Guitar How-To

Posts Tagged ‘Guitar Chords’

How to change guitar chords is an area of guitar playing that you will be returning to again and again. It’s an area that needs a lot of experimenting, learning from your mistakes and allowing muscle memory to learn the chords in its own time. One approach you could try is to learn a new chord by using it as a central point to go to from all the other chords you know. So if you want to learn the B major chord, get your fingers into the chord position and strum the chord for a while. Then, take your fingers off the fretboard and rest them completely for a few seconds before assuming the chord shape again. Do this a couple of times to give your left hand the chance to know what the chord position feels like. Now, select a chord that you know well – it doesn’t have to be one that sounds good with B major – and play that chord, then change to the new chord. Then select another chord and go from that chord to the new one. The idea is to give your muscles as many challenges as possible by taking the new chord shape from a variety of other finger positions. This is a faster way of learning a new chord shape.

This video gives away one of the “secrets” of changing chords. This is the simple trick of getting one finger in place and allowing the others to follow instead of using our minds to place all the fingers in a new chord shape.

If you want further info on this tricky subject, here’s an article on Learning How To Change Guitar Chords Like A Demon

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When you start learning guitar chords you will probably have some chord charts or guitar tabs to show you where to put your fingers. Having a written guide to guitar chords is not enough and you need not limit yourself to charts and tabs when there are plenty of people showing you how to play guitar chords on video sites like YouTube. Listening to someone play the chord and hearing them explain how they go about making the chord shape with their fingers makes a world of difference to how fast and how accurately you are learning guitar chords.

When you are sitting in a chair or on your bed at home learning guitar chords, it would be a good idea to see what you are doing as a process starting with how you are sitting and holding the guitar. The point of sitting down to learn guitar chords is to give your body every opportunity to learn the movements and postures needed to play guitar chords. The key to fingering and changing guitar chords is relaxation. Don’t get too bogged down in detail, but start by satisfying yourself that your posture is fairly tension free without being limp. If there are areas of tension in your body there’s no need to eliminate them now, you can work on it in future practice sessions.

When it comes to actually taking the chord fingering positions, the relaxation you started with should continue into how your fingers hover over the fretboard. The idea is to make your fingers available to learning guitar chords without putting them into artificial positions. Having your hand touching the guitar neck with your thumb with your fingers parallel to the fretboard is a position that must be learned but this position can be taken without inducing unnecessary tension.

With your fingers taking the chord shape, use your pick to slowly strum the chord. By slowly I mean so that you can hear each individual string. If you are muffling any strings because your left hand is not quite in position, make the necessary adjustments. You are probably either not pressing down enough on a string or one of your fingers is touching the string next to the one it is pressing down on.

Remember that learning guitar chords is done using two or three simple chords at one time. Part of learning chords is learning how to change chords. Your learning will be very slow if you just sit strumming one chord over and over. And go for easy open chords at first. Learning guitar chords is hard enough without biting off more than you can chew.

Here is a tutorial on the basics of guitar chords. The video features some basic chords and how to play them.

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Using the thumb to actually do the work of fretting guitar chords allows you to use your first or second left hand finger to fret notes that you could not have reached otherwise. As you research this guitar playing technique you are going to find that it is a very controversial area of the guitar world. Some guitar players say that they use their thumb all the time to fret bass notes, others say they use it occasionally, while some guitarists call the use of the thumb “poor technique”. Your attitude to the use of your left hand thumb will be guided by the style of music you play and how adventurous you are in your exploration of guitar techniques.

So, basically, your thumb can be used to fret notes on the fifth and sixth strings of your guitar. Before you read any further, pick up your guitar, adopt the playing position and then try moving your left hand so that your thumb will bend over the top of the guitar neck and press down on the sixth string hard enough to give you a clean sound when you pick the string. You might decide to forget about it right now. Some people find it absolutely impossible to do. I should also mention that many guitarists feel that if you can’t execute this technique comfortably, then you are risking serious injury to your hand and arm if you try it for any length of time.

Let’s go a bit further into this technique. Fret a first position G major chord with your second finger on the G on the sixth string, your first finger playing the B on the fifth string, and your fourth finger playing the G on the first string. Now take your second finger off the sixth string G and put your thumb in its place. Quite possibly you will have to take your finger off the fifth string, leaving the thumb fretting the sixth string and your pinky fretting the first string. Your left hand palm is going to be flat against the back of the guitar neck.

Many guitar players who have trained their hands to use the thumb for fingering chords, love the fact that the little finger is now free to play extra notes that wold not have been available to them using the conventional chord technique. Jimi Hendrix made good use of this way of playing. Cat Stevens was another player who made use of the thumb to fret chords. If you are interested in blues guitar, you will find that many of the blues innovators like Robert Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt used their thumbs for playing bar chords.

So the case is clear. Whether or not you use your thumb to fret bar chords is entirely up to you. Everybody’s hands are different, and if it is too painful for you to use this left hand technique then don’t do it. The degree of versatility you might gain is small compared to the damage you could do if you keep trying while your arm and hand are hurting.

Here’s a video lesson on using the thumb to fret notes . . .

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