{"id":795,"date":"2014-05-24T10:19:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-24T17:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarshed.foureyes.com\/?p=795"},"modified":"2024-07-22T23:56:49","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T06:56:49","slug":"practicing-chords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/practicing-chords\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Practice Changing Chords on Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><\/h3>\n<p class=\"centerc\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IwoKHp4HeHE?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;autohide=1\" width=\"700\" height=\"393\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tips for quicker, smoother transitions between <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/chords\">common chords on guitar<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As a practice technique, begin the switch from one chord to another with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/overlapping-chords\/\">certain finger<\/a>. \u00a0Make sure that this finger takes the most direct path to the new note. \u00a0Do this with each finger used in the chords. \u00a0After a few practices of this, you will notice that your ability to switch naturally from one to the next will improve.<\/li>\n<li>Practice your chords in pairs (such as C and D, or G and Em, or whichever 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/slash-chords-inversions-guitar\/\">chords<\/a> you choose).<\/li>\n<li>Really notice the path that each finger makes on its way to the next note. \u00a0Make sure you are not making <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/low-fingers-classical-guitar-technique\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">movements<\/a> that are not needed.<\/li>\n<li>Practice like you are in the &#8220;Matrix&#8221;. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/slow-practice-classical-guitar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Slow down<\/a> to extreme slow-motion and create exactly the movements you would like to have happen at speed. \u00a0This is super powerful! \u00a0(and demanding)<\/li>\n<li>As you move onto more complex movements, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/make-bar-chords\/\">how to play bar chords<\/a>, remember that we always want our movements to be comfortable.<\/li>\n<li>Remember: Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast. \u00a0If you want fast, go first for smooth, by practicing slowly (this may seem counter-intuitive, but you will find that many things in learning guitar seem that way.) \u00a0Trust me&#8230;..(said the spider to fly&#8230;..)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\">Related:\u00a0<a title=\"Why (and How to) Learn Classical Guitar Chords\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/learn-guitar-chords\/\">Why (and How to) Learn Classical Guitar Chords<\/a><\/h6>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the transcript for the Practicing Chords video:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textarea\">\n<div class=\"textarea-wrapper\">\n<p>Hey there, Allen Mathews here. I\u2019ve got a little quick video for you, with a few tips on how to practice chords. Whenever we learn some new chords, be it our basic, I like to call them &#8220;cowboy chords&#8221;, c, g, d, e, a, a minor, all these types of chords, is an open positioning. I like to call them cowboy chords, it could be those, or it could be chords that come in your pieces, positions, things like that. Regardless of what they are, there are a few tips I\u2019ve got for you here. On ways that you can practice them, so you can just get the more into your hand. Because ideally, we can change chords very quickly, very easily, very smoothly. So we can butt them up, right next to each other, and make it really smooth in our playing. So one of the things is, let\u2019s just take a couple of basic chords. How about G and D. How about we just gonna start with G chord and the D chord. I like to play the G chord, with both the pinky and on the third fret right here. So you\u2019re playing the G and the D on the second string. So with the G chord, here we are.<\/p>\n<p>Now when we go into a D chord, we got a bunch a fingers to move. But the first thing that we can notice, is that one of the fingers stays the same, and that\u2019s the third finger. \u00a0So we can use that, as kind of a pivot, an anchor in there, and move around it, at least mentally. So instead of lifting up everything, and then putting it back down. Then we can leave the third finger on there, and then just move the other fingers around it. So that\u2019s the first step. Just look for a finger that stays on the same note, or at least on the same string. Sometime you\u2019ll find chords that is just one finger, just happens to slide somewhere. Instead of actually lifting and moving, to a whole different string. It can slide. So first and foremost, know that, if it\u2019s there. Now the second one is, if we wanna practice something, to play it really fast. One of the best things we can do, is actually slow it down and really look at the process, in slow motion time.