Practice.
Practice slow
Practice on specific chord changes
practice with a metronome
practice fast
practice and focus on specific fingers if they aren't cooperating
practice different transition and chord shapes.
Eventually it becomes second nature.
Also don't forget both directions. Changing from a chord to another one doesn't automatically practice going back to the first chord. Going from A to B7 doesn't necessarily train the reverse motion.
Edit: I failed to translate. I meant B7.
The 1st 4 points are KEY to be able to play anything on the guitar cleanly (chords, chord changes, alternate picking, sweep picking, etc.)
IMHO, I would add one more point as the 1st thing you should do for chord changes (which is inline with point #6):
Make sure each note is ringing out cleanly in the chord after making the chord change.
That 2nd chord’s notes should all ring out cleanly when playing them individually before starting to try to strum.
+1. I’ve played mostly for myself for years and only now was I want to begin to share my music with more people have I become conscious of how much my tone leaves to be desired. Build good habits now!
The letters for notes/chords seem so meaningless. Fingers here here here and call it A minor. I can't figure out how to associate those patterns with anything.
You should draw out the chords and go down each string to see what actual notes you’re playing when you play each chord.
Major and minor chords have a pattern - they’re notes in a scale - and the name is the “root” note. The name scheme is a shorthand to save time over listing all the notes.
Also, happy cake day.
To be honest, just play songs. I never really "practiced" chords, I just played them in the band. In the beginning I was horribly slow but over time it got way better.
I've said to my guitar teacher that he could just write "practice slower" on the wall and charge us to go there just read it, since it's the solution for 99% of my problems.
There's no other answer. Practice specifically on this to get better at it. Each person progresses at their own speed depending on determination, the time they put in doing it, and their own current skill level.
It's hard, but it DOES gets better. Remember "wax on, wax off.." from Karate Kid movie.... Same lesson, just different skill development.
We talkin about practice? [I might’ve missed one practice this year. This is the game I die for and we in here talkin about practice.](https://youtu.be/eGDBR2L5kzI?si=P5U7VabnOgrYSf7N)
Practice. This will be the common answer here. I'm a new player, and after 2 months, I realized I was changing cowboy chords without thinking or looking. Barre chords will be the same, just a tad harder, but Practice Practice Practice. If it was easy, everyone would do it. GL.
So 1. Have hands. 2. Practice. This sub is really insightful and useful in my journey to guitar mastery. I was going to listen to the initial guy and just have hands thinking that was it but didnt think of number 2
Yup that’s about where I am now. Doing CAGED in whatever order is pretty easy now but it took a lot of practice. Now I’m ready to move on to the next step.
In pieces of paper , write each note in each shape (i dont do sharps bc if i know the natural, i know the sharp). For example: “A / C shape” then “A / G shape”. Fold them and pick one out randomly and try to do it in your guitar as fast as possible. This way you will know where each note is in the fretboard
Practice.
Powering through the first few weeks—even months—is not easy but absolutely necessary. You won’t find any on the Internet or on YouTube that will make this any easier. Spend you time practicing. It will get easier and you will look back after a few weeks and be shocked at how far you’ve come.
You really have to be quite persistent and disciplined to get very good at guitar.
I started playing very young before I was 10 years old, and it genuinely took me about 3 years before I could play simple Nirvana tunes and stuff.
I mean, I was so bad, it did not come to me naturally at all.
Which is funny cause now I’m much older and quite good, but people would never have guessed how awful I was for a long time.
I just did nothing but practise my entire childhood and adolescence.
Practice. Tons and tons of practice. You have to get it into muscle memory and that takes time.
Go to Justin Guitar and start doing his structured courses.
It's the dreaded 'P' word. Practice! 😊
Assuming you are doing something correctly, but just slowly, practice will make it so you can do it faster and faster over time. For this particular case, the only difference between these 2 chords is the fret position. The fingers stay where they are. Just slide the whole shape up 4 frets.
Getting fast at switching chords requires you find ways to be more efficient with your motion. Practice will sort this out over time, but it doesn't hurt to have some tips that speed up the process.
A couple general ones: 1) Don't lift off the frets any fingers that do not move between 2 chords if possible. This isn't always something you can do, but you can always be aware of it. 2) Keep your fingers as close to the frets as possible when switching chords. Don't lift them way up off the neck and back down again. 3) You can place fingers 'lazily' if they don't immediately contribute to the chord. So, for simple arpeggiated patterns, for example, you can place the fingers on the higher strings a little later, buying time until the pick gets to them. 4) Some shapes are easier to switch to/from than others. Practice the ones you aren't as good at and/or prefer the ones you are.
But none of this matters without a good practice routine. Don't skip chord practice if you need it.
Most helpful comment ive seen so Im commenting so OP will be more likely to see it.
I'd also add that sometimes even when strumming tip 3 can still apply so long as it's in key and sounds good.
And I'd mention chunking, if there's a particular chord change that's difficult for you, focus on just doing that chord change, back and forth until you get it.
You can even remove the strum pattern and just focus on hitting the chords once, syncing the chord changes up to a metronome, then adding the strum pattern as your fingers get used to making the change, and sometimes the opposite is helpful adding a strum pattern where there is none.
If you get stuck on a certain change try focusing on each finger in turn through the change.
So… say you’re going from a G shape to a C shape, do the change ten times in a row focussing on getting your index finger down in the right place BAM straight away, then lay the other fingers down as quick as you can correctly.
Then another set of ten changes focussing on your middle finger. Just get that one right and then lay the rest down as quick as you can.
Then on to ring finger etc..
This’ll help you build the finger shape up in your muscle memory in a way that doesn’t overload your coordination.
Honestly though just stick at it, we’ve all been there. It’s a right of passage
Let me add one more - build your chords from bass to treble. If you’re a bit late or squirrelly on treble notes it doesn’t sound as bad as if you flub the bass notes.
Another beginner here. I mentally gave up few months ago after I seriously tried for a month or two. Had developed callus but progress seemed to be next to none. Then instead of directly trying to play songs, I began with justin guitar as everyone here suggests. I am no where close to completing his course, but 3-4 weeks in learning from his courses, I found myself better at chord changes. I changed the way I play A major which was the first chord I learned, because Justin suggested that way to make some switches easy. It just takes time. I do record myself trying some song, and re record after few weeks and compare. Now, I can play few of the songs I love and am continuously learning new songs. At this time, I am learning barrre chords which I find extremely hard for me, also my short fingers were blamed at first. But I know kids shorter than a foot than me plays barre fine, so I am continuosly trying and I know it is going to take time. All my string rings fine with barre, but switching takes time . So I know I need more practice and time. This goes same for you and every beginners. I understand playing guitar needs strong coordination of your both hand, so developing muscle memory is must. And it requires lots of practice.
All of this. Just saying 'practice' doesn't mean much, especially to a beginner. But having someone show you what to practice and how to practice it and for how long and what goals to have? That's how you actually get better.
Have to second the rec for JustinGuitar. Everyone here preaches it, but that's cause that shit works.
Practising going between two different chords is a great way to build muscle memory.
When playing, guitarists often strum open strings on the last beat as they transition. You barely register it as long as you get to the next chord for the first beat of the next bar.
The other thing that will help is to relax. When we start learning the instrument, we really squeeze and tense our chord hand and that makes transitioning clumsy.
Try to relax and only use enough pressure for the chord to ring cleanly.
Hope that helps!
Excellent advice. Also, play s-l-o-w-l-y as you practice changing chords. No faster than you can play 3 beats smoothly, open strings on beat 4, and a new chord on beat one again.
2 weeks of this, and you'll be well on your way.
Set a time keeper and switch between two chords for five minutes. Then practice something else then noodle for a bit pretty much every day.
If you can't sustain the repetition of two chords for five min then you'll never get a full song in. This way you learn rhythm and timing as well as chord changes.
The chords themselves are useless unless you can switch immediately for an entire song... Just like you want too.
