seems like it will never happen

do it slowly, with correct form. train your pinky at low speeds. repeat it many times at speeds you can do comfortably. keep learning more chords and so forth. your fingers will come around soon enough.

4/4 time is not a tempo, it's a division of beats. those beats can come slow or fast.

jigbounce: have you ever seen or watched those Tai Chi guys in the park? If not, it's pretty amazing because the moves/routine they do is slowed waaaaay down. But it's not just a matter of them doing everything at half speed; it's that their whole intent, their whole focus is on every nanosecond of the movements. It's slowed down, but it's directed and purposeful.

In a way, that's what I do when I run into a problem move; I slow it down, but not just speed-wise. I slow my thoughts down so they're not finished with the move before my fingers are. Everything is slowed down-- equally; thoughts, ideas, pressure, focus on what each finger is doing. Every part of the movement is on purpose, not automatic--that comes later. But at first, focus on everything that one D-to-G chord change entails. How each fingertip feels against the strings of the D chord, then how each finger lifts off, moves over and then contacts the string and then presses down. They're all separate movements. Isolate each, and then start to blend them together.

Sometimes it's even distracting to be strumming or picking while making the chord shapes, so you can just sit watching TV and go back and forth with the chords, over and over again, slowly and silently. Focus on what you're doing, but then focus on something else and see how much your fingers/hand have memorized each part of the move. Just back and forth. I do that sometimes doing a barre E shape going to a barre C shape; the barre stays down, but the fingers hold one shape, lifte, move to the other shape and then press down. Over and over again.

It's tedious, but it does work.

Good luck!

Is this a normal part of learnig or should I realize that I am guitar handicaped by now?

Great advice from the others so I will just answer the question. Yes, it is very normal and its a normal part of learning to play the guitar and after each hurdle you will wonder how in the world you thought it was so hard. I used to have the same problem with the same two chords. I had a problem with forming a C chord before that. Now, its strumming that is kicking my butt, but I know from past experience that I will get it and will move on to the next thing. But just dont forget to enjoy yourself and enjoy learning.

Jim

It will come for sure! Like the others said, slow it down. When I am learning a new chord, and trying to get the changes smooth, I just keep making the chord, without even playing it. Just keep at it, and one of these times you will pick up the guitar, and bam! Your changing nice and smoothly...its a very nice feeling!

One chord change that is particularly bad for me is going from D to G.

I've been working on that same change for most of my 10 months of playing.
Some days I've got it, others ... not so much.

But I am still seeing slow improvement, so I'll keep at it.

I'm having a bit of struggle on that one as well(Highway to Hell), like Kent sometimes it's there...sometimes..not so there :lol:

DemoEtc,
You are a Zen Master! I need to get in my head more and concentrate...thanks!

It's normal and it's no big deal.

This stuff is all about muscle memory. Slow down and watch your hand. Do it correctly and controlled a few dozen times a day, and you'll slowly be able to build up speed.

Get a metronome nad set it for 60 beats a minute. Strum on beat 1, and change chords then strum on beat 1 again. That's 3 full seconds between chords in 4/4 time. After you can do that well, go to playing on beats one and three.

You'll be able to do it at 4 to the bar in no time.

One of the biggest mistakes many new players make is to worry about speed. Don't.

Speed will happen when you've developed the muscle memory.

I'll just add my two bits that this feeling is very normal.
Like you I average about 1/2 hour a day of practice and I am also pretty new to playing guitar (8 months). It was several (3 or 4) months before I could make any chord change within one beat of an average tempo song.
I'd been working at it two or three months when I decided to try Louie, Louie. Search for the tab on this and you will find lots of comments like "World's EASIEST song to play!". After my first practice session I told my wife - "I've got to be the worst guitarist to ever pick up a guitar. I'm no where near playing the worlds easiest song at full tempo." Still could be that I'm the worst ever, because it took me weeks of practice to finally get Louie Louie down, but even I did finally get it.

Besides the other excellent advice here, it did help me to pick a song with just three chords with one chord change per measure. In other words, something that has you making the same change over and over and over in the same pattern. Louie, Louie is good for this. The other one that helped me a lot is Mr. Tambourine Man. It changes between your "problem chord change", G and D, a LOT.
Repetition, time, and patience. If it works for me, it can work for anyone.

Hi,

Excellent advises that will help you beyond just D to G switch!

For this particular problem, if you fret the G chord as follows (fret the extra D note on the B string).

G Chord

----------3-------------------
----------3-------------------
------------------------------
------------------------------
------2-----------------------
----------3-------------------


switching to D would be much easier as you can use your ring finger to pivot.

Vic

I just wanted to say that you're not alone.

I can go from G to D with no problem, but if I'm using my pinkie to fret the high E string on the G chord, I can't set it until I've fretted the Low E and A. Very annoying. Part of the problem is I initially learned the G using the ring finger to fret the high E, and that's what my fingers want to do when I try to play up to tempo. I really want to change this habit for easier transitions and barre chords, so I'll be sticking with it.

If the transition from D to G involves a downstroke, I can usually make it in time--my pinkie will hit the high E before the pick gets there. If the transition is on an upstroke--no joy.

Good tips above; I'll be using them.

One thing that I found has really helped me out is using Guitar Pro, I can take songs that I want to learn and slooooooooowwwwwwwwww them way down to quarter speed, I then have enough time to really focus on my transitions as I play along at a crawl. Once I can play cleanly at quarter speed, I up it to half speed and so on. Since I get to play along with the program, I learn the note lengths and rhythm right from the start which I've been finding helps me out a huge amount.

One thing that I found has really helped me out is using Guitar Pro, I can take songs that I want to learn and slooooooooowwwwwwwwww them way down to quarter speed, I then have enough time to really focus on my transitions as I play along at a crawl. Once I can play cleanly at quarter speed, I up it to half speed and so on. Since I get to play along with the program, I learn the note lengths and rhythm right from the start which I've been finding helps me out a huge amount.
The loop/speed trainer thingie in GP is neat for this too.
Select a section of a song you want to work on, and it'll play that over and over and over... Increasing the tempo a step with each repeat.

It's like playing along with the world's most patient band.

The G chord seems to give lots of folks trouble. I have always told people to give "the finger", or "the bird".

Now you can do that can't you?? :D

So, give the finger and just place your hand on the guitar.


e-3r---
b-0----
g-0----
d-0----
a-2i---
e—3m---

I= index
M= middle
R= ring
P= pinky


Although this is not the traditional method of fretting this chord, thousands of players use this alternate fingering (including me).

the same thing happens to me. what works for me it to place the pinky down first.