\u00a0 My teacher calls it plank time. I forget who the guy in Phillip plank, but he basically look splitting at the big ban, and splitting into little pieces that were each like a zillion of a second long. So basically it\u2019s taking it in each little millisecond, look at it as its own little thing. So really slow it down and look.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So what we can look then is, we can look at each finger. So I can say, okay my second finger starts at the G, is way down here on the 6 string, third fret. And when it goes to a D, it\u2019s coming all the way over here, to the second fret on the first string. So this finger has this action going on. It\u2019s going from way over here on the 6<sup>th<\/sup> string to on the first string, second and fret. So just knowing that, the second finger goes from one extreme, to the other extreme. The third fret, the second fret, the 6<sup>th<\/sup> string, the first string. Then now we can just know that. So now what we\u2019re going to do, now that we know that, is we\u2019re going to practice change from G to D. But the second finger, is now the first finger that play, is on both of them. The 3 can stay do, or move, or you can do whatever you want to do with it. But the second finger has to be the first finger, to touch down before, the first finger, or the pinky or anything else. So here we go. We just gonna play the second finger first, and then go to the D chord, placing the second finger first.<\/p>\n<p>And then back to the G, leading with the second finger. This is tricky for some people, because we get used to playing in a certain order. Whenever I play this chord, I go in this order, 1, 2, 3, or whatever it is.\u00a0 So what this does, is changes the order that you\u2019re actually playing your fingers down. That teaches them to move independently, whenever you put it back into time. It all goes faster. It doesn\u2019t mean you have to do this way all the time. It\u2019s just a practice technique, to get everything faster. Then whenever you do go back, it will just move where it\u2019s going faster. So then we\u2019ll do it with the first finger. We would say okay, the first finger is going from the second fret on 5<sup>th<\/sup> string, 2 strings over to the second fret on the third string, and that\u2019s its motion. So it\u2019s basically skipping a string, staying on the same fret, and that\u2019s what that has to do. So now we change from G to D, leading with the first finger first. That and then go that. Now you\u2019re having to put your chords down, using the first finger as the first note that hits.\u00a0 \u00a0And you can do it with the first finger, which in this case happens to stay the same. So that\u2019s just a couple of techniques that you can do. You can do this with any chords, any combinations of chords. I do recommend that, when you\u2019re learning new chords, that you take it and just pair it up, with one other chord, and practice back and forth. This case we did G and D, back and forth.<\/p>\n<p>Then if you have a whole string of chords that you need to do. Say there\u2019s a song, rapid fires a succession of chords. Instead of practicing the whole thing, take just the first 2 chords, then the second and third chords. Then the third and fourth, and the fourth and fifth, and then put them together in little groups of 3. So really take it apart. Instead of just over, and over, playing chords back and forth, as fast as you can. Instead of just kind of beating it to death, in that way. Take a step back, look at the way that you\u2019re practicing, kind of analyze. Maybe there\u2019s some better way I can do, and then you\u2019re actually practicing. Practicing remember, is solving problems. If we\u2019re not solving problems in our practice, we\u2019re not making the most of our time. So if the problems are still there, at the end of our practice. We haven\u2019t actually gotten closer to them, to solving the problems, then we\u2019re not practicing efficiently. We could be making better us of our time. So just keep an eye on that in our practice, and ask yourself that question. Am I solving the problem? If I\u2019m not, then do something differently, cause whatever you\u2019re doing is not working. If your problems aren\u2019t solving, then you\u2019re not doing the right thing. You should take a step back, and do something different.\u00a0 Alright, that is chords. Practice them well, practice them slowly, and then speed them up. I hope you have a wonderful practice. Be well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Tips for quicker, smoother transitions between common chords on guitar: As a practice technique, begin the switch from one chord to another with a certain finger. \u00a0Make sure that this finger takes the most direct path to the new note. \u00a0Do this with each finger used in the chords. \u00a0After a few practices of this, you will notice that &#8230; <\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/practicing-chords\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,434],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technique","category-main-content-parent","tag-chords"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Change Chords More Quickly, with this Practice Method<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Use this guitar practice method to change chords faster. 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