6 Tips on Changing Guitar Chords Effectively

Guitar Lessons and Tutorials
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Chord Changes
Photo by clumsy_jim

So, you are able to play the Basic Open Chords very well. Not just the easy ones like D, E or C chord but even the tougher ones like G and F chord too.

But what about moving from one chord to another? Suddenly you stop your right hand, focus on the left hand, place the fingers on the required frets and before you can strum your newly formed chord, the rhythm has already gone for a toss!

Frustrating, isn’t it?

To play songs nicely, you not only need to be able to play the chords but also change them effectively without breaking the strumming action and the flow of the right hand. This can seem to be quite difficult initially. But as with many things related to guitar, regular practice does wonders.

I remember how frustrating it was to play the chords but not able to quickly change to another. But I can’t remember when I actually got comfortable doing it. I just kept at it, playing the chords and trying to change from one to another until it so happened that the brain recognized the finger shapes that were required for various chords and transferred the whole process into the subconscious mind.

The bottom-line is: PRACTICE. If you give up on the way, playing the guitar would always be a distant dream. But if you persist and perspire, you are sure to witness miracles! (Aww.. that was poetic!)

Let me give you some tips which will ensure you are on the right path and speed up the learning process.

1. Improve Finger Dexterity

It is crucial that your left hand remains loose and free instead of hard and stiff whatever the chord position be. A loose hand will be more adaptable than a stiff one.

2. Correct Hand Position

The left thumb should be supporting the back of the guitar neck instead of rising over the top of the guitar reaching the strings. This helps in stretching your fingers for the Open G and F chords and the critical barre chords.

3. Try all Permutations and Combinations

Make sure you are trying all possible combinations of changing the open chords. Start with the easy ones like D to G chord or Emin to C chord. When you are comfortable with these, move on to tougher ones like A to G chord or the ultimate one: G to F chord!

4. Right Way to Practice

This is the way you should go about practicing it: Play a chord four times a bar, then change to another chord and play it four times a bar again, then come back to the previous chord. Do this till you are so comfortable that you can change the chords without seeing your left hand! Of course, it will take time, so be patient.

5. Avoid Barre Chords at the Start

When you are starting out, don’t try to change to barre chords or back. That would be a big demotivator! First get used to the basic open chords, then go ahead with the barre chords.

6. Practice, Practice and More Practice!

All the tips above are useless if you don’t practice enough. By enough, I don’t mean 5 hours non-stop, hell no! 30-60 minutes a day is more than sufficient. Just keep yourself motivated by whatever inspires you and keep at it. You will get there in the end.

Go, grab the guitar and start chording right now!

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39 Comments so far what's your take?

  1. jimmy Says June 25, 2009 7:23 pm

    hey thanks dude for ur tips its working. apart to this can u do me a favor by sending me cords of neele neele ambar par………and humko tumse pyaar hua…(RHTDM)

  2. Abhinav Says June 27, 2009 9:12 pm

    Chords for Humko Tumse Pyaar Hua from RHTDM are Am, Dm, G, C and F…

  3. vivek Says July 6, 2009 3:26 am

    hiiiiiii everyone……..
    nd abhinav gr8 wrk yaar…
    somtyms while playin guitar it bcome neccessary to sing along with it…nd then difficulty arises…
    and for all newbies i wud sujjest to remember 3 P…..
    passion, practice and patience..

    key to become success guitarist

  4. Abhinav Says July 7, 2009 8:53 am

    Well said Vivek!

  5. abhinandan Says July 8, 2009 12:42 am

    thanks, really this tips are worthfull for me, but the problem which i am facing is that i can’t maintain the right tempo of struming. can u gv me any tips for this????????

  6. Abhinav Sonkar Says July 8, 2009 9:07 am

    Hi Abhinandan,

    Check the 4th point above. Initially, it is better to avoid playing rhythms and changing chords together. Just strum the chord once per second and focus on changing the chords.

  7. subhajit Says September 20, 2009 1:06 pm

    can u plz tell the chords of morey saiyyan from the movie teree sang.

  8. satwik Says November 25, 2009 7:25 pm

    Hi Abhinav,
    thanks for your important tips of playing guitar…..can u kindly send me the chords of “yaroo dosti”…..KK’s

  9. Geetesh Chawla Says February 25, 2010 10:36 pm

    Hey Dude its really amazing.. U really Rock man.. Im totally flatten.. It was an emotional touch.. Keep it up dude… I was just searching 4 beginners stuff 4m long time.. N got good information about everything…

    Thanks Buddy.. U made my day…

    Cheers Man!!!!!………………..

  10. Arindam Says February 27, 2010 12:57 pm

    Hey abhi…..Thanx a lot for ur tips. It really helped me…..Can u plz help me out of a problem i am facing…What is the perfect way to practice rhythm? What is the difference between rhythm and strumming? Are they same thing?

  11. meet Says February 27, 2010 7:48 pm

    perfect practice makes man perfect …….

  12. Sarbjit Singh Says July 3, 2010 5:28 am

    Hi….
    What is the easiest way to find the chords of a song???

  13. PALLAVI Says July 9, 2010 12:38 pm

    Amazing blog…truely amazing mind blowing….gr8 job….dude..

    M a regular reader of ur blog for quite a long tym. Planning to be a regular contributor..(still planning !!!! …hope to b 1 day…)

    M playing guitar for the past 2 yrs…but still i face problem in tuning my own guitar.
    i need to take help from my tuner….i really want to learn to tune my guitar all by myself…..