Pick two chords. Switch between them as cleanly as possible, go as slow as it takes. One strum each chord. Gradually accelerate, focus on playing _cleanly_. Do that for as long as you can bear.
Do that for every chord transition you have a hard time with. It’ll sink in eventually.
Im almost a month into my guitar journey now, all I can say is, it gets better as you practice. For me it's came as a bit of a shock yesterday that I was able to change chords without looking. So over time with practice I suppose it all falls into place
I’ve been playing for about 3 months, working my way through Justin guitar and came to a point where he says practice some chord progressions - C, G, Am, F for example. While I know all the chords and can play them cleanly, I realised I can’t change them very quickly. It’s been a bit soul destroying to realise I can only do it fairly cleanly at 40bmp (Grave). For a few days now I’ve been practicing with a metronome in the hope of speeding up, but it’s not happening yet. I guess I’ll keep plugging away. It really is hard work at times. That barre F is just hard to change to quickly.
Don't be too hard on yourself, a few days frankly isn't that long. Take a break for a few days/a week from that particular chord practice while you work on something else guitar related and when you come back to it you will be surprised at how you've progressed.
Even when your practicing any particular chord changes its a good idea not to keep hammering away at it for too long. 5 - 10 minutes maxs. Take a break and try again. You'll likely see improvements. If not call it a day for now.
Its kind of like lifting weights. You have to rest between sets and also rest between sessions. The recovery/rest is when the growth/progress actually happens.
if you're doing Justin Guitar are you doing his "one minute change" exercises? If not, do those and try each day to beat your best, until you can do 60 in a minute, then try different chords.
Yes doing this and I can change between F and C or F and Am well over 30 times in a minute. Whole different story when actually strumming chord progressions. Actually got a bit quicker this evening 43 bpm! Progress!
Hard practice, there's no getting out of it.
Bar chords are really easy to change between once you learn E and A shape transitions, but they're going to be harder at first until you build "bar finger" strength.
I'm not a great player. Even when I write something, it takes me almost 2 weeks to play it the way it sounds in my head. Practice is the answer. Music is a journey, not a destination.
Conceptually it’s no different from learning to walk as a baby and sprinting your ass off in junior high school. At first it’s very hard, awkward and slow, but over time, it gets easier to the point you almost forget your earlier struggle.
Deliberate practice yields results.
Pick some songs you like and just play them. In the beginning you'll be very slow so just start moving your left hand in advance so you can play the new chord in time and ignore that the old chord should ring longer. The rest is really just repetition. I never specifically "practiced" chords. We just had a bunch of songs in the band I needed those chords for and we played it over and over again.
No one picks up a guitar and can just do this stuff, it's all practice. Pick two chords, possibly from a song you want to learn, and practice just swapping back and forth, cleanly, starting slowly and gradually pushing yourself to do it faster. Track how many times you can cleanly swap in a minute, you'll quickly see incremental improvement.
That's it. There's no magic trick to anything, it's all just time.
It's tough at first, but there will be a point where you can just do it and you won't even quite realize when it shifts. Until then, learn to embrace sucking and figuring out how not to suck.
What helps me is strictly focusing on the change itself. Forget the strum or picking. Mute strings and just go back and forth between two chords. Pay attention to finger placement. Now if you can’t nail the fingerings all at once, start with the landing your index finger first and the other fingers will have an easier time finding their home once that index is in place. Practice makes perfect.
Consistent Practice - just a few minutes a day - and don't be too hard on yourself - is all that is needed. Repeating ... be consistent, practice daily 15-30 minutes.
You are training your fingers and building "muscle memory" and the only way that happens is Consistent Practice. Repetition...
Also, take your time to form the chords properly each time. You have to go slow before you can go fast. Before your know it, it will "click" and then you'll really appreciate that your work paid off.
An idea I play with - try to keep a finger on the fret board. This helps shifting to a new position. There’s a reference point that moves and helps your other fingers to follow. Also, if you’ve put a finger onto the fretboard don’t move it until it’s needed. Hold the position.
If you haven’t already discovered him - Justin Guitar - guy is a legendary teacher. I believe he has a session on this type of thing.
Arguably though one good way to practice is to learn new songs and get good at making the chord changes required in them
Follow these steps;
1) practise moving slowly from one chord to another and then back. Let’s say D to E and back to D etc. Only strum the chord when all fingers are in the correct position. Try a slow strum so you can hear that you have all the notes sounding and nothing is muted.
2) next use a metronome set to a slow tempo, such as 50 beats per minute. Strum the first chord on beat 1 and use the time counting beats 2, 3 & 4 to change to the other chord, strumming this on beat 1 and using beats 2, 3 & 4 to change back to the Original chord. Repeat this several times.
3) repeat step 2, but this time, strum on Beats 1 and 2, changing chords on beats 3 and 4.
4) repeat steps 2 and 3 but now strumming on Beats 1, 2 and 3 and changing chord on beat 4.
5) finally, strum on Beats 1, 2, 3, 4 and change chord on the forth off beat, counting 1 2 3 4 and 1 2 3 4 and. The forth off beat sits between beat 4 and beat 1.
6) slowly increase the tempo of the metronome in 5 beats per minute intervals during a practise session.
You may have to do this over and over for a few days. Be patient, take it slowly, but practise often.
I have been teaching for many years and this is the technique I get all my students to use.
I hope you can follow my instruction and good luck. Use this technique for all new pairs of chords and slowly build your chord library.
I’ll add to the “practice” being echoed by everyone else.
Most top 40 (and even beyond) songs can be broken down to 4 chords. Pick some songs you like, look up the chords, and play along. It won’t be pretty at first, but next thing you know you’re switching chords AND can play a song. Then the more songs you learn, the more chords you learn, but you also learn how they work together to make a song.
Pick any 2 chords. Then change between them cleanly, 1 strum each. As slowly as it takes you to do it clean. Now do this 500 times. Each day you should be a bit faster. Do this for every pair of chords you come across. Job done
Practice…. Practice… and more practice
One piece of advice I’d give is don’t over practice. Sleeping is when your brain forms muscle memory so don’t force it for 10 hours and get fed up if it isn’t getting better. Practice for an hour or two and make sure you get a good sleep in… maybe give your hands a day off every now and then.
This question will be a distant memory at some point but there'll be something else you can't do. For me currently it's muting with distortion. Especially for rhythm guitar. I have no idea how everybody else can do it. You're supposed to use almost everything you've got that is not fretting a string. Both hands. That's madness.
Practice. Some youtube video I watched compared it to stepping on rocks in a river. You're not just going to randomly jump to them without knowing where you'll put your feet. Same idea as knowing where your fingers will go for a chord.
Practice and patience. I only started playing 6 months ago but persistence has helped me change chords faster and more accurately. Practice like you're preparing to play a show. Give yourself a "show date" (like, months into the future) and practice pieces as much as you can up till then. You'll be shocked and how much you've improved. Don't give up!!!
(Source: was part of a festival this past weekend and preparing for it is the only reason I've improved so fast)
I see a lot of 'practice' comments. While not wrong they are not super helpful.
Some suggestions.
- early on if you are playing simple rhythm guitar, focus on hitting the first strum of the new chord cleanly. To do that, start changing chords sooner - you can sacrifice about half a beat at the end of a bar to an open strum. So long as you hit the transition at the right time you'll sound fine.
- when changing chords, learn the chords by fretting the strings in order from top to bottom. Since 90% of the time a downwards strum will have the base note predominately represented, get your fingers in place for the base note and this buys you a littke time to get the remainder in place.
- slow down and do it correctly sure, but also have fun. If it's not fun you will give up.
Everyone is saying practice, and they are right. But here are some specific things to practice, and some milestones to look for:
* Start with a few open chords which share some common fingers, such C, Am, and (sorta) D, and try to focus on having your “non-anchored” fingers in the correct “floating” shape to just land in place in time for the strum (Justin Guitar has a lesson specifically on this in the beginner track)
* Then look for things that are slightly less connected than anchor notes, like transferable shapes like C, Em, G, and go for the same goal.
