Open chord to barre chord changes

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by agfsteve

I actually find it quite a bit easier to fret the G on the low E string with my thumb.

Personally I never wrap the thumb. In this case it does seem quite a bit of hand movement that way going from a thumb wrap to a index finger barre.
However whatever way works for you.

[MC5C]

Never having played or particularly listened to this song, I grabbed a guitar and found the fretting the Gm6 with second for low G, third and pinky was extremely natural and easy. Made a very smooth transition to the Bm because the first finger was free and ready to reach for the barre. If you play the low G with your thumb, what fingers do you use for the other two strings? I just tried it, and found the transition of the thumb from over the neck to behind the neck to support the Bm barre chord extremely awkward, but I am playing on a 1 3/4" neck. Mind you I learned classical guitar first, and never play thumb over the top, except to damp the E string sometimes, so a bad example.

[jafranks]

Interesting thread as I think we all have had similar problems, although for some of us (not me), this may have been in the distant past .

JustinGuitar teaches what he calls "One Minute Changes". Using a timer set for one minute, see how many times you can make the required chord changes over and over again. Then do it again and try to beat your "score". Then repeat X 1000 until you are fast enough to do it in time with the song, then apply it to said song. Voila! It has worked for me dozens of times.

I think this method incorporates the idea of starting so slowly that you can't mess up, and working up to speed as quickly as you can. It's like the old adage of how one eats an elephant: "one bite at a time".

Hope this helps.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by jafranks

Interesting thread as I think we all have had similar problems, although for some of us (not me), this may have been in the distant past .

JustinGuitar teaches what he calls "One Minute Changes". Using a timer set for one minute, see how many times you can make the required chord changes over and over again. Then do it again and try to beat your "score". Then repeat X 1000 until you are fast enough to do it in time with the song, then apply it to said song. Voila! It has worked for me dozens of times.

I think this method incorporates the idea of starting so slowly that you can't mess up, and working up to speed as quickly as you can. It's like the old adage of how one eats an elephant: "one bite at a time".

Hope this helps.

Still there is the problem of starting slowly with the wrong fingering and perhaps technique and ingraining that in the memory. Most situations are pretty self evident fortunately,
but when not I like to in short order test out different fingerings, etc., at faster tempos to find what's most efficient.

[agfsteve]

Originally Posted by MC5C

Never having played or particularly listened to this song, I grabbed a guitar and found the fretting the Gm6 with second for low G, third and pinky was extremely natural and easy. Made a very smooth transition to the Bm because the first finger was free and ready to reach for the barre. If you play the low G with your thumb, what fingers do you use for the other two strings? I just tried it, and found the transition of the thumb from over the neck to behind the neck to support the Bm barre chord extremely awkward, but I am playing on a 1 3/4" neck. Mind you I learned classical guitar first, and never play thumb over the top, except to damp the E string sometimes, so a bad example.

I use middle and ring to play the other two strings, which leaves my pinky to bring in the G on the high E string, which I think sounds good on the second Gm6, also fretting the E on the D string with my index finger (otherwise I've turned it into a Gm, although that still sounds good to me).

That makes it easier for me to pick out the melody for "Now today I find, You have Changed your mind", which I play on the first two strings as D-C#-B-D-E-F#-E-D-F#-G, although I'm not sure that is exact, due to the harmony involved, but it sounds good to me.

I play that over an alternating bass of B-F# for both Bm, and G-G (Root-octave) for the first Gm6, and G-E (E on the D string) for the second Gm6, which I like for variation.

It's interesting, though, because when I started playing this piece (which I did just to partake in this AGF thread, out of curiosity), I simply flipped open the book and grabbed my strat, having left my acoustic in another room, and immediately slid my thumb over when it came to the low G. Then later, when I played it on my acoustic, I kept playing it like that. I wonder, if my acoustic had been close by when I first played the song, if I might have been more inclined to use my middle finger on the low G--after all, that is how I would play a regular open G.