Chord Changes Getting Me Down....HELP

[Athena's Dad]

Hi,
Everyone.....Please tell me there are some of you guys still having trouble with chord changes...after almost 1 year....I am 53 and still struggle on basic chord changes.....It seems that as soon as a change is happening.....it seems like i freeze and cant make the change.....please guys.......i need help...

[Ed-in-Ohio]

I'd suggest practicing just changes, without consideration of strumming pattern or rhythm. So, for song in G, you might try: one strum of G, then a strum of C, then a strum of D, then maybe back to C, then to G. Then change up the changes, so you get comfortable going immediately from one of the chords to another (again, no focus on rhythm or pattern).

This should help build the muscle memory of going to and from the chords you'll be using. Once you have that down, try a song in that key.

Hope this helps.

[Kyle76]

Just slow it down until you get it right, and then slowly build up to tempo. If you play along to recordings, a slow-down player can help tremendously. You can also loop short passages to practice the problem changes over and over. One year is just not that long. I've been playing five years and have problems with certain changes, like the song I am working on now, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Been working a few weeks now and still don't have it nailed. Try playing the two chords over and over to train your fingers to make the shape. Also, see if there's a common note between the two chords, so you can keep one finger down while moving the rest. Mostly, just keep practicing. Good luck!

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Athena's Dad

Hi,
Everyone.....Please tell me there are some of you guys still having trouble with chord changes...after almost 1 year....I am 53 and still struggle on basic chord changes.....It seems that as soon as a change is happening.....it seems like i freeze and cant make the change.....please guys.......i need help...

What do you mean as soon as it changes? Don't play along to something else. Keep yourself in charge as to when to time to the chord changes so that you can prepare. Do the easy ones first (e.g. E to Am to E to Am or Am to C to Am to C).

[Athena's Dad]

Thanks everyone.......I feel that my posture is good,my back is straight,my wrist and thumb position is all good.....I guess I need to really SLOW down...but it's funny...I can play Pink Floyd....Wish were here.......Petty...Free Fallin....And a couple more songs...but my chord changes are soooooo slowwwww...

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Athena's Dad

Hi,
Everyone.....Please tell me there are some of you guys still having trouble with chord changes...after almost 1 year....I am 53 and still struggle on basic chord changes.....It seems that as soon as a change is happening.....it seems like i freeze and cant make the change.....please guys.......i need help...

Chord changes are all about muscle memory in your fingers. If you're not making the changes smoothly, you simply haven't practiced them enough. Something I used to do when I was a young teen and still learning to make changes smoothly was to sit with the guitar while watching tv and just make changes quickly over and over. No strumming, just getting my fingers used to landing in the right places.

[johna2u]

I started playing when I was 12. I'm 60 now so chord changes are like breathing to me. But I remember when I was a kid ID always have my guitar in my lap when watching TV. I'd just run through all the chords I knew. Back forth and sideways. Over and over. Drove my sister crazy. What else are little brothers for.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

[Gitarre]

You make it sound like it's only your chord changes that are the difficulty and not making the chord. Like has been said previously, practice slowly switching between 2 chords. Use a metronome and start slowly, maybe 40bpm. Then 4 beats on first chord then change chord for the next 4 beats. If it's not working slow down. If you can do it increase speed or try changing every 2 beats, followed by every beat. There's a number of things to try to improve your changes.

[JonPR]

I agree with Ed-in-Ohio. You have to focus on precisely what is most difficult for you. Pick any pair of chords and just practice changing from one to the other. No rhythm, maybe not even any strumming - just getting those fingers moving back and forth from one shape to the other.
Obvbiously pick common pairs of chords first:
G - C - G...
E - A - E...
D - G - D...
C - F - C... (ow! )
Em - A - Em...
etc etc.

Obviously a strum on each one will tell you you're holding the strings properly, because of course you need to be sure your fretting is OK, as well as practising the moves themselves.
But this is a purely physical exercise, and that's how you need to treat it.
I teach adults and I know that starting at 52 is hard - it naturally takes you a lot longer to get smooth and fast, compared to how a teenager will do it. Your old hands are set in their ways, and you have to teach them new habits.
You CAN teach an old dog new tricks... you just have to be more patient, and bear in mind the occasional stiffness in the joints here and there...

