Chord transition

Richard3009

Having just ordered an acoustic guitar I'm determined to stick with it this time as I have more spare time now the kids have grown up, last time I found learning the chord shapes not crazily difficult, however I guess I leapt into trying transitions before i had truly nailed the shape in memory and found myself frustrated I couldn't make the smooth change, how long would you recommend spending on individual chord shapes to know you can do it blind, and is it a case of create the shape relax and create it again over and over.

Richard3009

Hello by the way just joined

Legionreturns

Good luck and welcome! 

I started my journey in December and I've rally stuck with it, almost to the point of obsession. One you're through those annoying baby steps you get to have fun! Foundation skills and theory are mega useful and shouldn't be overlooked. They've enabled me to bow start playing regularly with others, and even if I don't know the song, I can join in by knowing the key and noodling a bit or just following a simple chord progression. 

Good luck and remember to have fun!

djspecialist

Welcome on board!

My "early days" were a long time ago now, so memory is a bit misty ... but I don't remember spending lots of time memorising individual shapes before starting to connect chords via transitions.  Quite the opposite: as soon as I had three chords even very roughly down, I began playing songs.  No doubt very badly at the beginning, but I think the only way to get the changes smooth are to practice them ... a lot.

A big part of the attraction of guitar to me was that I could get to the "fun bit" (playing along with records, then with mates in a band) pretty quickly.  My advice would be to aim for some simple songs, rather than trying to perfect individual shapes / changes first.

LuttiS

I Agree with @djspecialist  - Learning simple songs that have the transitions will teach you much better than trying to just memorise shapes. 

When playing along to songs and playing them by themselves you can measure your progress easily and have something to aim for. When playing a song, if there is a change you have trouble with, that's when you practise that transition.

Besides that, it's simply more fun to play a song than just to practise chords, and if you had trouble sticking with it previously, it will truly help make it enjoyable and make you want to play more.

slacker

I did it by giving up a couple of times. What I found helpful was as previously stated learning songs.

Find some three chord trick songs in E and A. Learn to change them smoothly. Now you've got two keys to play in from 4 chords E A B7 and D.

Now add G and then C.

Coe back for help on minors Barre chords and someone else for comping and chord substitution. 

Baby steps.

mike_l

Being able to change chords is fundamental to playing guitar.

Sitting and strumming 1 chord for hours on end won't help you progress much. Learning to change chords will.

Here's a couple of chord progression to play through.
D/C/G/G (Sweet home Alabama and a load of others)

G/D/C/G/D/Am(7) (Knockin' on Heavens door) 

C/G/D/A/E (Hey Joe)

If you start feeling adventurous

G-D/F#-Em-Em-C-D (Freebird) (Under the solo it F-Bb-C)

Old_Swanner

Possibly some stuff here you haven't come across before.  Changing Chords - The Missing Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-93m83B8Qk

TheBlueWolf

Justin Sandercoe has a cool lesson on chord changes https://www.justinguitar.com/en/BC-115-1MinuteChanges.php

Actually Justin's site is great if you're just starting out, a lot of people respect him

A lot of learning guitar is down to practice but with time and patience you'll get there

Welcome to the forum

sev112

Remember, a chord only needs 3 notes (strings); a double stop is even better - it only needs 2 !


so if you are happening to be trying to get all your fingers around 6 string chords, take a step back or a pause and just try playing 2 or 3 strings only.

This isn't a cop out, this is real guitar playing 

Vinylfan

Old_Swanner said:

Possibly some stuff here you haven't come across before.  Changing Chords - The Missing Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-93m83B8Qk

I found that method quite useful as a way to think about it.  The theory behind it makes a lot of sense to me. As a beginner I'm always looking for tips like this.

Old_Swanner

@Vinylfan ; Glad it helped, I'd say it's the biggest thing many miss, for the longest time.

Vinylfan

@Old_Swanner - thanks I will definitely be using that.
One other thing that I get stuck on is strum patterns, even for simple ones.  As an example, I've been trying to play Tougher Than The Rest by Springsteen which seems to be a simple downstroke strum - but I can't get it to sound like the song - I'm sure part of it is the chord transitions.

Old_Swanner

Bruce's wife's strumming here is about the same as I'm doing when demonstrating moving between G and D with a classic "campfire strum" (8th notes).  Just plug in the different chords and you've got the whole song.



Watching "The Boss" himself playing it on acoustic, he strums at twice the speed (16th notes),  Definitely best to get the campfire version working first I'd say.

ennspek

Practice slowly with a metronome ideally. Don't worry about speed.

ennspek

Oh and welcome!

Lestratcaster

Start with the least amount of chords in a song, Knockin' On Heaven's Door is a good one or Chasing cars by Snow Patrol, they only have 3-4 chords. Then slowly add in other shapes to the ones you already have.
That's what I've been doing with my beginner learners with great results.

underdog

What worked for me was being in to Oasis What's the story album, mostly simple songs, learned how to play them from tab then released they were actually chords I was playing, like almost every other song is made up of. Before that I was playing by numbers not realising they were chords

fly

Playing guitar is a great hobby but you have to work very hard at the beginning. I've been playing for more than 30 years and I still have to work extremely hard to pick up new difficult pieces.

I would suggest you practice groups of chords in different keys-

in the key of C- C, F, G
in the key of D- D, G, A
in the key of G- G, C, D

Because of the function they have with their respective key scales (I, IV, V) these three chords will allow you to play countless songs. See- http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/chord-progression-0324-2011.aspx

Practice slowly at first- just changing from one chord to the next. The aim is to have all strings sound clear.

I often find that what I have studied today gets absorbed by the following day. Also try to practice every day at least for 15 minutes.

I would recommend book courses like Rock School or a website like True Fire.

I hope this helps!