How to Change Chords Quickly on Guitar | 7 Tricks
Given that chords are the backbone of Western music, most guitarists will benefit from these 7 chord-changing tricks.
1) Isolate the Left Hand
The first step to better changes is to recognize exactly where the difficulty lies. With chord changes, that’s almost always going to be in your fretting hand. For that reason, you should spend most of your time practicing chord changes with the left hand alone.
It may seem weird to be working just with your left hand, forming chords and such, without playing any notes. Yet I urge you to do this. Don’t be afraid to look a little crazy.
I’ve found that it’s all-too easy to ignore left-hand nuances when you add sound to the mix. When you strum your G chord, then C, then D, you might just find yourself performing a 5-minute song, singing and dancing along, having a grand old time, when you were supposed to be practicing.
Music is absolutely beautiful, and even the simplest of songs can lure us into a blissful, distracted state. That’s why we play guitar! Yet music can also be distracting, pulling us away from goal-oriented practice.
We should recognize that music is more powerful than it is good or bad. To isolate the left hand properly, you almost need to treat the actual sounding of chords as the calls of malevolent sirens. Cover your ears, lest they shipwreck your guitar potential!
2) Make Each Chord Feel Homey
Most guitarists have a few chords that serve as home bases for the left hand. For me, there’s nothing more comfortable than the basic C chord in first position:
Whenever I’m playing a chord progression that includes C major, I know I’ll be able to switch to it, no problem.
At this point, I’ve fretted C so many times that my fingers know it by heart. I even consider it “homey” in the sense that changing to it feels like going home for my left hand, relaxing any former tension.
Lately I’ve realized that this homey feeling can be extended to newer chords. As you might guess, the sooner you feel at home with any given chord, the faster your fingers will be able to fret it. You’ll be able to get there with total confidence and security.
How Do You Make New Chords Feel Homier?
One trick is to pay attention to the feeling you have when you’re fretting your favorite chords. Shaping them probably inspires confidence, making you feel like a decent guitar player. You might even feel a kind of emotional warmth around them.
Once you get a sense of that good feeling, practice fretting any new chord you’re working on while trying to hold onto those positive vibes.
I know this all may seem a bit “out there,” but I’m convinced that the greatest obstacle to assimilating new chords isn’t so much the physical side of things (muscle-memory develops fairly quickly), but the mental and emotional side.
You may not think of changing chords as an emotional experience, but if you really study yourself as you fret certain chords, I bet you’ll notice that some evoke positive thoughts and feelings, while others will bring about despair.
The sooner you associate positive thoughts and feelings with new and challenging chord shapes, the sooner you’ll master them.
3) Make Your Chords Airborne
We’re used to shaping chords when our thumb and fingers are touching the fretboard. The neck of the guitar provides an important spatial and tactile perspective of the distances between strings and frets. However, we shouldn’t only rely on the guitar grid for practicing chords.
One trick I use to master new chords is to practice making them with my left hand while it’s away from the guitar.
If you can shape chords without touching the instrument, you’ll have a much deeper awareness of how each finger needs to move. Best of all, you don’t even need your guitar for this kind of practice!
If you have a minute at work, try to imagine you’re holding a guitar and run through a chord progression you know well with your left hand. This will feel odd at first, but with more experience I bet you’ll find this to be an effective kind of practice.
A great way to get started making your chords airborne is to lift your fingers off the frets while maintaining a chord shape, then bring them back down. Go for 10-20 reps of this; more for an especially difficult chord shape.
Once you can comfortably hover the chord an inch or two away, start increasing the distance. Before long, you’ll get to the point when you can bring your hand from the fretboard to your lap and back, all while holding the shape.
Next, bring the shape down to your lap, then relax your hand. Try to reshape the chord as you come back up so that your fingers “land” in position. In time, the kinesthetic facility of your left hand will improve dramatically.
4) Use a Metronome... Some of the Time
In my experience, metronomes are best used as little drill sergeants. They whip us into shape while taking no nonsense. In fact, I’d like to see a metronome developed that trash talks you in between clicks or yells, “Faster, you maggot!” and “You call that an E minor scale? Pathetic!”
Metronomes are a great tool for drilling chord changes. One good way to use them is to jump back and forth between two chords in time with the clicks.
If you’re just starting with a certain change, don’t hesitate to set the metronome way down, say between 40-60 bpm, and try to make changes in time with every other click, or even every third or fourth.
Always go as slowly as you need, no shame at all (more info on slow practice here). The goal is to practice a clean change slowly, then gradually build up speed. If you start too fast, you’ll be practicing a rushed change, which will feel unstable in performance.
