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@leftyruss that’s an awesome group of chords to work from!! They are all in the key of G-Major after all!! (The G-Major chords are G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em and Fdim) but hardly anyone plays diminished chords, haha!
Besides the obvious answer (practice), I’d say the best way to obtain smooth chord transitions is to look at the chord diagrams for each chord and see if any of them have strings/frets in common with each other. Like the C Major and the A minor. For the C-Major chord, most people use ring finger to fret the 5th string 3rd fret, middle finger to fret the 4th string 2nd fret, and index finger to fret the 2nd string 1st fret. Switching from C Major to A minor, you can just leave your index and middle finger as those are the same for the A minor chord. All you need to do is pick up your middle finger off the 5th string and place it on the 3rd string 2nd fret. Give that a try and go back and forth from C to Am.
Always look at where you are coming from compared to where you are going next. Any notes/strings/frets that are the same are called “anchor notes” and you can leave your fingers fretted, using them as spatial reference points to move the other fingers that do need to change. A classic example of this is in the key of G, if you make your G-chord like Tony, the bluegrass way (with your ring finger on the 2nd string 3rd fret), this can become your anchor note for all 3 of the major chords.
Gmajor:
Pinky 1st string 3rd fret
Ring 2nd string 3rd fret
Index 5th string 2nd fret
Middle 6th string 3rd fret
Practice making this G-chord with good tone, then after you strum, leave your ring finger where it is but practice just lifting the other 3 fingers and then re-fretting the entire G-chord. Keep doing these “take-offs and landings” within the same chord until you can do it with your eyes closed.
G to Dmajor:
Start with the Gmajor chord above. To change easily to a Dmajor:
Leave Ring finger on 2nd string 3rd fret (This is your anchor note)
Pick up the other 3 fingers from their G-Positions and place
Middle finger on 1st string 2nd fret
Index finger on 3rd string 2nd fret
Practice holding your ring finger down while switching back and forth between Gmajor and Dmajor.
G to Cmajor:
Start with the Gmajor chord above. To change easily to a Cmajor:
Leave ring finger on the 2nd string 3rd fret (This is still your anchor note)
Pick up middle and index fingers from their G-Positions and move
Middle finger to 5th string 3rd fret
Index finger to 4th string 2nd fret.
Technically this is a C-add9 chord but it should sound OK wherever a C-major chord is called for.
Give this a try and see if it works for you. Just keep your ring finger down as your anchor note and switch around from G to C to G to D to C to G etc….
Also Tony has a bunch of lessons on chord transitions over in the menus on the left side of the home screen 🙂
Best wishes, Carol