how to master chaning chords on guitar in just a few hours of practice time

There are many things which prevent beginners from moving forward in their guitar playing however one of the most common has to be not being able to change chords quickly enough to keep up with songs. This can not only cause a massive amount of frustration but it also has the power to destroy your motivation and your self belief in your own ability to learn guitar successfully. Too many people get caught in this rut and often stay trapped for months or even years without making any real progress in their guitar playing. I refer to this as “Beginners Limbo” and one of the primary goals of Guitar in a Nutshell is to ensure you do not fall into this trap.

In order to overcome this difficulty we need to have a very specific plan of attack in place. By following these steps and keeping to a regular practice schedule there will be very little to stop you in your efforts to attain fluency in your chord changing.

The first thing to focus on is how to create Pressure. One of the principal reasons students fail to make progress is because they practice guitar in a lazy way and without any specific goal in mind. They do not put any pressure on themselves and as a consequence their rate of improvement is slowed or even nonexistent.

Let’s take a specific example and relate this technique to chord changing. As you know we have a basic set of 10 open chords which give us an excellent foundation for playing a great many songs. Currently you may be very good at changing only between certain pairs of those chords such as E minor to G or C to A minor. Ideally what we want to achieve the same level of fluency between all 10 chords.

A good way to begin is by selecting one chord, for example G, and make a list where you are paring that G chord with every other chord available. It would look like this…

G - C
G - Dm
G - Em
G - F
G - Am
G - Bm
G - D
G - A
G - E

There are number of things to notice about the list I have created above. Firstly, my focus is squarely upon a G chord and I am relating every other chord in the set to that specific G major chord. This is a good example of what I mean by having a clear focus when you practice guitar. In a future practice session you may choose to focus on any other chord and match it against all the others in the exact same fashion.

Now that I have my specific goal in mind it’s time to create some pressure. The best way to create pressure with chord changes is to use a metronome or the drum tracks provided in the Practice Module. Since we are only concerned with improving the speed at which we can change between our chords we are not going to worry about strumming and instead will only do a single down strum on each chord.

I would begin at the top of the list and at a very slow tempo. What I am concentrating on here is to achieve a smooth transition between the chords and to also ensure that I am using any connector/s available to me. After a few minutes of practice at this tempo I would increase the tempo and repeat the exercise once more. The idea is to continue increasing the tempo until you find the one which starts to put you under pressure between that particular chord change. The pressure is being generated by the fact that you must get to the next chord in time with the click or the drum track and never fall behind.

Too much pressure is going to make things impossible and be counter-productive. Instead we want to find the sweet spot where there is just enough pressure to make it challenging but not impossible. It’s by finding and practicing in this sweet spot that your rate of improvement will skyrocket to levels you have never before been able to achieve.

So to review once more, firstly we were very specific in what we wanted to practice and secondly, we located the sweet spot of pressure where are practicing would be truly effective. This is one of the key secrets to finally breaking through the barrier which has been holding back your ability to change quickly between guitar chords.

It’s fine to work with a metronome however it’s generally more fun and easier to work with drum tracks such as you’ll find in the practice module. They give you more feedback and rhythmic references as well as being more indicative of what you find when playing proper songs. Try not to get locked into any one tempo or exercise for too long, the idea is to keep things fresh and to avoid any feeling of stagnation. If you become bored or things appear monotonous your brain will switch off and your rate of improvement will drop.

Just as we must be creative musically it is also a great idea to be creative when you practice - guitar lessons should never be boring..

Another variation on this exercise is to create a lucky dip. This is where you could write out all 10 chords on separate flash cards and randomly select 2 cards at a time giving you two chords to practice between. You can continue to do this exercise for as long as you wish however normally a timeframe of 15 to 20 minutes is more than sufficient for most beginners to make great progress.

Often there is a tendency to practice what you can already do well. Try to avoid this common mistake and choose instead to focus your attention upon the areas which are causing the difficulty. It’s only when you overcome these areas or at least make some improvement in them that you will notice a real and measurable difference in your guitar playing.

As you continue this practice exercise make sure you are keeping an accurate record of the speeds you are able to achieve between all the various pairs of chords. That way, the next time you repeat the process you will not have to search to find your pressure sweet spot but rather can go directly to it and save valuable practice time. You’ll also be able to see and measure how your speeds are increasing as the days go by as you continue to update your records. This will not only encourage you to continue but will also prove to you that you are making good progress.

Sometimes there can be particular pairs of guitar chords which are stubborn and hard to improve. Please note that this is normal for most players and that with time these chord changes will seem just as easy as the ones you can already do now. Continue to put pressure on those particular chords and you will see improvement.

You can expect to go through various stages of success and challenge when you are practicing guitar or trying to learn anything new. This is normal for everyone and is by no means an indication of talent or aptitude for playing guitar. The most important thing is to stick to this practice system where your focus is super specific and you are always trying to find that sweet spot of pressure where things are challenging you but not so difficult as to make it impossible.

The ‘pressure sweet spot’ feeling is like this… you have a tempo set up and are able to get to the chord change when you are fully concentrated and pushing yourself even if you can only sustain that level for 1 to 2 minutes. In other words, you are succeeding in being able to change between those selected chords but it is requiring your total attention and a lots of effort. That is how you know when you have really found the correct level of pressure to practice at.

When you compare that approach to someone else who is giving themselves all the time in the world to change between their guitar chords it’s immediately obvious who is going to make the better progress as the weeks go by.

History and evolution has proved to us that humans respond to necessity and this is what we are creating by using drum tracks - the necessity to be able to get to the chords in time.

Remember that getting good on guitar is never about talent when we are at a beginner’s or improvers level, the game is all about consistency and having an effective system in place which will ensure your practice time is not wasted but rather well spent.

Try to not become emotionally attached to your practicing. It is very easy to become discouraged or depressed when you feel your practicing is at a standstill and that you’re not making any progress. The best advice is to simply trust that the system will work, to do your practice and forget about it. Don’t put any emotional energy into it! Don’t give it the power to depress you.

Do it and forget, regardless of your results.

Remember that learning guitar is a long-term commitment and that we must all earn the right to be able to express ourselves musically on any instrument. If it were so easy it would not be special and everyone walking around would be able to do it.

The final point is to know that sometimes taking a break is better than continuing to practice. Learning new things is hard work for the mind especially when you are dealing with mechanical issues such as trying to control your fingers and hands. There are times when your mind will need a brief holiday from all of you practicing in order to properly process everything you have been doing.

So to summarize..

1. Have a very clear focus on the chord or pairs of chords you wish to improve
2. Use drum tracks to search for the sweet spot of pressure where your practicing is really going to be super effective
3. Do not over-practice, 15 to 20 minutes per day is enough for this particular exercise
4. When you add up those minutes over the course of a few weeks you’ll find that those collective hours will have improved your ability to change chords substantially and sometimes even beyond all recognition!

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