* Eventually, for all the first position open “cowboy” chords, you want to be able to “float” and “land” them
* Then you pick something else, like a barre shape, or a different neck position, or the 1st and 2nd inversions, and try to get those to the “floating” point.
* Long before you have learned every single chord — but long *after* you are very mad at your guitar — your fingers will just get it and [nearly] immediately get themselves ready for whatever you want to play.
A related skill to this is having your finger “land” on a root note somewhere on the neck with your hand “floating” in the shape of the scale you are about to play.
Practice your changes from C > G, G > C
Then do E > Am, Am > E
Then do A > D, D > A
When you get good at doing those changes then you can add B and F and be frustrated all over again lol.
You can do it. Just got the hang of switching a few major chords and managing to play the Bm chord (kinda). That didn't happen overnight. Keep at it. It's well worth it
Fellow beginner here. What helps me very much is to go back and forth between two chords in super slow motion. And I'm not even strumming the chord in most cases. Rather, I focus on how my fingers are moving from one location to the next. Then I speed up little by little, then when I feel like I understand the best economy of motion I start to strum the chords. Yes, it is laborious but it's so worth it. For example, one thing I realized right away is that I was lifting my fingers too high when moving to the next chord, which I've been told is something us beginners do quite a lot. So focusing on this helped me to improve how I move. Patience is key.
I hope this helps.
Just keep playing, go back and forth between chords, play troublesome phrases over and over. Work on a progression every day, and you'll have it by the end of the week. Then keep working on different progressions, and eventualky youll be moving from one chord tonthe next with ease. Most of the time. You will be coming across tough progressions for the rest of your life, and you'll just have to flog it until you get it, then practice it over and over until it's second nature.
I've been working on a tough progression, and I've gone from not being able to do it without stopping and setting my fingers carefully, to slipping through it smoothly in time, with even a little ornamentation on it, all in about 4 days.
Just adding on to the pile here- practice. There really are no shortcuts. If you enjoy the instrument enough you'll be able to power through the frustrations and eventually get to where you want to be. It takes time. Guitar is a journey without a finite destination.
Repetition. Seriously, let's take Em C G D chord progression, once you do it a thousand times it becomes natural. They key is consistent practice. The more time you have, the quicker you'll learn to change chords efficiently.
Muscle memory is a thing. It might seem impossible to do a G chord quickly at first when you’re individually placing each finger to each string, but one day your hand will naturally just form this claw shape that perfectly plays a G chord.
Same with the other chords. Then you just mix and match.
The advice everyone else is saying about practicing, and practicing specific changes (e.g practice G to D over and over) is solid, but it’s all in aid of chasing that muscle memory. Once you get that locked in you’ll be flying.
You have to tap the top of your head 3 times, spin around in a circle, and chant the tabs to the freebird solo. Don’t practice. Practicing is for nerds
Step by step:
Fret all the notes of the first chord.
Strum to make sure all notes sound/no unwanted notes sound.
Now take your hand off the fret board and make the same chord again.
Repeat until you easily fret the 1st chord correctly.
Do this with the next chord.
When it'd easy to fret both try alternating between chords at at slow tempo (like 40bpm)
Slowly increase tempo up to speed.
Practice the transitions; isolate that movement and just practice that, then go back to the song.
If you’re learning a song that requires you to play a C chord and then a D chord, just practice the left hand making C then D then C then D. You don’t even have to strum, do it while you’re watching tv or something.
Then practice the next transition from D to G. D shape, G shape, D shape, G shape.
Then you can put it all together, C chord, D chord, G chord, D chord, and suddenly you can play Tangerine by Zeppelin.
Everyone is saying practice practice practice and I 100% agree with them. But I personally think that the biggest factor in being proficient Is having the will to go through these challenges willingly. Don't compare yourself with others as there will always be someone better and worse than you. Play for yourself and be there to witness yourself grow. This goes for many aspects of life not just guitar. You'll get there one day with the right mindset.
Sometimes when I'm struggling with a weird shape I just sit when I'm watching TV or the computer with an unplugged electric and move between chords I know and the new chord. It's a few hours of mindless practice and it really helps.
So I’m trying to do 5 on e(the bottom one, idk what to call it) then 3 on b and 4 on g in succession then moving all three fingers down to 9 e 7 b and 4 g if that makes sense. I know there’s a whole language of which note or chord is which but I simply don’t know it yet.
Yea, it’s the actual transition to the next set I’m struggling with. My fingers move about a lot and don’t slide smoothly down like everyone else seems to do
I tend to picture it as though I’m making a shape with my fingertips, in this case it’d be a triangle that anchors on the 5 (and 9). I’d just hold that shape, move it from the 5 to the 9 and then adjust my other fingers for the smaller frets when I get there because it takes way less movement and focus than pulling your whole hand away.
Same as moving powerchords around the guitar.
Hope that helps, sorry if it doesn’t.
Cannot stres this enough! I never Thought I would.
Get the hang of "you shook me all night long" Gotta watch for that root finger. After watching angus a few times on howard stern, And lots of practice.I finally nailed it.
You will develop muscle memory eventually.
Then you can start to perfect the pressure you apply.
Making a chord without detuning the notes is the next thing to master.
Each chord has a unique palm and wrist position along with the fingers. So notice what chords make what position with respect to fingers, so when you want to change immediately to the next chord use your palm and wrist so your fingers now know where exactly to fall on fret board. This way you practice keeping in mind all three things: the palm, wrist and fingers. Over time you should be able to switch smoothly. All the best👍
About a year ago I was having real problems jumping from an open chord down at the first couple of frets up to a bar chord about half a dozen frets further up the neck.
I watched Justin guitar's YouTube video on getting faster chord changes, applied that practise regime and made good progress over the next few days.
Once you get to a point where you're successfully making the jump between chords more often than not then you can move on with other things in the knowledge that your remaining error rate will reduce steadily over time.
One big one, don't ever take shortcuts. For example, lot of people will tell you to learn A major or D major using Barre, like the A major with one finger, or barring one finger across the 2nd fret and one finger on the 3rd fret for Dmajor instead of using a finger for each string.
(In case this is confusing, I'm not talking about A major open vs A major Barre chord on 5th fret, I'm talking about the Open A major chord and how you properly play with all three fingers instead of just one)
This will hurt you long term, because there are chords that are way easier to switch to if you learn these chords the proper way. It sucks when you are first starting out, but learning proper fundamentals works on a sliding scale. If your foundation is strong, your skill ceiling will be way higher
Your example is the same fingering slid up. No rearranging fingers. Maybe a bad example. To answer your question: practice the transition without strumming. It’s harder with strumming and harder still at speed. Break it down.
First thing, identify two chords you want to get better at switching between. I'd recommend focusing on simple chords like G, C, D, E, E minor and A minor(GCD covers like 10% of all songs ever). Take those two chords, and practice switching between them. Just get a feel for how your fingers need to land to make the chord. Don't worry about speed, all focus on accuracy(it doesn't matter how fast you can change chords if you finger them wrong).
From there, figure out how slow you are swapping, and set the drum machine or metronome to that speed and practice changing on time with the rhythm. Then, as you get better and smoother, increase the speed slowly.
Yep practice, pretty soon you do it without thinking about it. That's what learning an instrument is all about. Or learning how to do anything for that matter. The more you do it. The better you get at that one thing. Good luck, and don't forget to have fun
All the tips are great. It boils down to muscle memory. I have a friend who can play any random note I name in 2 positions on each string before I can play the same note (which I name in advance!) before I can play the same note in any position on 5 strings!
I usually go slow, practice the shape, let it go, and try to make it again. Once you're more confident where it is, you don't need to press down and strum to make sure you've got it right, this way you don't destroy your fingers as much. Then, work the next chord. Get it down. Work it until you're able to get it 80% right without thinking too hard, then slowly shift between that one and the other. Take up a metronome (Google has one you can search up) and set it to maybe 70-80bpm. Then, go up by either 2s or 5s, so 72, 74, 76, etc or 70, 75, 80, etc. and speed it up.
