Lesson 4 - Changing Chords

Ok great!!! We now know three chords.  If you have been working hard, you can, with some effort, maybe be able to get your fingers on the fretboard and make the chords without hitting any dead notes, letting the notes sing out.  The more you practice these, the easier they will become to make without thinking.

Today we are going to start putting them together.  We are going to start by strumming the C Major chord four times, then quickly moving our fingers to form the G Major chord and strumming four times.  Going back and forth.  Then we are going to try doing the same thing from C Major to D Major and then finally from G Major to D Major.  It will look a little like this:

The key is to try to make the changes as quickly as possible.  Start slow and build faster and faster.  Right now, don’t worry about getting in time, worry about getting your fingers used to moving from one chord shape to the next. 

The only thing harder than first learning chords is learning how to shift from one to the other.  Watch the video lesson to see how I learned to do this.  But basically I hold one chord and visualize what the next chord looks like and see how I can move one finger at a time from the first to the second chord.  I promise, after a little time, you will not be thinking about this again.  It will just be something your fingers do instinctively.

This is more than enough to practice for now.  If and when you start to become frustrated, switch to the string by string note practice of the last lesson.  The next two lessons will be about theory of notes and chords and scales.  While you are learning about how we create chords and scales, keep practicing these chord changes.  As you get better, start working with the metronome.  Start with 4/4 at 60 bpm (beats per measure) and speed up as you can make the changes without missing a beat.