I'm a new guitar player (acoustic) since Jan 13, 08. I have used lessons and tutorial on the web to learn the basic chords and a few easy songs. As any beginner knows, changing chords take time and plenty of practice. I'm sure we all thought that we would never be able to improve.
While I was able to progress through most of the open chords (A, Am, E, Em, D, G) the C chord was and still is a real bitch. I tried the "one minute chord change" exercise (justinguitar) but did not see any improvement after a week. Well, I received my metronome yesterday and I think I finally made a breakthrough!
Using the metronome, I am able to hit my C chord progressions cleanly. While I'm only at 60 BPM (2 beat interval) it is a vast improvement form where I started. So for those of you who are still challenged by a particular chord progression, I would recommend a metronome to time your changes.
Here is a sample of what my progressions were during my one hour practice.
G-D-C
C-D-G
D-A-C
C-A-D
A-E-C
G-Em-C
Em-Am-C
Tom
Ditto...I only began playing a few weeks before you (on an acoustic and now an electric) and the best thing I've done so far was incorporating the use of a metronome into a portion of my practice, although, I try not to use it all the time so as not to become too dependent on it and develop my own sense of timing.
Also, I bought my daughter one of those electronic keyboards a couple of years ago and it has a drum backing that you can set to various tempos and beats and I find it fun to play along to that. Same concept as the metronome, just seems a little more fun to play with vs. "click-click-click-click". I've heard/read a lot of people also like to practice with backing tracks and I'd like to give that a try one of these days.
Keep practising, and if you can tag a D chord onto the end of the G - Em - C progression, about half-a-million songs are now available to you!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
