Easier Ways to Play Chords

This week one of my guitar students was having a challenging time playing the F-C-G-Am chord progression.

The challenge was not the F chord as you might expect. He was playing a four-string version of the F chord, and that was working well for him. The challenge was the switch from C to G.

Here’s how he was playing the chords:

F chord:

 C chord:

G chord:

Am chord:

We worked on the chord progression for a while in lesson, but the C to G switch did not improve.

Then I suggested changing to this fingering of G:

G chord - alternate fingering:

This allowed him to move the 2^nd and 3^rd fingers only one string when going from C to G.

The switch instantly improved, and he was able to play it in rhythm.

After the lesson, I thought about how we work on a chord switch. We can practice slowly and move each finger as directly as possible from one chord to another. That’s a good approach.

But if you’re really stuck on a particular chord switch, try a different fingering for a chord. That might result in a dramatic improvement. After mastering the revised version, you can then go back to the original version of the chord and master that as well.

Have you tried this?

Keep making music!