How to Get Faster at Changing Guitar Chords Video Lecture - The Ultimate

it doesn't matter who you are when
you're first starting out changing
guitar chords sucks when I was a
beginner there was one guy I knew who
kind of played guitar and he'd play
stuff like I was amazed how fast he
could switch hand positions and play
different chords I thought he was wizard
now with the luxury of hindsight I not
know that he wasn't a wizard but
actually just kind of scumbag who would
always hit on your girlfriend when
you're not around but that's besides the
point what I'm here to talk about today
is how to take some shortcuts to get
better at changing guitar chords to a
certain extent it is all about just
practicing in time but there are a few
different things you can think about to
kind of cut off some of the learning
curve so the main thing I think that
helped me a lot was thinking about
having a lead finger no matter what
chord you're using so and this could be
from beginner chords to more
intermediate advanced chords to like for
example if you have a C chord and you go
into a G chord I think it's easier to do
the root the root of the chord first so
what I mean by that is in the C chord
the root note the first note that you
play is your ring right now in a G chord
the root note is your middle here so it
seems to work a lot better mentally if
you just take one finger and move it and
then have your hand kind of collapse
around it so you lead with your ring
finger to make a C and then lead with
your middle finger do that if you try
kind of moving all your fingers at the
same time it can be confusing and this
isn't just for beginner chords it can be
anything like if you're going to like a
looking G major chord down to like a
half sharp minor 7 flat 5 chord or
something like that you just think of
your root chord here and then getting
here first and then having your for the
form of your hand and a follow up that's
always going to be a better way to train
the muscle memory in your hand and it's
a good way to get you a chord from any
situation so for example like an a minor
chord
to a C chord now the most efficient way
to do that would be to just take your
ring finger and pop it down to the group
all right and just go hey minor to C but
if you're just going back and forth like
that the whole time you're really just
training yourself to get to a C from an
a minor even though it seems less
efficient if you go from an a minor and
come off and reform for now you're
actually practicing a C chord and you
can still go root chord from anything
you can go from a nap to a C - Ajit
and that muscle memory of getting into a
C position or any chord position is
going to be really really helpful so
that's just one way to kind of always
think about think of the root chord
first no matter where it is even if it's
an a minor in the end the root is an
opening string think of your middle
finger first getting to 2 D and then
have the rest of your hand form around
it and I even in again more intermediate
chords like something like the courts
here like C sharp minor 6 to c6 to be 13
to a major 7 whatever if you just think
of middle finger 9 middle finger 8 index
7 index 5 it's easier to form those
other shapes after you hit the root and
that kind of playing is really prevalent
in different types of music you know
now another thing you can do to speed up
chord development is to forget about
traditional voicings what I mean by that
is when you first learn you'll see a G
chord
and it'll give you maybe like a chord
box and it says put your middle finger
your second finger on the third fret of
the E string and then your second finger
that on the second fret of the a string
and maybe your third finger on the third
fret of e that's great and that's a
great way to learn especially if it's
like the first time you're playing it
but this is just a G chord it's not V G
chord there's a million different ways
to play a G chord and sometimes this
won't be the most efficient for example
if I'm playing like a minor to add to a
C to a G that's kind of a really quick
movement depending on how fast the tempo
of the song is so what I might want to
do is go a minor to half just C and play
a G like that just by like moving a C up
a string and dropping I think you know
it might be more uncomfortable at first
but as you get better these little
efficiency tricks will help you kind of
move along and do things faster another
way that you can actually get better at
the speed at which you change is to just
really fake it until you make it now
what I mean by that is in any between
any two chords is always a transitional
period no matter how small or how long
that is like for example let's take
let's take G to be minor
something like that lets go like 1 2 3 4
now in between those beats
there's a small amount of time or maybe
it's a longer amount of time depending
what temper you're doing that allows my
hand to get from here to here now what
you don't want to do is make the tempo
of the song you're playing dependent on
how fast you can change your chord again
what I mean by that is if the fastest I
can change the chord is from GE to me
really fast like that and that's kind of
your practicing that'll show up when
you're playing and you'll play something
even at a slower tempo like G
and then it'll be rushed what you wanted
you to create good timing is to just
really keep your right hand going and
think of your right hand as a deadline
for your left hand or if you're
left-handed you think of your strumming
hand as a deadline for your fretting
hand to me so again if I have four
counts on G one two three four and then
B minor something like that I want to
give myself as much time as I can to get
to that B minor but I don't want to stop
my right hand never stop your right hand
just don't stop just make yourself keep
doing it if it takes you a while to get
to the B minor so be it just playing in
time and you're developing better
practice routines so like one two three
four even if I can't get to that B minor
till the third beat it doesn't matter it
doesn't sound so bad if the strings are
like an open set of strings or being in
fact you'll notice that like if you
listen to different acoustic guitar
songs especially the last beat between
cores might be completely open and
actually has a cool effect it's odd to
take a couple chords like G
so sister G B minor a minor C
progression and you'll notice between
every chord I do there's going to be a
moment or almost a whole beat where I'm
just completely offs all exaggerated
van-like
and is jumping off the strings like that
is buying my threading hand to make that
chord shape kind of on top of where I
want to put it down it sounds a lot
better than just waiting your right hand
waiting for your fretting hand like
that's kind of really a disc enjoyment
way of playing and it might sound like
that right now but really try to force
yourself to keep a steady beat with your
right hand and then just
as long as it takes you to make those
chords as fine as long as you're playing
in time
it's really just kind of use these tips
again it's hard to really make a lot of
shortcuts other than just practicing it
but if you really thoughtfully try to
move your fingers around you'll develop
better muscle memory your fingers are
going to kind of come along faster and
you're going to go a lot better records