I'm a beginner… I've only been playing about 10 weeks or so… and need less to say I find some transitions to and from certain chords quite difficult… forget bar chords… I'm still having problems with changing from C to G and E to G etc (some chord transitions eg A to D and D to G are pretty much ok)…
So here's the point of this post… if I watch my fretting hand while I play I tend to be slower at making the transitions, although more likely to fret the right strings - than if I don't look - whereby I'm quicker although not always as accurate… so… should I peek at my fingers or not?
it's rare when I peek at my picking hand.
it is more often than not with my freting hand.
of course you should watch your fretting hand.
by not looking you dont have the accuracy needed.
I think your not looking success stems from your growing muscle memory; your fingers are learning where to go.
but for accuracy, do look.
congrads, you're coming along.
I'm sure you have read this here, but, practice, practice, practice. Being quick is ok, but being accurate is more important ....I'd keep watching your fingers. I have read that not watching your fingers is a problem...watching them helps with muscle memory.
I may grow old, but I'll never grow up.
The big problem isn't peeking - it's changing your position. When you look to see where your fingers are on the fretboard, you're either tipping the face of the guitar (so you can see your fingers), or you're leaning forward over the guitar.
Either way changes your positon. So once you're comfortable finding the strings, if you go back to a vertical position with the guitar face you have to re-learn a little bit. Or... you keep tipping the guitar. And that changes the relationship to your picking hand, making it harder to develop good technique.
Some 'peeking' in the beginning can't be helped, because the guitar is completely unfamiliar at first. But as soon as you can manage it, get the angle of the guitar right and play without looking. Later on, when you're changing positions often, use the side dots on the neck (instead of the position markers on the fretboard) to find your place.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Hi, don't worry about "quickness" in the beginning.
Concentrate on fretting the chord correctly and getting a nice sound; watch your fingers and lay them on slowly.
After you have done this sufficient times, this pattern would be "locked" in your fingers and you would be able to change chords faster.
Cheers
Vic
Latest addition: Cover of "Don't Panic" by Coldplay
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=502670
I aften look at my fret hand, and rarely need to look at my strumming hand. A good trick is to develop a constant anchor on the body with the palm of your hand on the bridge or body. By doing this you wil need to look at the strum hand less and can focus on the chord shapes
PK
Since you can do D to G, it sounds like you should be able to do the other changes as well. Although you should allow for the fact that everybody is different. For me G was a piece of cake while D which is supposed to be a lot easier according to all the books was much harder to get right.
One tip I can give you ise to use a different fingering for the C. Instead of using your index, middle, ring fingers, use your middle, ring and pinky on the G. This makes it a lot easier to switch to/from the C and many other chords. Some people even finger the E/Em with the ring and pinky to make it easy to switch to E shaped barres.
oktay
Since you can do D to G, it sounds like you should be able to do the other changes as well. Although you should allow for the fact that everybody is different. For me G was a piece of cake while D which is supposed to be a lot easier according to all the books was much harder to get right.
One tip I can give you ise to use a different fingering for the C. Instead of using your index, middle, ring fingers, use your middle, ring and pinky on the G. This makes it a lot easier to switch to/from the C and many other chords. Some people even finger the E/Em with the ring and pinky to make it easy to switch to E shaped barres.
oktay
forming G as otay says makes it easy to hit the C chord.
Neil Young plays this way; the pinky on the 3rd fret high E string (forming G). placing the index finger on the 2nd string 1st fret then forms the C.
you can hear this in many Young tunes...especially on Greendale CD.
thanks for all your comments...
it's funny what some people find easy and others hard... i found D's no problem at all and D's to G's no problem.... it's toing and frowing the Cs that got me :D
i've been experimenting with different ways of playing the chords but it seems to me that it's always a trade off... you play C with certain fingers to make it easier to play G but then it makes it harder to play something else... maybe one day i'll get to the point when i'll play certain chords for certain songs cos it makes sense for the chord progression in those songs to do it that way and use different shapes for other songs for the same reasons....
i think all in all it probably comes down to the three ps... practice practice practice....
and bit of "looking" and a bit of not "looking" to check how my muscle memory is coming along and back to constant looking if it isn't....
I'd also like to form a G with the middle, ring, and pinky, but it seems like I need to slip my pinky out of joint to make it work.
I hope some of that will go away as I gain strength. I just can't curl it up enough to make that 3rd fret high E string.
Over all though... I'd say I am improving, and that's a good thing!
- Jeff
Nothing to see here...
Hey I know this.
I had this same problem a bit back, I don't remember what chords it was though, what helped me was to crank the tempo down and do the change vvvvveeeeeerrrrryyyyy slowly for about two minutes, and really concentrate on it, pretend your trying to bend a spoon or something. There is no instant way of learning things, but after messing up the switch at high speeds for half an hour and trying this, it'll almost feel instant!!!
Good luck!!
"Like the coldest winter chill. Heaven beside you. Hell within." -Jerry Cantrell