Hi how you doin'? Justin here. Welcome to IM 132,
which is the One Minute Changes for foundation Three.
In this series of chord changes,
we're gonna be timing ourselves for a minute,
trying to do the chord changes as fast as we can
between the E Major and Minor barre chord shapes,
and the A shape Major chords.
Now I know you've only just learned the A shape Major chords,
and I know they're going to be a bit tricky,
but that's kinda' part of the point here,
to get you brain used to working
and getting that new chord shape under your fingers as quick as you can.
We're not aiming for perfection here, of course,
so if the B string is not quite ringing out perfectly
then you can kind of live with it for a little while.
But hopefully, your continuous practice of your strum, pick out, and strum
on the individual chords will kind of counteract with this
and then, at the end of foundation three,
you'll be able to jump to the chord quickly
and get whole of the notes ringing out. That's the idea.
So don't let it be too sloppy, but don't be too fussy about it either,
that's really important.
Now the other thing, when you're using this A shape barre chord,
you'll find that the barre slips back a bit.
Now I'm gonna go to a close-up and just give you a couple of looks at it
so you can see the way that your hand kind of re-positions itself
when you're changing between barre chords.
Lets do that now.
The first chord change we're looking at
is an A chord using an E shape, changing to a D chord using an A shape.
Now there's a couple of things here that I just want you to see and be aware of.
The first is the first finger.
Now, you can see that the first finger is changing from covering all strings
and being quite close to the barre, all the way along,
to the D chord, where it's kind of angling out a little bit.
It's because it's not functioning as a barre anymore.
It doesn't need to be right along next to the barre all the time,
cause it's only hitting that one note, remember.
The third finger is covering that little barre and the thinnest string is muted.
Now if you do that, what you'll find is that your thumb can stay in more or less the same place,
and you can see now if you watch the bottom of my hand,
my hand is kind of swinging, a bit like that.
It's kind of pivoting if you like.
There's the E, there's the D.
And if you get used to that,
you'll find that you can do the chord changes very quickly.
And that's this little pivot movement that gets you from one to the other.
You'll also notice here that the third finger is going from there,
and it's just kind of little finger gets out of the way,
third finger slides across,
and then it's already in place.
Sometimes it's got a bit of an angle on it as well,
because of the way our hand is moving
there's a slight angle of the third finger.
Don't make it too much, that would be bad,
cause it still has to be the closer to the fret on the second string,
the more likely you'll gonna have to get a good note out of it.
So it should be kind of square, you know.
But it can be a little bit angled,
in order to facilitate getting a nice fast chord change.
. . .
The other two fingers, of course, are just coming off.
So they're there, then we don't need of them, they're just sort of hanging around,
you know,where ever they fill comfortable.
Don't try to tuck them away like this, that would be really bad.
So just be cool with that change, trying to get the swing.
Of course remembering first finger as well is muting the 6th string here.
So when it goes back onto the 6th string,
you have to relax it enough,
that it kind of glides back over to cover the 6th string.
And then as it comes down for the D,
it's kind of angling around and slipping off the thicker string,
and then it's just pressing the top of it to keep the thicker string muted.
The next chord change that I've recommended is F# to C#.
F# of course is in the E shape, and C# is in the A shape.
Now the trick here with this one is getting the jump.
And I always think of leading here with my third finger.
So when I'm on here,
I'm already thinking where my third finger will go,
and I'm hoping my first finger is going to follow.
Rather than trying to lead with the barre.
A lot of you have probably got into the habit of looking where the barre will go,
and then putting the shape down.
Which is generally fine, but remember the barre now is with the third finger.
So I find it helpful to look at the third finger,
where the third finger's gonna lead.
Again, remembering that the barre of course is going from that straight shape
to allow to have that bit of an angle there,
now that you can see with the first finger, that's OK.
. . .
Third on the list, we've got the chord B to D#.
. . .
This is an interesting one
because you'll find that your thumb has to jump backwards.
And it's always more difficult to jump backwards with your thumb.
So be aware of what your thumb is doing there.
It's a little bit like the barre chord movement that we talked about earlier on,
when we're playing the chord relaxed, shifting,
and then with that chords changing then pressing again.
So, most of the fingers are not really coming off the strings
It's not like when we're doing changes to open chords
where they all come off and then reform the new chord shape.
We're kind of trying to keep them in contact with the strings as much as we can.
It'll help you keep your finger movement to a minimum as well, if you're doing that.
And it'll also help you keep the strings muted.
. . .
It's that kind of being able to move them still without getting to many open strings ringing out.
The third chord change we're looking at is G minor to C.
Nothing particularly difficult about that,
it's just keeping the second finger out of the way.
Nothing really too difficult there, if you can do G to C,
then G minor to C shouldn't be more difficult
other than the fact that with the G minor
you're gonna have to have that little bit of extra pressure on the barre.
And the last one of the series, we have here an Ab minor to an E,
which is a lot further up the neck. It's quite an odd change.
. . .
It's just a big jump really, this one.
. . .
So again, think here about leading with the third finger when you're making the change.
Think here the barre, making sure it's going on upside.
So from the A, as we're moving backwards,
we're thinking of getting that first finger on the side, nicely positioned.
Trying to keep the first finger at least in contact with the strings all the time.
Actually just think of it, looking at it now,
it seems my third finger is staying in contact with all of the strings as well.
So, you can try that if you like.
I wouldn't be too convinced that's exactly the method everyone should do.
But just exactly what I'm doing now is a really good thing to be doing
before you start pressurizing yourself with officially one minute changes.
Just trying to get the chord change moving it
you know, watching how your hand's moving,
really a good idea.
Well, there you have your one minute changes for foundation three.
Please remember that, if you find any particularly easy,
to drop them and exchange them for ones that you find really hard,
cause you should always be now practicing the things you find the hardest.
Always practice what you can't do, don't practice what you can.
Get your timer out, work on them as quickly as you can.
Remember, as I said before,
be fussy, but not too fussy about the quality of the chord,
cause you've got your chord practice, that you should be doing separately,
which will work with this to give you, hopefully, a fast good chord change by the end of it.
Have fun with that.
I'll see you for another lesson sometime very soon.
Take care. Bye bye.
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