Don’t let this scenario derail you as a beginner guitar player: the strumming hand continues, but the fret hand halts in mid-movement to make the chord change, and the song comes crashing down. It is often not that the particular song you are playing is the problem, but rather that the fret hand is moving too late and being tasked with the impossible job of arriving perfectly and at a specific speed right on the beat. Learning guitar is not primarily about learning the many chords you can make, but learning the many ways to move from one chord into another in a controlled manner. If you are not moving between your chords in a controlled manner, stop trying harder and do the opposite; slow down your movement between two different chords to see how they work, and keep playing until you understand them.
Pick two simple chords used often in beginner songs like G and C or A minor and E. Play a full chord strum and then lift your fingers off before moving into your other shape. This will take time, but it is much faster than struggling to land and having the time pass without realizing you are off. Now, try to move your hands around as if you had a metronome or beat counting in your head, but without playing the chord, just to see if there is excess movement happening. If you find one hand flying far away from the strings, bring them close again. If your thumb is swinging wildly across the back of your guitar neck, find a spot and hold it there for every chord. Generally speaking, the cleaner your chord change is, the more often it is not because you are moving at a slower rate, but you are moving at a tighter pace. Once you get to a point where you know your fingers are going to land in the right place, count to four and move your fingers on the final beat of that count.
Many students are guilty of waiting to change the chord shape at the time you have to change, but you should try to think about it before you change it. If you wait, you will panic, and if you panic, you will have a nervous breakdown. So wait one beat before the change of the next chord, and try naming the new shape you are going to play, along with which finger you are using to get into that shape. If you find out that your fingers are sharing a common finger on the new chord shape, that may be a useful finger to use to get to the new shape. Many students also have a tendency to press down too hard on the strings with their fingers, which slows down your movement and increases tension, which will only increase your problems with rhythm and chord changes. If you want to fix this problem, try reducing the pressure you use until you hear some buzz on your string and then try to add just enough pressure to get a clear note.
If you have a fifteen minute practice session, dedicate five of them to changing between your two new chords silently in order to see if you can land as comfortably and as accurately as possible, using about five to change between the two different chords. Dedicate five more minutes to keeping a steady down-strum of those two shapes and counting to four in your head while changing those same chords every four beats; use a slow, easy-to-follow tempo. In the last five minutes, put those two chords in the context of a simple song or phrase of your choosing, and let the song be your metronome to hear how that drill sounds. If the song comes apart from you, don’t go back to square one every time it falls apart, isolate the section where you lose the rhythm and just practice the change between the two chords a few times, then rejoin the song. This will save time and allow you to see exactly what is slowing your chord change down.
As time goes on, you’ll realize that you’re improving at chord changes when you hear the change between the two chords becoming more fluid. Maybe you’ll hear the chord change between G and C is still a bit of a struggle, but you’re able to land your fingertips closer to the strings than ever before. You may also hear your rhythm wavering, but your fretting fingers are not falling back as much as they used to, which is an improvement in itself. The key to changing chords on the guitar is to keep things honest, simple, small, and rhythmic, and then try to learn a clean change as you go.