[stanron]

Your chord changes will be slow if you move one finger at a time. Most people when they start playing get their chords down one finger at a time. The pressure on each finger placed helps to keep it in position while subsequent fingers go down.

It takes a higher level of skill to get all fingers in the correct position without touching the strings. However once you can do this your chord goes down in one movement. A C chord, one finger at a time, is three movements and will take three times as long.

It takes a beginner some time to develop the skills to play 'air chords' (chord shapes without touching strings). If you only do 'one finger at a time' you are not developing those skills.

Sometimes soon someone might come in advocating using one finger at a time as a solution to certain problems. This is true but it relates to a more advanced technique used in fingerpicking and selective flat picking.

All fingers down at once could be the third thing a student learns. The first thing could be chord one. When I taught it was the chord of E. The second thing could be the next chord. When I taught it was the chord A. Next would come all fingers down at once in order to do efficient chord changes.

[Riverwolf]

I did not think I would ever be able to go from open G to open C chords.
I would tense up when I knew it was coming up in a song.
I added a boring routine to my daily practice of 300 reps each of several different chord changes.
G - C, C - D, C - small F, G - small F. (and others later on...)
Talk about a boring time, I would do this while watching TV...
It took up a lot of time and was hard to judge progress in a non-song situation.
But I am one who needs more than the 15 min here or the 10 min there.
It worked or something worked and now it is a non-issue.
Don't give up and remember it is supposed to be fun.

[Ditch]

I would suggest really knowing the chords. Then select two at first and switch back and forth. When you own that add another then another. The ones that give you trouble pick those out and work on those. I would also set a timer for 5 minutes and just do the chord changes. Don't get up for a coffee or check the computer for a second. Work on those the whole time. As you get better you can try getting faster. Hang in there, you can do it !!

[Hotspur]

One thing that will help make your chord changes sound better:

Leave the old chord early.

If there's a song which has four beats of C followed by four beats of G, what a lot of beginners do is pay four beats of C, then try to change, which takes them a beat or two so they're not getting to G until the second or third beat of that measure, which sounds awful.

Instead, leave the C chord early. Play two beats of C, then change the chord with your left hand but don't strum until the first beat of the next measure. As you get better, you'll be able to hold the C for longer and longer before the end of the measure, but the thing is you can leave the C remarkably early and it still sounds pretty good - whereas if you arrive late at the G it sounds terrible.

You want the first strum of every chord to be confident and in time. Leave the old chord as early as you have to in order to make the happen.

[MrBJones]

How are you making each change? If you're lifting all fingers out of the old chord, before putting them back down in the new chord, it's going to be pretty tough to do it quickly all at once; eventually you'll be able to do that, but it might be a ways off. In the meantime, as an intermediate step, are you utilizing guide strings when making the changes? Are you looking for fingers/frets common to the two chords? The idea is to minimize the amount of finger-movement that takes place…and, where possible, leave at least one finger on the fretboard.

[JBCROTTY]

I'm just beginning as well and the chord changes slow me down a bit also. This is normal.

You have to break it down - there is no other way to do it. What I mean is for each song where the chord changes are problematic, I list out the chords on a piece of paper - just the chords and in the sequence they appear in the song - in a row or column.

Then I use a metronome (or metronome phone app) at a slow setting and I strum once per chord and make the change and strum the next chord once, then the next, and so on. You can start this without the metronome if you want - sometimes the metronome can induce anxiety. Either way, you should be able to use the metronome eventually to force the chord changes on a beat. You can speed it up as you get more comfortable. The metronome is CRITICAL to do this and improve - it will help you make the chord changes at the required tempo eventually. But don't use it until you have some confidence in your chord changes.

If there is a particular change that is more difficult than others, break it down even further - just change between two chords until you have it down. Then continue down the list.

Breaking it down is the ONLY way to get through this - you have to play the chords and make the changes as many times as necessary to start getting the muscle memory required. Pull the chords out of the song, break them down, focus on one-strum changes, speed it up as you get better, and keep doing that until you improve. And you WILL improve, but you need to do the repetitive work.