Quote:
Originally Posted by raduray
Learning ADE and GCD chords. How many clean changes per minute should I aspire to before I move along?
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There is no clear-cut answer. I agree with what others have already said: You need to be able to switch fast enough (or slow enough) to make whatever you play sound like music. That's the important part, not some arbitrary "switches per minute" number. I wouldn't be so focused on speed. Accuracy and clean tone are much more important. Much of it depends on the type of music you play. If you wanted to play bluegrass, for example, you'd have to be able to switch very fast between those chords, depending on the song, and even more importantly, you'd have to be able to hit a clean-sounding bass note of each chord exactly on the beat. So, let's say you wanted to play a fiddle tune like Whiskey Before Breakfast at a decent clip, you should be able to make a clean switch between each chord about every second.
If on the other hand, you wanted to strum along to a slow ballad, you could take more time and the switches wouldn't have to be nearly as quick and clean.
In my opinion, it would be silly to spend the time you'll need until you're able to switch chords fast and cleanly before moving on to everything else, because you'd be doing nothing but chord-switching for months, possibly years.
Rather than focusing on some arbitrary switching speed, my advice would be to focus on playing music. You will develop speed and accuracy on your own, but it will take time, so you have to be patient.
If someone had told me when I started learning to play guitar that someday, I'd be able to hang with any bluegrass jam, regardless of how fast the tune is, and play the rhythm chords along, I would have replied, "yeah, right, no way!" I never focused on that aspect and instead focused on learning songs and making music. Naturally, the songs I gravitated to in the beginning were slower songs, but gradually I found myself playing faster and faster songs, and now I really enjoy "rippin'" a tune. But that happens gradually, over a long time, and is more a by-product of just playing music as much as you possibly can, rather than making it a defined goal with some arbitrary metrics like chord switches per minute.
Hope that makes a little bit of sense.