that opportunity. Other similar strategies involve sliding an anchor finger up and down a fret or two on the same string, while you re-arrange the other fingers. Sometimes you have to move everything but you can still keep a part of the shape more or less intact. It's quicker and easier than starting from scratch every time.

Another strategy that I found useful was to do drills just on particular chord positioning and changes.

However, I find doing drills for the sake of it screamingly boring, so I always try and turn every exercise into a bit of music, with a touch of improvisational opportunity too if possible. So this was how it tended to go for me:

This does sound massively dull, when you look at the large number of repeats that you need to do to get it ingrained accurately, so I'd always improvise little tunes, and also vary the rhythms etc., just to keep it interesting. If you learn to strum only the minimum strings you need (maybe just three or four) you can take advantage of the fact that some open strings make chords without any fingering needed at all. So I could get little two chord tunes happening whilst only actually needing to finger one of them... :wink:

It took me quite a while before I attempted to play anybody else's songs, but in the meantime I had a lot of fun making up my own to suit whatever I was learning. I still do. :)

Good luck with the journey - it sounds like you've mad e a great start.

Cheers,

Chris

Thanks, I'll give that a go. I think being a lefty confers a slight advantage - we are more used to using our weaker hand anyway (damn you, scissors!), so it's a little less of a shock when it comes to using it for playing

Another method,
1. pick two chords and practice switching between them for one minute with a single strum on each chord to check the sound.
2. stretch your fretting hand, alternate spreading your fingers wide and hold for two seconds and making a fist for two seconds (good practice for those future 4 fret fingerings)
3. back to the two chords for one to two minutes strumming dudududu on each at a speed you can transition smoothly.

This came from a book I'm using and it seems to work. A few days of this make a huge difference in speed and accuracy with only about 5 minutes/day for each pair of chords practiced. Leaving lots of time to play a song, practice finger picking, try a new strumming pattern, see if I can barre that F today or how about the A, and look at a new song I want to play and see if I can play/sing it in the key I have tabbed or if I need to transpose it to a different key. Ok, my practices tend to be kind of fractured and seem haphazard but it keeps it interesting. :D

An epiphany! I've just experienced my first 'doing it without thinking' moment in guitar. There I was, practising with the Hurt lesson, strumming away at A7sus4, and bam! I went straight in to the Fadd9 without even realising I'd done it! Of course, now I'm thinking about it too much and can't replicate the feat, but it's very encouraging nonetheless. Thanks again David!

Use the Force, Luke!

Maximized Technique

Excerpt:
Use visualization heavily for really both hands. Visualize how you will play one passage to quickly be able to go to the next. I also mentioned visualization in my how to practice column.

Thanks again. That's a good technique Daven, my E-D chord change is quicker already.

My chord transitions for Hurt are coming along nicely. Once you make sure you anchor the necessary fingers, its' a cinch. The only really tricky one for me is the C back to G, but that's getting better.

All new guitarists should have PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT tattooed on the palm of their fretting hand :)

Yeah, my current problems are Am-D, Em-B7, and anything to F. :D
Umm, wouldn't the tat's be more visible on your knuckles?

Have you tried barring on the 2nd fret rather than using separate fingers? If you barre the 3rd & 4th strings with your middle finger and fret the 2nd string with your index finger, your ring finger is in a better position for the 3rd fret B string of the D.

As for the tattoos, obviously your hand position is all wrong! ;)

I couldn't write down the fingerings in a chord no matter how I try...but my fingers "end up there" just the same.

Still...everyone tries to build Rome in a day! :lol:

Cat

My friend, you have gotten some sage advice from what I've read. I can't add much but....

This is NOT a jaguar race. You've been at it for such a short time. Please take it very, very slow for your first 4-6 months.

Why? I want to keep you from becoming the next best pro guitar player. Just kiddin'! I know you want to practice like a madman and learn fast and become good NOW.

But, the guitar players who have practiced and played for years (yea, like decades) have progressed by doing it slow. And asking questions like you.

My advice? Practice 1 hour a day and come here and ask your questions which may take 1/2 hour a day. I'll bet you will progress much quicker. If you don't have a teacher, I bank on my suggestion. As such, I find it so wickedly useful to get a teacher for the first 8 weeks of playing. Or even just 4 if you are poor.

Why? The teacher shows you literally how to play and what bad habits you have. A thought. But spend that $100 for four 1/2 hour lessons and you will thank me. Or your teacher.