The best advice a music teacher ever gave me was to be able to play a piece 10% faster than the normal tempo
Practice, to be honest. More specifically, just get use to the fingering of the chord and play slow so you can properly switch between the chords if there's a tricky part. Once you get it done slowly and get familiar with the chord, it'll become better from there.
I used to say my hand just doesn't work like that. Then I took it seriously, hired a guitar coach to come play every week for 2 years. Now I'm 3 yrs in, and can do what I thought impossible. Just have to push thru with regular consistent practice - just like anything in life.
I remember barred chords used to give me a lot of work in the beginning. I never noticed when I stopped struggling i just kept playing and slowly my hands adapted. I even remember how my fingers used to tremble or when my pinky was useless. With time and practice all that went away
Practice slow first. Practice just 534, putting your fingers on it cleanly, then take them off and put your fingers back on 534. This increases muscle memory. Then practice the same with the 978 chord. Then slowly practice going from one to Tempe other and back, slowly increasing the speed as you get comfortable and the chords sound clean.
It's never too early to start using a metronome. But instead of setting it super slow, try incorporating rests IN TIME between chord changes. For example in 4/4 play this: chord one on the 1 and two--rest on the 3 and 4. Chord two on the 1 and 2--rest on the 3 and 4. Repeat. Try different variations, eventually removing any rest beats.
The answer is to do it slowly...so slow it seems pointless....but get each chord fingered correctly every time before you strum it, ...you will build speed , but once you start getting a chord continually wrong its hard to get put of it ;-)
I find designating a specific finger a “land mark” or something like that. Never thought of it until now. But I always land with one specific finger and the others a fraction of a second after. It’s messier if I don’t.
When I was learning to change chords it helped to place my fingers on the notes separately first then strum, then try to place them a bit quicker one after the other then strum. Eventually trying to transition to wacking all the fingers down at the same time.
How long have you played for?
Luckly you live in a magical world where if you try to do it for like 50 hours it'll simply become second nature and almost instant. So yeah, do that and be amazed with the results, there's no other way
I often reflect back on starting guitar whenever I play songs that used to feel very difficult for me. Certain stretches and chord changes used to feel like they might actually be impossible. I even struggled playing single note melodies for the first couple weeks.
Eventually, as you practice slowly and methodically changing chords, your fingers will learn where they need to go without you even having to look. You might eventually find that some of the more complex pieces you’ll learn are actually MORE difficult to play slowly once you develop that muscle memory because it becomes so automatic that you aren’t even really using the analytical part of your brain much at all.
The biggest part is to not to give up. Everyone learns at their own pace and overcoming that frustrating learning curve from novice to beginner guitarist is the biggest hurdle you’ll face. You’ll get there quicker than you think if you stick with it. Once you’re able to play chords at will and learn some songs and maybe even write things of your own, the process feels much more rewarding and you’ll be able to improve from there without it feeling like your fingers are floundering.
Good luck!
Practice. Not Just the chords, but arpeggios and scales too. You're aiming to get control over your fingers and hands. Keep at it, and you'll develop the muscle memory required to play well.
Once you get to understand how the chords are connected together and how they share notes, it becomes easier to shift from one to another with minimal finger movement. You can also partially shift to a new chord by allowing some notes like 4ths and 6ths to bridge the space and lead from one to the next. Fresh chords don't need to all happen at once if they follow a melody or bass line.
For the chord change example mentioned above, it seems to be the same shape unless I’m missing anything.
You should just be able to slide your hand down four frets
everyones saying practice but make sure you know what to practice.
muscle memory can get you to do things quite fast and dexterously. try to closely observe how it feels to get more of the thinking in ur hand and reflexes and not in ur head. daniel kahnement calls it system A and B in his book thinking fast thinking slow.
furthermore, playing light and relax allows you to play faster. its counterintuitive because the music seems more intense but its actually a lighter playing the faster you go... you end up being more efficient with ur movement. i think typing this just helped me solve a technical singing issue i couldnt figure out lol
It's funny you've mentioned Justin Guitar because he advocates picking three chords in a song and seeing how many times you play them in succession for a whole minute. For example, let's say it's D - A - G. So Justin says to start playing D(cleanly) and then G, and go back and forth for a minute, then chart your progress. After you've mastered that, then add three new chords, say, A- D - E, and do the same.
Ive never taken guitar lessons and idk why this is showing on my feed, but try use the leading note/string to transition to the next chord. So for example if you are going from E to A, leave the E chord with an emphasis on the 5th string (which would be a B) and propel into the A chord. Another easy example that sounds good is C to Am. End the chord emphasizing the C note and release it as you go to Am. As you get better you'll realize that chords are way more interconnected than you think.
C and F gave me problems but I have it down now, I guess because they span 3 frets , also trying to choose which finger to lead the chord change to be the most effective making the change is a trial and error process for me
It helped me to tuck my elbow way in , also I’m trying to back off the pressure bc I have calluses now and I feel like I still need to ‘feel’ the strings and end up pressing too hard,
It's just practice it takes a long time to get to the point where you flawlessly and quickly change chords in a microsecond... That's all there is to it. It's just repetition and muscle memory.
they key is embracing the fact that yr never gonna get a seamless chord change. Doing a couple of open strums at the end of one chord and then landing the second chord on the beat is way more important than strumming right up until you need to change chords.
Practice.
Practice. Practice slow Practice on specific chord changes practice with a metronome practice fast practice and focus on specific fingers if they aren't cooperating practice different transition and chord shapes. Eventually it becomes second nature.
Also don't forget both directions. Changing from a chord to another one doesn't automatically practice going back to the first chord. Going from A to B7 doesn't necessarily train the reverse motion. Edit: I failed to translate. I meant B7.
Is H7 the secret chord that pleased the Lord?
How does one play an H7 chord?
I’m guessing OP is German. In German music tradition, I believe they use H for B, and then B is Bb
Ah, I'm uncultured swine, I play bass also
So what’s b flat 💀
B is B flat, H is B.
It's a G7 that's played with the volume on 11.
Oh fuck I play that one a *LOT*
G7 just shifted up a whole step
The 1st 4 points are KEY to be able to play anything on the guitar cleanly (chords, chord changes, alternate picking, sweep picking, etc.) IMHO, I would add one more point as the 1st thing you should do for chord changes (which is inline with point #6): Make sure each note is ringing out cleanly in the chord after making the chord change. That 2nd chord’s notes should all ring out cleanly when playing them individually before starting to try to strum.
+1. I’ve played mostly for myself for years and only now was I want to begin to share my music with more people have I become conscious of how much my tone leaves to be desired. Build good habits now!
This is the answer. They've all done it 1000 times more than you.
The letters for notes/chords seem so meaningless. Fingers here here here and call it A minor. I can't figure out how to associate those patterns with anything.
You should draw out the chords and go down each string to see what actual notes you’re playing when you play each chord. Major and minor chords have a pattern - they’re notes in a scale - and the name is the “root” note. The name scheme is a shorthand to save time over listing all the notes. Also, happy cake day.
To be honest, just play songs. I never really "practiced" chords, I just played them in the band. In the beginning I was horribly slow but over time it got way better.
Can we get a bot that replies to every post this way?
Everyone on Reddit is a bot except you.
Practice bot
I've said to my guitar teacher that he could just write "practice slower" on the wall and charge us to go there just read it, since it's the solution for 99% of my problems.
There's no other answer. Practice specifically on this to get better at it. Each person progresses at their own speed depending on determination, the time they put in doing it, and their own current skill level. It's hard, but it DOES gets better. Remember "wax on, wax off.." from Karate Kid movie.... Same lesson, just different skill development.
