Hi, how ya doing, Justin here!
Welcome to IM-122, which is One Minute Changes.
We're going to be focusing on open chords
to E-shape major and minor bar chords.
Now hopefully most of you remember back to the beginner's course
doing a little thing called Air Changes,
where you learnt to form the shape of the chord in the air before you put it down.
Now that's one of the best ways of changing
between your open chords and your bar chords.
It's a little bit tricky and I know many of you,
when you get to your bar chords,
are going to want to either put down the bar chord first, then the shape
or the shape and then the bar. They're both cool.
To be honest most people that start with the shape and then put the bar down
afterwards kind of change as they develop and they practice
and they end up putting the bar chord down first.
But really, what you should be doing
is putting the whole grip down at the same time.
Now, it's tricky,
but learning it now really gets your fingers into the habit of forming,
particularly the first finger kind of rolling onto its side.
Because that kind of happens in the air
so when you put it down it's no so much that you put it on flat
and then roll it backwards,
which is kind of how I'm teaching you and encouraging you to do it.
it's a great way to learn to do it, to get the position right.
But, as soon as you've got the position right,
you want to learn to just put it down that way
with that bar on the side already.
So what I've picked is five really common chord changes
between an open chord shape and a bar chord shape.
And we're going to go through those
just like we did in the beginner's course with the one minute changes
where you're going to set your countdown timer for one minute
and you're going to do as many of those particular chord changes as you can
for that one minute and write into your little practice schedule
how many changes you've done.
It's a really super duper way
and any of you guys that are just jumping into the Intermediate Course
and haven't gone to look at the Beginner's Course before,
it's a really, really effective way of developing your chord changes.
It's not just a beginner's technique,
it's something that you can use at the highest level
when you're learning new chords.
Going from the chords you know to a new chord
as fast as you can for a minute really trains the fingers up good.
So, let's get to a close-up
and check out exactly what I mean by these air changes,
for those of you that don't remember,
and I'll try and give you a couple hints on getting that first finger rolled back to.
So let's get to a close up.
The first change on our one minute changes sheet for this foundation two is between
an A open chord and a G bar chord.
Now I know that you can play G open and you can play A to G like that
but as an exercise, it's a great one to be doing A like this and then jumping over
Can you see that when I'm doing that,
it's not like I'm going to put that bar on, rolling back,
and then put the chord shape down.
It's jumping straight from A to the G.
It's there already, it's happening in the air.
Weeeeeeeeeee!
And then down.
And the same with the A, it's form the chord,
there we are, we haven't put it down. Now it's down.
It's really important to try and develop this skill
where they're kind of getting to their positions in the air.
It's pretty funny to do it slowly
because it's almost like I'm trying to force them but they do it by themselves.
I just can't concentrate on it, you'll probably find the same thing.
Don't concentrate too much on how the fingers are moving.
But what's the trick here really, when you're first learning to do this ?
This is to bring them up and then point them all out and then try to form the chord
so you kind of get a little thing in the middle where you're completely releasing the shape.
That's a good way to start with it but as soon as you're through it,
try and get them so they just form the shape. Now, the bar, which is the big part here :
Now, as I've explained to you earlier,
you're going to put the bar down straight, and then roll onto the side,
and then put the shape down.
But what you should find is that, if you've been practicing it enough,
you can kind of put that shape down sideways so when you start doing these
look at it in the air before you put the chord down
and make sure that the first finger is not square on, flat like that.
When you're looking down in it, when you're seeing it
you'll see a little kind of angle going backwards across the neck.
That's what you're looking for.
When it's in the air like that, now I'm checking it's got the angle,
then I'm putting the whole chord shape down all at the same time.
It's there, it's hovering, and then press it down.
So that's the first change, A to G. Really good one to do.
You'll notice here too, something else interesting :
Do you see the thumb there?
The thumb's hanging around on the top and then look,
it has to disappear for the G chord.
So what the thumb is doing here is muting the thickest string.
It's kind of a little bit more of an advanced technique but it's something to be aware of
as you develop your guitar playing for both the D chord and A chord,
the thumb might want to hang over and just touch ever so slightly.
But what it does mean is that when you change to your bar chord
that the thumb has to shift around the back
and then it's going to come back over again and shift around the back.
That's part of the skill set that you're going to be learning here.
Now the next chord, D chord,
definitely it's a nice idea to have the thumb there muting the thick E string.
Just because it's the note E
and E on the D chord doesn't really sound very good
so we definitely don't want that one ringing out
so thumb can just touch it on the top there.
It is literally just touching it. If you're not use to this technique,
it only takes the slightest touch to get that note muted.
So we're going D and then we're going to F# minor.
It's a really nice common chord change.
Again, forming it, getting the bar at the side, putting the shape down.
If you have to stretch the fingers out in between to help them kind of reset
and as soon as you're through that start to look at the path
that they're going to take to get between each of the chords.
Next up, we've got a interesting one, C to Ab.
Now, with C, again make sure you've got your fingers at a nice angle
and that they're not like this. if they're too square on the frets,
you'll find that you'll be stretching between the 2nd and 3rd fingers.
So just as a bit of a revision, make sure the fingers are round like that.
When I'm looking at a C chord, I'm kind of looking down my fingers.
My eye line is looking straight down my fingers.
If I can see the whole of my finger like a little arch,
then I know that they're not in the right place.
So, fingers at a nice angle there for the C chord and now we're going to an A flat chord.
Which is an interesting one
because now we've got our fingers in a completely different shape,
we've got to slide them up and there's the chord, put them down.
It's just practice.
And you're just trying to get
See the shape is already there and then you're putting it down.
Doing it really slowly and really just thinking
about trying to get it in a nice shape before you put it down.
That's the aim here, that's what you're looking for.
And we've got G to G flat.
G, I don't mind really, you can do the 2 finger G,
you can even do the folk G if you want without you're first finger.
It doesn't really matter,
pick one and practice doing that chord and then to G flat major.
G
G flat major.
Now can you see how the shape, there it is?
That's it, the chord shape is there.
You can't see it but that's like an inch off the neck.
Trying to get that chord shape formed in the air before we get there.
Lastly, we've got E to F sharp minor.
Very, very common chord sequence this one. And it's just forming the chord.
There's the chord again. We're just working the chord.
From one shape to the next.
And back again. Trying to form. There's the chord shape.
You should be all right with the open chords already, right?
You've done air changes,
you're used to putting the grip down all at once
so now it's really concentrating.
There we go, look! 3rd and 4th finger are kind of locked together there.
They're ready, they're in preparation for that chord change.
That's the trick.
Well, that's the one-minute changes for the foundation two practice routine.
It's really, really important that you get used to forming these bar chords in the air
before you put them down. Unless you get that skill right,
you will never get your chord changes between open chords and bar chords
or bar chords and other bar chords smooth and comfortable.
They'll always feel a bit jerky,
it'll always be putting the bar down, rolling it back, putting the shape down.
It's really difficult to get the changes fast enough
to put them into a song if you're doing it that way.
So really try and focus now on this,
shifting the shape in the air between the chord changes.
It's quite a big deal, really important. Not that difficult.
It's just practice. Like everything else on the instrument, it's just practice.
You'll be cool. Practice hard and I'll see you for another lesson some time really soon.
Bye bye!