    Also m facing problems while finding the chords for any song…leads are not a problem at all…but when it comes to chords …m like “????????”.

    hope u can help me wid this…..

    thanks..

  14. Neel Says July 18, 2010 12:08 pm

    rhythm and strumming are bit different dear.

    Strumming – when you move your hand across the strings in any pattern, not fixed.if you will just play a chord once it can be called ‘strumming that chord’.

    Rhythm – when you follow a perfect fixed pattern of strumming… .

  15. Neel Says July 18, 2010 12:10 pm

    Leading or Tabs.

    if you know the tabs ,its really easy to find a chord outta them. :-)

  16. Neel Says July 18, 2010 12:14 pm

    Leading or Tabs.

    if you know the tabs ,its really easy to find a chord outta them. :-)

    when you feel that in a particular chord you are going outta tune then its time to change the chord.ok.

    just find the lead of next line and try to form various chords from that particular ‘SUR’(((lead of first word of new line where you felt a chord change.))). surely one of your chords will fit in the sequence.
    try it dear.

  17. PALLAVI Says July 21, 2010 11:49 am

    hey i kno dat technique…my guitar sir had told me dat….but u need to kno which chord is been formed by those leads…ryt????…..for dat we shud kno the chord chart..bcoz on every fret there are various chords formed…..

    M tryin the same thing for chords but still m not very satisfied wid it…
    dats y i wanted a simpler mtd to find out the chords…

  18. PALLAVI Says July 21, 2010 12:13 pm

    hey how are tabs different than leads …..i thot they r the same thing….. :(

  19. REAGAN Says January 28, 2011 5:25 pm

    Nice very helpful thing for the biggners like me

  20. sumit Says March 9, 2011 3:37 pm

    can u plz tell me how to play sindbaad the saylor in acoustic of rock on movie

  21. Anuj Says June 14, 2011 6:57 pm

    Hi Abhinav i am very happy because your blog is fantastic for me and my friends. please teach me about power $ suspended chords.please

  22. Samit Kadlak Says June 17, 2011 11:41 am

    dudde answer the questions na..

  23. Prathmesh Says July 13, 2011 9:36 pm

    that was useful and motivating…thanks Mr.Abhinav

  24. gaurav Says July 24, 2011 9:45 pm

    i m beginner so what u think what should i do first. i purchased a guitar recently thats it i dont have any knwldge about guitar.. so pls tell me something about guitars basics..
    thanks

  25. aman Says August 21, 2011 4:29 pm

    hi abhinav,ur blog is awesome man. i just wanted to know how to tune my guitar.please help me.

  26. aman Says August 21, 2011 4:36 pm

    my guitar has scratches all over because of continuous playin.especially in the path where the pick moves.what do i do?

  27. Sachin Jani Says September 14, 2011 6:44 pm

    hii m too a beginer but i had a passion in playin guitar..i nvr felt bored playin it..m abt 60% in 3 months..
    I learnt finguring n changing chord effectively playin dis chords in a pattern..down down up up down..
    Followin r d chords..
    G-D-A-E-C ..
    Contineu playin dis pattern in order i mention i bet u vl hav perfect finguring den onwards..\m/
    be my frd on http://www.facebook.com/sachin.jani

  28. sushil jadhav Says September 19, 2011 12:35 pm

    Hi Abhinav,
    I just started playing guitar. I came for the first time to this site while surfing and going through your site, i found it very helpful atleast through beginners point of view. And you know what, i am adding it to my favorites.
    Great work Man…!!
    Keeping guitaring…!!

    Thanks
    Sushil

  29. priyank Says September 21, 2011 1:21 am

    pallavi- earlier….even i used to hav a lot of difficulties while tuning my guitar…bt now…SPECIAL THANXX TO ANDROID APP. MARKET… i found an SOFTWARE wch tunes my guitar fo me !!
    i luvv it !!

  30. shweta arya Says October 3, 2011 1:14 am

    Can you educate me about classical guitar please?

  31. umang Says October 12, 2011 4:58 pm

    hiii.. i hve strted learnin guitar since a month or two…i noticed dat d strings r a bit higher dan d usualls..n dis is tough for me to change chords…please help….

  32. siddhi jain Says October 12, 2011 7:19 pm

    u rock man ur tabs are superb!!!

  33. Marvin Says October 25, 2011 7:03 pm

    Hi, i’m a guitar beginner, and i jusst wanna know, if i have to bother about strumming, while practicing the open chords

  34. sager Says October 25, 2011 8:20 pm

    hello abhinav sir i am the new learner in guitar field. iwanted to know diffrents beetween open chords and barrer chords and how we make it.

    so……….. ple…………..ase send me information related this trouble.
    on my facebook account sagerrock77@gmail.com

    i would be happy to get your views.
    i…….. am waiting send it soon.

  35. Sanjay Says November 17, 2011 1:58 pm

    Hi abhinav,

    I am new for learning Guitar , Is there any method to learn fastly ?

  36. shashank Says November 27, 2011 9:43 am

    thanks buddy for helping us to learn guitar….

  37. kapil Says November 30, 2011 5:18 pm

    Yarr, very nice u hv written a very good article .

    thanks!

  38. jay Says December 15, 2011 10:21 am

    kindly tell me what bar chord, i m beginner of guitar, and want to learn it very well.

  39. Sagar Agrahari Says December 25, 2011 6:52 pm

    Thank u Bhaiya… I’ve Also started to learn guitar nd needed help for the chords….. This was helpful….

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