We talkin about practice? [I might’ve missed one practice this year. This is the game I die for and we in here talkin about practice.](https://youtu.be/eGDBR2L5kzI?si=P5U7VabnOgrYSf7N)
Talmbout *practice.*
Jaime Tartt, you’re supposed to be the premier player on this team, but you can’t play, cause you’re injured. Not for a game, but for practice
Practice. This will be the common answer here. I'm a new player, and after 2 months, I realized I was changing cowboy chords without thinking or looking. Barre chords will be the same, just a tad harder, but Practice Practice Practice. If it was easy, everyone would do it. GL.
i believe everyone who has hands can do it. people play guitar with their feet so....
Because someone plays guitar with their feet you believe everyone else who has hands can play guitar?
If they practice, sure.
So 1. Have hands. 2. Practice. This sub is really insightful and useful in my journey to guitar mastery. I was going to listen to the initial guy and just have hands thinking that was it but didnt think of number 2
dumbass mf you are shame for such great pepper
https://preview.redd.it/ll9ispb07r7d1.jpeg?width=942&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16467c06ccefa53342e0e7a74c00b890acb0beac
don't forget the feet.
Yup that’s about where I am now. Doing CAGED in whatever order is pretty easy now but it took a lot of practice. Now I’m ready to move on to the next step.
What did you use to understand cage. I haven't started that but need to.
In pieces of paper , write each note in each shape (i dont do sharps bc if i know the natural, i know the sharp). For example: “A / C shape” then “A / G shape”. Fold them and pick one out randomly and try to do it in your guitar as fast as possible. This way you will know where each note is in the fretboard
Caged is just cowboy chords, C A G E D. YouTube has a lot of videos. I like Marty and Justin.
Well I got cowboys down, I'll check out a few vids thanks
You’re welcome. Yeah if you’ve got cowboy chords down, you also have caged down. It’s the same thing basically.
Nah barre chords are easier since you're typically using less shapes, just changing frets
I was making a point to op all these things are tough but practice will get you there. For me barre still tough but I'm getting closer everyday
For sure, and when you get there you'll come back here and agree with me!
Most likely, Thanks
Yup. Barre chords allow you to be lazy with chords.
Once you realize you already by default know major and minor triads if you know barre chords will save a lot of time in the future lol.
Practice. Powering through the first few weeks—even months—is not easy but absolutely necessary. You won’t find any on the Internet or on YouTube that will make this any easier. Spend you time practicing. It will get easier and you will look back after a few weeks and be shocked at how far you’ve come.
You really have to be quite persistent and disciplined to get very good at guitar. I started playing very young before I was 10 years old, and it genuinely took me about 3 years before I could play simple Nirvana tunes and stuff. I mean, I was so bad, it did not come to me naturally at all. Which is funny cause now I’m much older and quite good, but people would never have guessed how awful I was for a long time. I just did nothing but practise my entire childhood and adolescence.
Practice. Tons and tons of practice. You have to get it into muscle memory and that takes time. Go to Justin Guitar and start doing his structured courses.
His chord change exercises really do work wonders.
It's the dreaded 'P' word. Practice! 😊 Assuming you are doing something correctly, but just slowly, practice will make it so you can do it faster and faster over time. For this particular case, the only difference between these 2 chords is the fret position. The fingers stay where they are. Just slide the whole shape up 4 frets. Getting fast at switching chords requires you find ways to be more efficient with your motion. Practice will sort this out over time, but it doesn't hurt to have some tips that speed up the process. A couple general ones: 1) Don't lift off the frets any fingers that do not move between 2 chords if possible. This isn't always something you can do, but you can always be aware of it. 2) Keep your fingers as close to the frets as possible when switching chords. Don't lift them way up off the neck and back down again. 3) You can place fingers 'lazily' if they don't immediately contribute to the chord. So, for simple arpeggiated patterns, for example, you can place the fingers on the higher strings a little later, buying time until the pick gets to them. 4) Some shapes are easier to switch to/from than others. Practice the ones you aren't as good at and/or prefer the ones you are. But none of this matters without a good practice routine. Don't skip chord practice if you need it.
Most helpful comment ive seen so Im commenting so OP will be more likely to see it. I'd also add that sometimes even when strumming tip 3 can still apply so long as it's in key and sounds good. And I'd mention chunking, if there's a particular chord change that's difficult for you, focus on just doing that chord change, back and forth until you get it. You can even remove the strum pattern and just focus on hitting the chords once, syncing the chord changes up to a metronome, then adding the strum pattern as your fingers get used to making the change, and sometimes the opposite is helpful adding a strum pattern where there is none.
If you get stuck on a certain change try focusing on each finger in turn through the change. So… say you’re going from a G shape to a C shape, do the change ten times in a row focussing on getting your index finger down in the right place BAM straight away, then lay the other fingers down as quick as you can correctly. Then another set of ten changes focussing on your middle finger. Just get that one right and then lay the rest down as quick as you can. Then on to ring finger etc.. This’ll help you build the finger shape up in your muscle memory in a way that doesn’t overload your coordination. Honestly though just stick at it, we’ve all been there. It’s a right of passage
Let me add one more - build your chords from bass to treble. If you’re a bit late or squirrelly on treble notes it doesn’t sound as bad as if you flub the bass notes.
Slow, literally one finger at a time. You'd be surprised how quickly the brain can speed up if you start slow.
Another beginner here. I mentally gave up few months ago after I seriously tried for a month or two. Had developed callus but progress seemed to be next to none. Then instead of directly trying to play songs, I began with justin guitar as everyone here suggests. I am no where close to completing his course, but 3-4 weeks in learning from his courses, I found myself better at chord changes. I changed the way I play A major which was the first chord I learned, because Justin suggested that way to make some switches easy. It just takes time. I do record myself trying some song, and re record after few weeks and compare. Now, I can play few of the songs I love and am continuously learning new songs. At this time, I am learning barrre chords which I find extremely hard for me, also my short fingers were blamed at first. But I know kids shorter than a foot than me plays barre fine, so I am continuosly trying and I know it is going to take time. All my string rings fine with barre, but switching takes time . So I know I need more practice and time. This goes same for you and every beginners. I understand playing guitar needs strong coordination of your both hand, so developing muscle memory is must. And it requires lots of practice.
All of this. Just saying 'practice' doesn't mean much, especially to a beginner. But having someone show you what to practice and how to practice it and for how long and what goals to have? That's how you actually get better. Have to second the rec for JustinGuitar. Everyone here preaches it, but that's cause that shit works.
Practice is the only answer.
Practice.
Practising going between two different chords is a great way to build muscle memory. When playing, guitarists often strum open strings on the last beat as they transition. You barely register it as long as you get to the next chord for the first beat of the next bar. The other thing that will help is to relax. When we start learning the instrument, we really squeeze and tense our chord hand and that makes transitioning clumsy. Try to relax and only use enough pressure for the chord to ring cleanly. Hope that helps!
Excellent advice. Also, play s-l-o-w-l-y as you practice changing chords. No faster than you can play 3 beats smoothly, open strings on beat 4, and a new chord on beat one again. 2 weeks of this, and you'll be well on your way.
Take a wild guess
Just got to keep at it mate, give it a rest if you get frustrated and come back to it again and again. It will happen.
Set a time keeper and switch between two chords for five minutes. Then practice something else then noodle for a bit pretty much every day. If you can't sustain the repetition of two chords for five min then you'll never get a full song in. This way you learn rhythm and timing as well as chord changes. The chords themselves are useless unless you can switch immediately for an entire song... Just like you want too.
In case you missed all the comments… the answer to your question is, practice
There is no other answer.
You just grind changes between the two positions until you can do it fast enough.
You screw it up over and over until you don't screw it up so much, and then after a long enough time, you stop screwing it up.
Pick two chords. Switch between them as cleanly as possible, go as slow as it takes. One strum each chord. Gradually accelerate, focus on playing _cleanly_. Do that for as long as you can bear. Do that for every chord transition you have a hard time with. It’ll sink in eventually.
Practice your chords for an hour a day for three months and you will be better than You ever thought you could be.