All of that said, I encourage you to put away the metronome for a good deal of time and practice in a more relaxed way. I think the drilling perspective is valuable to bring to the table, but you should also see guitar practicing as a spiritual experience.
You’ll do well to set the metronome aside and focus on making each chord feel good under your fingers. Plus, I find that it’s much easier to go super-slow when you’re working without the metronome.
Overall, I would strike a healthy balance between disciplined metronome work and relaxed, tempo-free sessions.
5) Focus On One Finger at a Time
Although these chords are simple to fret and probably familiar to most guitarists, this chord change isn’t actually all that easy. All three fingers need to move, and none of them can simply slide along the same string, serving as a “guide finger.”
One good way to practice this type of change is to isolate each finger’s path within the compound movement.
For example, we can see that our first finger needs to move from C (first fret, second string) to A (second fret, third string). If we track that finger’s path “as the crow flies,” we see that it doesn’t need to cover a whole lot of distance. It’s just a short diagonal jump between the C and the A, despite those notes having neither a string nor a fret in common:
You might start by moving your first finger back and forth between the C and the A. Once you’re familiar with that jump, you can return to moving all three fingers at once, but continue to focus on your first finger’s perspective. Soon, your first finger will move quickly and efficiently between the two positions.
Next, do the same with your second and third fingers. Concentrate most of your effort on whichever finger seems to be the weakest link.
Maybe your first and third fingers are landing securely, but your second finger occasionally misses the mark. In that case, zooming in on the second finger’s motion could make a world of difference for you.
Combine Different Methods
Of course, you never want to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Be sure to alternate between isolations and full changes, where every finger moves at once and you’re focused on the whole, not any one part. I find that I run into roadblocks if I use any one mode of attack for too long without mixing it up.
Don’t be afraid to get creative! You could create a drill like this: whole chord, first finger alone, whole chord, second finger alone, whole chord, third finger alone, etc.
The moral of this story is to work like a mathematician: break big problems into small ones, then solve!
6) Consider the Elbow
We need more than just our left hand fingers to hold a chord. Our bodies know this much better than we do. In fact, many of our limbs and muscles are helping out beyond our conscious control. Noteworthy among these unsung heroes is our fretting arm’s elbow.
Few players realize that their elbow position can solve a great deal of problems. If you’re struggling with barre chords, bringing your elbow closer to your body will provide leverage and strength (also be sure to check out my favorite barre chord exercise). If you’re playing a chord where three fingers share a fret, raising your elbow will helpfully reorient your hand.
Sometimes the optimal elbow position isn’t so clear right away. If you can’t quite get your fingers around a certain shape, consider experimenting by raising or lowering your elbow until something feels right. This won’t prove useful in every instance, but it just might solve a few of your problems.
If you ever find yourself faced with a big left-hand jump, say from the first fret to the seventh, you might consider leading the movement with your elbow. This can create a kind of slingshot effect, sending your hand up the fretboard in a rapid, yet controlled, movement.
7) Music Comes First
If you’re like me, sometimes you get so wrapped up in the how of changing chords that you forget all about the why.
We should never lose sight of the true goal: to make each chord and each change as musical as possible. Try to have a vivid sense of how any given sequence of chords should sound, and refuse to make any compromises. If you can envision the musical result, your fingers will find a way.
You might generally find it easier to use a guide finger than to “move like a helicopter,” with all fingers leaving the fretboard, but if you’re getting obnoxious string squeaks, you might consider training the more difficult technique.
Similarly, if you’re always muting a string that should be sounding during changes, you may need to rethink your movement strategy.
The slower you practice, the more little details like this will bother you, and the better you’ll be able to address them. Bear in mind that a great guitarist is first and foremost a great musician, and a great musician cares deeply about the quality of their playing.
Speed is superficial. It’s entirely possible for someone who has been playing G-C-D progressions for five years to slow down only to realize that their changes are far from clean.
Don’t be afraid to submit your playing to the musical test. Often what seems to bring you a few steps back is exactly what’s needed for a giant leap forward. If you put music first, your time will surely come.
Conclusion
Nothing on the guitar is ever easy. People have the impression that our instrument is easy to play, but it’s only easy to play badly. Playing well requires training up both hands to do separate yet synchronized tasks, and this takes time and intelligent effort.
Don’t be discouraged if you’re struggling to get the hang of a certain chord change, even if it’s supposed to be a basic one.
The key is to practice consistently while maintaining a can-do attitude. Follow the advice outlined above, and you’ll definitely be on the right track.
Happy playing!
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