Congratulations. You're about to embark on a new challenge! Before you do ​anything I would like you to have your CAMERA ready to film your very first exercise for the very first time. Watch exercise #1 and then film yourself doing levels 1, 2 and 3.

Then make sure to learn as many of the actual chord shapes as possible making sure that they sound clean. If you are already familiar with all of these chords then maybe figure out for yourself which chords you find the hardest to change between.

Goal: To be able to better control the fingers of your left hand and practise/learn all basic chord shapes.

Practice both exercises as much as you can for 1 week and then film yourself again after 7 days.

Let's work on your left-hand positioning. Most issues with holding and changing chords come from not keeping your left hand in an optimal position. The goal is to stabilise your hand and let the fingers do most of the work.

​Watch exercise 3 and then change between all the basic chords nice and slowly but making sure to keep your left hand connected to the guitar as described.

Goal: to play all of the chords in the list cleanly and precisely.

Practice this as much as you can for 1 week and then film yourself again after 7 days.

What is a PIVOT POINT?

When you can move from one chord to the next by keeping one (or more) fingers in the same place while you move the others. It can also include sliding that finger up or down a fret. Let me explain:

There are 3 basic levels of difficulty when it comes to chord changes. Today we will concentrate on EASY/MEDIUM - (pp = have a pivot point)

EASY
These chord changes require less movement and usually share a similar shape or a string/finger/fret position. For example:
A - A7 (pp)
C - Fmaj7 (pp)
Am - D7 (pp)
Em - A
Am - E

MEDIUM
These chord changes require a little more movement of most or all fingers OR have either a PIVOT POINT (pp) or a SLIDING PIVOT POINT (ssp). For example:
A - Am
B7 - A
Cadd9 - A (spp)
Dm - G (pp)
A - E
Fmaj7 - A (pp)
A - G (spp)

HARD
These chord changes require all fingers to move to completely different frets and strings. For example
C - A
A - G7

Play the following chords in order whilst keeping at least one finger in contact with the guitar at all times... also remembering tip #2

Goal: To be able to switch between chords that share a common fret, string or finger position and identify them in future chord changes

Film your very first attempt and then film yourself again 1 week later.

This useful little tip will encourage all your fingers to move at the same time. No more 'one finger at a time' slowing you down! With patience and practice, this is a big step in your journey to perfect chord changing.

Your muscle memory is coming into play here so Phoebe from friends has an important lesson for you...

https://youtu.be/iFmiz3cvCcY

...well not quite but your hands WILL start memorising these chord shapes and move into them seamlessly eventually.

Check out the video for exercise #5 then bounce each of the basic chords at least 20 times before moving on to another ensuring ALL fingertips hit the strings at the same time. Go slowly at first and build up your muscle memory. Especially for the chords, you have the most trouble with.

A / Am / A7 / B7 / C / Cadd9 / D / Dm / D7 / E / Em / Fmaj7 / G / G7

Before you play a chord, say the name of the chord out loud... then get to the chord as quickly as you can. I used this method to greatly improve my reaction times and it helped me eventually remember all the chords I knew off by heart.

The brain processes this information then sends a signal through motor neurons down the arm to tell the muscles in the hand to close and play the chord. The amount of time this all takes is what makes up our reaction time. ... This is often referred to as muscle memory.

​If you like you can also use this RANDOM PICKER wheel and test your reaction times this way.

Choose 1 chord at a time OR pick 4 or more chords together and try to play them in a sequence.

Goal: To combine your muscle memory with your reaction time. Say a chord at random, then play it simultaneously (or as quickly as possible)

Close your eyes!

This last step requires you to do all of the above and practise your chord changing with ninja-like skills. 

If you can change chords without the need to look at all you will free yourself up to concentrating on other things like singing, fingerpicking or sword-swallowing while you play.

Play through all the basic chords:
A / Am / A7 / B7 / C / Cadd9 / D / Dm / D7 / E / Em / Fmaj7 / G / G7

​The following progressions:

And along to any song you are currently practising. Compare it to your very first video so you can see the results.

As you continue further your chord changing will naturally improve and I hope these tips have given you that extra bit of help.

​Ryan