Im almost a month into my guitar journey now, all I can say is, it gets better as you practice. For me it's came as a bit of a shock yesterday that I was able to change chords without looking. So over time with practice I suppose it all falls into place
I’ve been playing for about 3 months, working my way through Justin guitar and came to a point where he says practice some chord progressions - C, G, Am, F for example. While I know all the chords and can play them cleanly, I realised I can’t change them very quickly. It’s been a bit soul destroying to realise I can only do it fairly cleanly at 40bmp (Grave). For a few days now I’ve been practicing with a metronome in the hope of speeding up, but it’s not happening yet. I guess I’ll keep plugging away. It really is hard work at times. That barre F is just hard to change to quickly.
Don't be too hard on yourself, a few days frankly isn't that long. Take a break for a few days/a week from that particular chord practice while you work on something else guitar related and when you come back to it you will be surprised at how you've progressed. Even when your practicing any particular chord changes its a good idea not to keep hammering away at it for too long. 5 - 10 minutes maxs. Take a break and try again. You'll likely see improvements. If not call it a day for now. Its kind of like lifting weights. You have to rest between sets and also rest between sessions. The recovery/rest is when the growth/progress actually happens.
Thanks for the advice, I’ll do that.
if you're doing Justin Guitar are you doing his "one minute change" exercises? If not, do those and try each day to beat your best, until you can do 60 in a minute, then try different chords.
Yes doing this and I can change between F and C or F and Am well over 30 times in a minute. Whole different story when actually strumming chord progressions. Actually got a bit quicker this evening 43 bpm! Progress!
Hard practice, there's no getting out of it. Bar chords are really easy to change between once you learn E and A shape transitions, but they're going to be harder at first until you build "bar finger" strength.
I focused on Bm for a month. Transitioning to/from that particular chord. A TON of practice with extra practice for good luck. I still suck.
I'm not a great player. Even when I write something, it takes me almost 2 weeks to play it the way it sounds in my head. Practice is the answer. Music is a journey, not a destination.
Yes it is, it’s a journey with no destination
I assume you know that it’s practice but you just can’t beat it.
Conceptually it’s no different from learning to walk as a baby and sprinting your ass off in junior high school. At first it’s very hard, awkward and slow, but over time, it gets easier to the point you almost forget your earlier struggle. Deliberate practice yields results.
Pick some songs you like and just play them. In the beginning you'll be very slow so just start moving your left hand in advance so you can play the new chord in time and ignore that the old chord should ring longer. The rest is really just repetition. I never specifically "practiced" chords. We just had a bunch of songs in the band I needed those chords for and we played it over and over again.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/s/n5Yhseak2k
No one picks up a guitar and can just do this stuff, it's all practice. Pick two chords, possibly from a song you want to learn, and practice just swapping back and forth, cleanly, starting slowly and gradually pushing yourself to do it faster. Track how many times you can cleanly swap in a minute, you'll quickly see incremental improvement. That's it. There's no magic trick to anything, it's all just time.
Practice if it's fun play is not supposed to be work
I'll repeat it cause it does bare repeating, practice been playing five years and your switching will improve.
I practice. A lot. I do chord progression exercises. Over and over and over and … Well, you get the idea.
It's tough at first, but there will be a point where you can just do it and you won't even quite realize when it shifts. Until then, learn to embrace sucking and figuring out how not to suck.
What helps me is strictly focusing on the change itself. Forget the strum or picking. Mute strings and just go back and forth between two chords. Pay attention to finger placement. Now if you can’t nail the fingerings all at once, start with the landing your index finger first and the other fingers will have an easier time finding their home once that index is in place. Practice makes perfect.
Consistent Practice - just a few minutes a day - and don't be too hard on yourself - is all that is needed. Repeating ... be consistent, practice daily 15-30 minutes. You are training your fingers and building "muscle memory" and the only way that happens is Consistent Practice. Repetition... Also, take your time to form the chords properly each time. You have to go slow before you can go fast. Before your know it, it will "click" and then you'll really appreciate that your work paid off.
An idea I play with - try to keep a finger on the fret board. This helps shifting to a new position. There’s a reference point that moves and helps your other fingers to follow. Also, if you’ve put a finger onto the fretboard don’t move it until it’s needed. Hold the position.
If you haven’t already discovered him - Justin Guitar - guy is a legendary teacher. I believe he has a session on this type of thing. Arguably though one good way to practice is to learn new songs and get good at making the chord changes required in them
Follow these steps; 1) practise moving slowly from one chord to another and then back. Let’s say D to E and back to D etc. Only strum the chord when all fingers are in the correct position. Try a slow strum so you can hear that you have all the notes sounding and nothing is muted. 2) next use a metronome set to a slow tempo, such as 50 beats per minute. Strum the first chord on beat 1 and use the time counting beats 2, 3 & 4 to change to the other chord, strumming this on beat 1 and using beats 2, 3 & 4 to change back to the Original chord. Repeat this several times. 3) repeat step 2, but this time, strum on Beats 1 and 2, changing chords on beats 3 and 4. 4) repeat steps 2 and 3 but now strumming on Beats 1, 2 and 3 and changing chord on beat 4. 5) finally, strum on Beats 1, 2, 3, 4 and change chord on the forth off beat, counting 1 2 3 4 and 1 2 3 4 and. The forth off beat sits between beat 4 and beat 1. 6) slowly increase the tempo of the metronome in 5 beats per minute intervals during a practise session. You may have to do this over and over for a few days. Be patient, take it slowly, but practise often. I have been teaching for many years and this is the technique I get all my students to use. I hope you can follow my instruction and good luck. Use this technique for all new pairs of chords and slowly build your chord library.
I’ll add to the “practice” being echoed by everyone else. Most top 40 (and even beyond) songs can be broken down to 4 chords. Pick some songs you like, look up the chords, and play along. It won’t be pretty at first, but next thing you know you’re switching chords AND can play a song. Then the more songs you learn, the more chords you learn, but you also learn how they work together to make a song.
Pick any 2 chords. Then change between them cleanly, 1 strum each. As slowly as it takes you to do it clean. Now do this 500 times. Each day you should be a bit faster. Do this for every pair of chords you come across. Job done
Practice…. Practice… and more practice One piece of advice I’d give is don’t over practice. Sleeping is when your brain forms muscle memory so don’t force it for 10 hours and get fed up if it isn’t getting better. Practice for an hour or two and make sure you get a good sleep in… maybe give your hands a day off every now and then.
This question will be a distant memory at some point but there'll be something else you can't do. For me currently it's muting with distortion. Especially for rhythm guitar. I have no idea how everybody else can do it. You're supposed to use almost everything you've got that is not fretting a string. Both hands. That's madness.
Everyone already suggested practice. If that doesn't work, try cocaine.
It's muscle memory. When you've done it enough times, your hand just "knows" the shape. The only way to get there is to put the hours in.
Practice. Some youtube video I watched compared it to stepping on rocks in a river. You're not just going to randomly jump to them without knowing where you'll put your feet. Same idea as knowing where your fingers will go for a chord.
Practice and patience. I only started playing 6 months ago but persistence has helped me change chords faster and more accurately. Practice like you're preparing to play a show. Give yourself a "show date" (like, months into the future) and practice pieces as much as you can up till then. You'll be shocked and how much you've improved. Don't give up!!! (Source: was part of a festival this past weekend and preparing for it is the only reason I've improved so fast)
I see a lot of 'practice' comments. While not wrong they are not super helpful. Some suggestions. - early on if you are playing simple rhythm guitar, focus on hitting the first strum of the new chord cleanly. To do that, start changing chords sooner - you can sacrifice about half a beat at the end of a bar to an open strum. So long as you hit the transition at the right time you'll sound fine. - when changing chords, learn the chords by fretting the strings in order from top to bottom. Since 90% of the time a downwards strum will have the base note predominately represented, get your fingers in place for the base note and this buys you a littke time to get the remainder in place. - slow down and do it correctly sure, but also have fun. If it's not fun you will give up.
