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Challenging slow chord changes
I’ve been here for 11 months, playing daily, you’d think I’d have it figured out by now. It’s not like these are new chords for me, we’ve been using them for months now. But I have a hard time transitioning chords, even when I know some chord transitions have an anchor finger–I have to pick up my whole hand and form the second chord, make sure my fingers are arched enough, and at the same time my palm isn’t so close as to mute the high E. And if it’s a weird chord like the mini-F, my index finger is laid over the two high strings and corked around to the side and still be able to reach the 3rd fret of the D without muting other strings. And I’m using a parlor guitar!
Some days are better, but it feels like one step forward two steps back and vice versa, so I end up not progressing. (Not entirely true, I am progressing in other areas.) Do I need to modify my technique, or my mindset?
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3 Replies
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Hi Barbara
What I do when i find an area of my playing i want to work on is to do a Youtube search. So “play perfect chords” or “make fast chord changes” find some exercises and practice. Justine has some lessons on these things and his stuff is always good. There is a huge difference between playing our guitar and practicing our guitar. This is why I like TAC so much, Tony forces us to practice a little each day and we get better a little each day. Find some chord changing exercises and practice one for 5 minutes each time you sit down to practice and you will get better.
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Paul–
I believe you have correctly hit on a big part of the process. The “5-minutes” part.
For me– 12, 5-minute mini-sessions on a particular topic- (in this case- chord transitions)- works, and is much more “remembered”, than, say, 1, 60-minute session.
But, also, those little 5-minute sessions have to be extremely focused on just one specific thing or action.
Anyway- everyone is different, so what I might say, may not work for you at all.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by the-old-coach.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by
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@BarbaraM, for me, the hands down absolute game changer for learning and changing chords was “Hovering” exercises. Make a nice chord shape on the fretboard while pressing down the strings. Now lift your fingers just off the chords and keep that shape for a few seconds. Start to increase the amount of time you can hover above the chord, It is hard, but eventually gets easier. You’ll be surprised how fast your fingers distort after removing them from the strings. This builds muscle memory, and forms the ability to have the shape already formed prior to fretting. So, when switching from G to C, you already have the C shape memorized and ready to go. I still do this when learning new strange chord shapes, especially barre chords. The anchoring thing never clicked with me, and doing the above helped me more than anything.
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