One of the first hurdles for budding guitar players is being able to switch chords smoothly.
Use this technique I’m going to show you how to progressively change chords faster and smoother.
Hi I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar Success. Here's how the guitar chord switching game works.
We're going to start out by choosing two chords. Now I'd like to get the
most bang for bucks so I'm going to pick two chords that we switch between often.
We're going to use for this example, the D chord and the four finger G chord.
We switch often between these two chords and I know some people have a hard time getting from
one to the other. The game consists of three rounds and then one option round. I'll explain
that in a little bit. So we're going to start with the first round. Take a look at this diagram
and I'm going to explain it first. We'll go through an example. I'll show you how it works.
The idea is to strum the chord on the first beat and then you have three more beats to change. In
other words during the three beats you're going to be changing chords. You've got a fair amount
of time then we're going to strum on the first beat of the next measure. I'll show you what I
mean. I've got my metronome here and I'm going to start pretty slow, looks like 40 beats per minute.
Now I'm going to count four beats to start then when I come around to the one again that's where
I'll strum the D. I'll show you 1 2 3 4. Now here comes the D one and now I'm gonna change 2 3
4 and be ready on G for 1 2 3 4 - 1 2 I'm changing 3 4 - 1 2 3 4. Okay, I just did four measures.
Of course you're going to do this more than four measures. Practice is enough so you're confident
you can change at this slow tempo with that many beads to change because in the next round
we're going to pick things up a little bit. Before I go on to the next round, I'm going to give you a
little chance to practice. Get ready to count four beats and then strum the D chord 1 2 ready strum
switch,
switch, switch, switch.
So how did you do? Don't worry if you didn't get perfect. I mean what kind of game would this be if
everybody got it perfect the first time around. You can always go back and practice and if you
did get it perfect you probably need to up the temple a little bit to make it more challenging.
I'm going to move on to the next round so wherever you are, you can see how the whole thing goes.
Now we're going to do the exact same thing as you can see from the graphic. The only change is
now you're going to strum the D chord twice instead of once
but that means since there's only four beats you have less time to switch chords so I'll
give you an idea with the metronome again. Let me start. I'll count to 4. There we go 2
3 4 now on 1 I play the D 1 and then 2 3 4 where I change to G 1 2 3 4 and then change.
I should have started moving sooner but I was talking 4 that was better 1 2 and of
course you're going to keep going so you want to go back to the D but we'll stop there okay.
Hopefully at this point, you're seeing where this is going. We're basically shortening the amount of
time you have to switch chords and encouraging your mind to kind of start looking ahead
where you're going to go. I've got another little clip so you can practice along
with two strums and again just give it your best shot. Consider it a run-through
just to get kind of how this goes. You can always go back and practice later.
1 2 ready play switch,
switch, switch.
Okay we're going to go on to the third round. This time you're going to strum the chord three times
and you have one beat to change. I'll show you. Let's get that metronome again 2 3 4. Now 3 Ds 1 2
3 and then switch on 4 - 1 3 2 switch 4 - 1 3 2 switch and 1 2 3 and switch and so on.
So I'm going to give you another chance to practice this one and again just
give it a run through to kind of see how it goes and don't worry whether you get it perfect or not.
Ready, play.
Switch,
switch,
switch, switch.
So if you've come this far you've done great as a matter of fact for a lot of people this is enough.
We're gonna do the fourth round. I call this optional because if you're in the
early stages of switching chords the fourth round can be fairly challenging. One way to
handle this is to just do a number of transitions doing rounds 1 2 3 and then once you've got that
under your belt come back to round 4 and try to go back and tighten them up to round 4.
Round 4 gives you just like a half of a bead to change chords. You'll see one day it'll be
pretty easy. You naturally switch chords just a little before it's time to change
but for now it might be a bit of a challenge so whether or not you decide to do it now or later
I'm going to go ahead and demonstrate how it works and then give you a chance to practice.
My metronome 1 2 3 4. Watch this D one four times 1 2
3 4 and change 1 2 3 4 and change 1 2 3 4 and change. I'm changing on the half
beat of four and back to D and so on. Okay here's a clip that you can practice along with.
Ready, play.
Switch, switch,
switch, switch.
Thanks for joining me today. If you found this helpful,
download my Ebook The Seven Keys to Switching Chords Quickly Easily and Smoothly. It includes
a step-by-step written version of this exercise along with six other principles,
graphics and step-by-step exercises. This Ebook is the result of years of studying and teaching
people how to switch chords easily and smoothly. It really doesn't have to be that hard. Oh,
did I mention there's no charge? I just ask that you put it into practice and
spend some time with it. Click the link in the description. I'll ask for your name and email
and you'll have access to it immediately. Hope to see you again soon. Bye for now.