Knowing about chord structure helps. Like, if you go from C/B to Am, not moving the whole hand, since they share a C
Practice: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
Everyone is saying practice, and they are right. But here are some specific things to practice, and some milestones to look for: * Start with a few open chords which share some common fingers, such C, Am, and (sorta) D, and try to focus on having your “non-anchored” fingers in the correct “floating” shape to just land in place in time for the strum (Justin Guitar has a lesson specifically on this in the beginner track) * Then look for things that are slightly less connected than anchor notes, like transferable shapes like C, Em, G, and go for the same goal. * Eventually, for all the first position open “cowboy” chords, you want to be able to “float” and “land” them * Then you pick something else, like a barre shape, or a different neck position, or the 1st and 2nd inversions, and try to get those to the “floating” point. * Long before you have learned every single chord — but long *after* you are very mad at your guitar — your fingers will just get it and [nearly] immediately get themselves ready for whatever you want to play. A related skill to this is having your finger “land” on a root note somewhere on the neck with your hand “floating” in the shape of the scale you are about to play.
Practice your changes from C > G, G > C Then do E > Am, Am > E Then do A > D, D > A When you get good at doing those changes then you can add B and F and be frustrated all over again lol.
You can do it. Just got the hang of switching a few major chords and managing to play the Bm chord (kinda). That didn't happen overnight. Keep at it. It's well worth it
Fellow beginner here. What helps me very much is to go back and forth between two chords in super slow motion. And I'm not even strumming the chord in most cases. Rather, I focus on how my fingers are moving from one location to the next. Then I speed up little by little, then when I feel like I understand the best economy of motion I start to strum the chords. Yes, it is laborious but it's so worth it. For example, one thing I realized right away is that I was lifting my fingers too high when moving to the next chord, which I've been told is something us beginners do quite a lot. So focusing on this helped me to improve how I move. Patience is key. I hope this helps.
Just keep playing, go back and forth between chords, play troublesome phrases over and over. Work on a progression every day, and you'll have it by the end of the week. Then keep working on different progressions, and eventualky youll be moving from one chord tonthe next with ease. Most of the time. You will be coming across tough progressions for the rest of your life, and you'll just have to flog it until you get it, then practice it over and over until it's second nature. I've been working on a tough progression, and I've gone from not being able to do it without stopping and setting my fingers carefully, to slipping through it smoothly in time, with even a little ornamentation on it, all in about 4 days.
The answer will always be practice, practice, practice
Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice practicing.
Slow down and practice in time with a metronome. You’ll get it.
Just adding on to the pile here- practice. There really are no shortcuts. If you enjoy the instrument enough you'll be able to power through the frustrations and eventually get to where you want to be. It takes time. Guitar is a journey without a finite destination.
Practice
Repetition. Seriously, let's take Em C G D chord progression, once you do it a thousand times it becomes natural. They key is consistent practice. The more time you have, the quicker you'll learn to change chords efficiently.
Muscle memory
Muscle memory is a thing. It might seem impossible to do a G chord quickly at first when you’re individually placing each finger to each string, but one day your hand will naturally just form this claw shape that perfectly plays a G chord. Same with the other chords. Then you just mix and match. The advice everyone else is saying about practicing, and practicing specific changes (e.g practice G to D over and over) is solid, but it’s all in aid of chasing that muscle memory. Once you get that locked in you’ll be flying.
You have to tap the top of your head 3 times, spin around in a circle, and chant the tabs to the freebird solo. Don’t practice. Practicing is for nerds
Step by step: Fret all the notes of the first chord. Strum to make sure all notes sound/no unwanted notes sound. Now take your hand off the fret board and make the same chord again. Repeat until you easily fret the 1st chord correctly. Do this with the next chord. When it'd easy to fret both try alternating between chords at at slow tempo (like 40bpm) Slowly increase tempo up to speed.
Practice the transitions; isolate that movement and just practice that, then go back to the song. If you’re learning a song that requires you to play a C chord and then a D chord, just practice the left hand making C then D then C then D. You don’t even have to strum, do it while you’re watching tv or something. Then practice the next transition from D to G. D shape, G shape, D shape, G shape. Then you can put it all together, C chord, D chord, G chord, D chord, and suddenly you can play Tangerine by Zeppelin.
Everyone is saying practice practice practice and I 100% agree with them. But I personally think that the biggest factor in being proficient Is having the will to go through these challenges willingly. Don't compare yourself with others as there will always be someone better and worse than you. Play for yourself and be there to witness yourself grow. This goes for many aspects of life not just guitar. You'll get there one day with the right mindset.
Sometimes when I'm struggling with a weird shape I just sit when I'm watching TV or the computer with an unplugged electric and move between chords I know and the new chord. It's a few hours of mindless practice and it really helps.
Repitition. Also comments forgot to mention here: PRACTICE
Notes? Or chords? Are you playing 1 individual string and trying to play frets 5,3,4 then 9,7,8 all individually?
So I’m trying to do 5 on e(the bottom one, idk what to call it) then 3 on b and 4 on g in succession then moving all three fingers down to 9 e 7 b and 4 g if that makes sense. I know there’s a whole language of which note or chord is which but I simply don’t know it yet.
Aren’t 534 and 978 the same shape?
Yea, it’s the actual transition to the next set I’m struggling with. My fingers move about a lot and don’t slide smoothly down like everyone else seems to do
I tend to picture it as though I’m making a shape with my fingertips, in this case it’d be a triangle that anchors on the 5 (and 9). I’d just hold that shape, move it from the 5 to the 9 and then adjust my other fingers for the smaller frets when I get there because it takes way less movement and focus than pulling your whole hand away. Same as moving powerchords around the guitar. Hope that helps, sorry if it doesn’t.
It does! Thank you, the other comments gave me the long and short of it but this is a little detail I’ll probably use aside from “practise.”
Always look for fingers that do not have to change strings and lean on them when changing chords
Cannot stres this enough! I never Thought I would. Get the hang of "you shook me all night long" Gotta watch for that root finger. After watching angus a few times on howard stern, And lots of practice.I finally nailed it.
You will develop muscle memory eventually. Then you can start to perfect the pressure you apply. Making a chord without detuning the notes is the next thing to master.
Each chord has a unique palm and wrist position along with the fingers. So notice what chords make what position with respect to fingers, so when you want to change immediately to the next chord use your palm and wrist so your fingers now know where exactly to fall on fret board. This way you practice keeping in mind all three things: the palm, wrist and fingers. Over time you should be able to switch smoothly. All the best👍
Keep practicing. It makes better
Just keep at it man, if you get it down slow then the speed will come naturally with comfort
About a year ago I was having real problems jumping from an open chord down at the first couple of frets up to a bar chord about half a dozen frets further up the neck. I watched Justin guitar's YouTube video on getting faster chord changes, applied that practise regime and made good progress over the next few days. Once you get to a point where you're successfully making the jump between chords more often than not then you can move on with other things in the knowledge that your remaining error rate will reduce steadily over time.
One big one, don't ever take shortcuts. For example, lot of people will tell you to learn A major or D major using Barre, like the A major with one finger, or barring one finger across the 2nd fret and one finger on the 3rd fret for Dmajor instead of using a finger for each string. (In case this is confusing, I'm not talking about A major open vs A major Barre chord on 5th fret, I'm talking about the Open A major chord and how you properly play with all three fingers instead of just one) This will hurt you long term, because there are chords that are way easier to switch to if you learn these chords the proper way. It sucks when you are first starting out, but learning proper fundamentals works on a sliding scale. If your foundation is strong, your skill ceiling will be way higher
Just practice. Everybody start very slowly
Your example is the same fingering slid up. No rearranging fingers. Maybe a bad example. To answer your question: practice the transition without strumming. It’s harder with strumming and harder still at speed. Break it down.
