What if Your Chord Switches Still Sound Bad?

You keep working on guitar chord switches, but they don’t sound the way you want.

You say, “Sean, nothing seems to help!”

I feel your pain!

You need a step-by-step approach to make your chord switches better.

As someone who has taught guitar for 26 years, here are the steps I recommend:

1. Individual Chords First

Pick one chord to master. Put your fingers in the chord shape. Drop your hand away from the guitar. Bring your hand back to the guitar. Repeat this 10-20 times until your fingers find the chord shape automatically.

Then repeat the same process with the next chord.

2. Work on a Pair of Chords

Don’t try to master a whole song. Work on a pair of chords. Do this only AFTER you can easily find each of the two chords individually using the process above.

3. Study Your Finger Movements

You want each finger to move as directly as possible from its location in the first chord to its location in the second chord.

The eventual goal is to move all fingers at the same time, but that's often confusing for beginners.

Start by moving one finger at a time.

It's a good idea to start with the finger that will be on the bass note in the second chord, because it will be strummed first. If any finger is late, you don’t want it to be that one.

After you can comfortably move each finger as directly as possible from chord 1 to chord 2, gradually speed up. When the fingers are moving automatically to the next chord, you know you've arrived.

Once you've done this with one pair of chords, repeat the process with another pair of chords. But you say, “Sean, doesn’t this take a long time?”

The first time you do it, maybe. But after you've done it with one pair of chords, it will happen faster with the next pair. And even faster with the pair after that.

If you follow this process carefully, you'll be surprised how much your chord switches improve.