Why Your Chord Changes Suck

A lot of people struggle with chord changes being slow and fingers landing in the wrong spots.

​It's actually a lot more complicated than it might seem to get all your fingers to work together and land on a chord.

I'll give you some tips that can help you pull your chords together so that they're smooth and easy. Here are the reasons why your chord changes suck:

• You are practicing chord changes only "in the song"
  • To get better at a chord change, you'll want to step out of "song" mode and go into "practice" mode. The more you try to force the change to happen, while you're also trying to strum and sing and keep it all together, the worse it will get.
  • Here's a tip that works for a lot of people: Set a timer to 2 minutes. During the 2 minutes, step out of the song and focus on getting better at your chord change. When the timer's up, go back to your song. (Basically this is a way of "sneaking" some practice in)

 

• You're moving one finger at a time
  • Instead of one finger at a time, practice finding groups you can move fingers in. 
  • Use any finger you can as a "crutch" to support the other fingers moving. This is better than moving each finger one at a time.
  • Eventually you want to get to the point where you can move all fingers at the same time, switch shapes in mid-air, and then land on the fretboard.

• You're not spending enough time practicing the actual chord change
  • The chord change is what happens in between chords. Most people focus on one chord, and then they try to hurry up and get to the next one. To work on a chord change you need to focus on just the part where your fingers move....slow that part down and work it out.
  • Practice moving your fingers in "slow motion" between the shapes. Watch a timer and try to make your finger movement take at least 4 seconds.
  • If you really pay attention, you'll notice that you probably are always attempting to switch between chords in a just a second or two. By spreading that time out longer (4 seconds or more), you'll get more of a chance to work it out.