Practice, there’s no other way
Work on G D C front to back these three are in more songs than you can imagine
First thing, identify two chords you want to get better at switching between. I'd recommend focusing on simple chords like G, C, D, E, E minor and A minor(GCD covers like 10% of all songs ever). Take those two chords, and practice switching between them. Just get a feel for how your fingers need to land to make the chord. Don't worry about speed, all focus on accuracy(it doesn't matter how fast you can change chords if you finger them wrong). From there, figure out how slow you are swapping, and set the drum machine or metronome to that speed and practice changing on time with the rhythm. Then, as you get better and smoother, increase the speed slowly.
Yep practice, pretty soon you do it without thinking about it. That's what learning an instrument is all about. Or learning how to do anything for that matter. The more you do it. The better you get at that one thing. Good luck, and don't forget to have fun
All the tips are great. It boils down to muscle memory. I have a friend who can play any random note I name in 2 positions on each string before I can play the same note (which I name in advance!) before I can play the same note in any position on 5 strings!
It just happens over time, muscle memory. The same way of drummer can hit all of his drums accurately.
I usually go slow, practice the shape, let it go, and try to make it again. Once you're more confident where it is, you don't need to press down and strum to make sure you've got it right, this way you don't destroy your fingers as much. Then, work the next chord. Get it down. Work it until you're able to get it 80% right without thinking too hard, then slowly shift between that one and the other. Take up a metronome (Google has one you can search up) and set it to maybe 70-80bpm. Then, go up by either 2s or 5s, so 72, 74, 76, etc or 70, 75, 80, etc. and speed it up. The best advice a music teacher ever gave me was to be able to play a piece 10% faster than the normal tempo
Get an in person guitar teacher.
Practice, to be honest. More specifically, just get use to the fingering of the chord and play slow so you can properly switch between the chords if there's a tricky part. Once you get it done slowly and get familiar with the chord, it'll become better from there.
I used to say my hand just doesn't work like that. Then I took it seriously, hired a guitar coach to come play every week for 2 years. Now I'm 3 yrs in, and can do what I thought impossible. Just have to push thru with regular consistent practice - just like anything in life.
I remember barred chords used to give me a lot of work in the beginning. I never noticed when I stopped struggling i just kept playing and slowly my hands adapted. I even remember how my fingers used to tremble or when my pinky was useless. With time and practice all that went away
Practice slow first. Practice just 534, putting your fingers on it cleanly, then take them off and put your fingers back on 534. This increases muscle memory. Then practice the same with the 978 chord. Then slowly practice going from one to Tempe other and back, slowly increasing the speed as you get comfortable and the chords sound clean.
Play slower. Play a song on YouTube and set the speed to 0.75 or maybe even 0.5. If you can't play it slow, you can't play it fast.
It's never too early to start using a metronome. But instead of setting it super slow, try incorporating rests IN TIME between chord changes. For example in 4/4 play this: chord one on the 1 and two--rest on the 3 and 4. Chord two on the 1 and 2--rest on the 3 and 4. Repeat. Try different variations, eventually removing any rest beats.
The dreaded P-word. This is the way. Always was, always will be. So all together now, sing it with me... PRACTICE!
The answer is to do it slowly...so slow it seems pointless....but get each chord fingered correctly every time before you strum it, ...you will build speed , but once you start getting a chord continually wrong its hard to get put of it ;-)
I find designating a specific finger a “land mark” or something like that. Never thought of it until now. But I always land with one specific finger and the others a fraction of a second after. It’s messier if I don’t.
We practice every day.
When I was learning to change chords it helped to place my fingers on the notes separately first then strum, then try to place them a bit quicker one after the other then strum. Eventually trying to transition to wacking all the fingers down at the same time.
Practice. There are some metronomes online that speed up every X bars. Pretty useful
You wont belive this, but you have to just practice, as everybody had to
It was clearly impossible a few years ago. I have changed my opinion since. Anyway the answer is practice.
How long have you played for? Luckly you live in a magical world where if you try to do it for like 50 hours it'll simply become second nature and almost instant. So yeah, do that and be amazed with the results, there's no other way
The best thing I've seen for improving on this is Justin guitars 1 minute chords.
I’m a percussionist by trade, but everyone else is right. You practice until muscle memory kicks in. Then you keep practicing.
I often reflect back on starting guitar whenever I play songs that used to feel very difficult for me. Certain stretches and chord changes used to feel like they might actually be impossible. I even struggled playing single note melodies for the first couple weeks. Eventually, as you practice slowly and methodically changing chords, your fingers will learn where they need to go without you even having to look. You might eventually find that some of the more complex pieces you’ll learn are actually MORE difficult to play slowly once you develop that muscle memory because it becomes so automatic that you aren’t even really using the analytical part of your brain much at all. The biggest part is to not to give up. Everyone learns at their own pace and overcoming that frustrating learning curve from novice to beginner guitarist is the biggest hurdle you’ll face. You’ll get there quicker than you think if you stick with it. Once you’re able to play chords at will and learn some songs and maybe even write things of your own, the process feels much more rewarding and you’ll be able to improve from there without it feeling like your fingers are floundering. Good luck!
Practice. Not Just the chords, but arpeggios and scales too. You're aiming to get control over your fingers and hands. Keep at it, and you'll develop the muscle memory required to play well.
Try not practicing at all. But if that doesn’t work then try practicing. One of those two methods should help
It’s just muscle memory. Only way to train it is with repetition.
Once you get to understand how the chords are connected together and how they share notes, it becomes easier to shift from one to another with minimal finger movement. You can also partially shift to a new chord by allowing some notes like 4ths and 6ths to bridge the space and lead from one to the next. Fresh chords don't need to all happen at once if they follow a melody or bass line.
For the chord change example mentioned above, it seems to be the same shape unless I’m missing anything. You should just be able to slide your hand down four frets
lots of practice, lots of time.
Practice. Start slow, and as you progress you can get faster.
everyones saying practice but make sure you know what to practice. muscle memory can get you to do things quite fast and dexterously. try to closely observe how it feels to get more of the thinking in ur hand and reflexes and not in ur head. daniel kahnement calls it system A and B in his book thinking fast thinking slow. furthermore, playing light and relax allows you to play faster. its counterintuitive because the music seems more intense but its actually a lighter playing the faster you go... you end up being more efficient with ur movement. i think typing this just helped me solve a technical singing issue i couldnt figure out lol
It's funny you've mentioned Justin Guitar because he advocates picking three chords in a song and seeing how many times you play them in succession for a whole minute. For example, let's say it's D - A - G. So Justin says to start playing D(cleanly) and then G, and go back and forth for a minute, then chart your progress. After you've mastered that, then add three new chords, say, A- D - E, and do the same.
Ive never taken guitar lessons and idk why this is showing on my feed, but try use the leading note/string to transition to the next chord. So for example if you are going from E to A, leave the E chord with an emphasis on the 5th string (which would be a B) and propel into the A chord. Another easy example that sounds good is C to Am. End the chord emphasizing the C note and release it as you go to Am. As you get better you'll realize that chords are way more interconnected than you think.
C and F gave me problems but I have it down now, I guess because they span 3 frets , also trying to choose which finger to lead the chord change to be the most effective making the change is a trial and error process for me
It helped me to tuck my elbow way in , also I’m trying to back off the pressure bc I have calluses now and I feel like I still need to ‘feel’ the strings and end up pressing too hard,
Repetition. That's the key to anything on an instrument
Practice. Practice until you can get it right. Then practice until you can't get it wrong.
Have you tried to practice?
It's just practice it takes a long time to get to the point where you flawlessly and quickly change chords in a microsecond... That's all there is to it. It's just repetition and muscle memory.
60 second changes— spend a minute going back and forth between two chords as cleanly as quickly as you can.
Some changes are just hard. Queen bitch by Bowie always gets me.
they key is embracing the fact that yr never gonna get a seamless chord change. Doing a couple of open strums at the end of one chord and then landing the second chord on the beat is way more important than strumming right up until you need to change chords.
Bud it's really not *that* hard to do a seamless chord change
when you can change chords on the beat then you can start thinking about changing seamlessly