Wondering how to get your chords ready to strum on the beat?
View the full lesson at Chord Changes For One | JustinGuitar
Somewhere in this set of videos, you talked about a nice chord progression to work on using all three chords. I didnāt write it down, and now I canāt seem to find it. It was something like E to A to D to A to E. I know I could just make one up, but I figure you had a reason for yours. Thanks!
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Hello @jimchall welcome to the Community.
You certainly could make one up.
The reasons Justin will have mentioned those three is they belong together, in the same key.
The A chord would be what is called the ātonicā ā¦ the home chord.
Start and finish on A.
Change between A, D and E as you fancy and as your ears guide you.
Itāll be good.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Moderator
Thanks Richard. I understand more now, and didnāt know about tonics. I came up with A-D-E-A-E-D to get through practicing my first three chord changes. It doesnāt really end in A since it starts with A I get a D-A change. Am I thinking about this right?
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Hi Jim, you are on the right track! Just take it slow and easy at this point and pretty soon your fingers will start to know how to change between those three chords without having to think about it. Enjoy!
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Thanks Dave! Iām having a great time even though my fingers are slow to learn!!
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Does it sound good? Thatās one measure of how ārightā it is.
And, are you getting in the good practice and improving?
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Moderator
Itāll sound better soon as I keep practicing ā I call it yoga for my left hand fingers (and wrist)! The A chord is a beast but it gets a little better every day.
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I thought the A chord was pretty easy at first, then suddenly it wasnāt! I thought it was easy until I realized that I was almost always muting the G string. I still have to pay attention to that one, especially if Iāve been playing a lot and my fingers are a little tired.
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Hah weāre all so different. I have a harder time with the B string and once I get it, then the G string is often muted. Itās slowly getting there ā¦ Just gotta love the challenge and the joys that come from playing. Iām not playing songs yet, but these first 3 chords changes are close. Hopefully this week Iāll try Three Little Birds ā gotta love Marley.
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First postā¦ go easy on me.
Iāve been enjoying the lessons so far. Two months in, and I am learning a lot, and basically content to pick up a lot of fundamentals to get in shape for later. No need to make it cry or sing just yet. I could play scales or whatever exercises for an entire practice session, because I know I am building the basics.
Iāve been using the song practice appā¦ āchord karaokeā as I like to call it. Many of the easier songs use a single chord per 4-beat measure. I find that I tend to either just strum slowly once on beat 1, or twice on beats 1 and 3, or maybe three times on beats 1, 2 and 3. But I spend most of beat 4 trying to get in place for the next measure. Please tell me my changes will get faster and more natural feeling!
For reference, I am playing an electric with a Mustang Micro headphone amp, which can be set clean or noisy, with a long or short sustain. And I can consistently achieve more than 30 changes per minute in the 1-minute changes appā¦ on some combinations I get as high as 70-80 changes per minute.
I guess I just wanted to throw this out thereā¦ I appreciate the workout that the song app provides. But do others feel a disappointed at the dullness of strum-strum-strum-switch?
(On the other hand, a song with a more challenging repeating pattern like Free Fallinā just makes me happy I got through the whole thing!)
Alan
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Hi Alan, welcome to the forum.
Yes, changes get faster and easier with practice.
The app shows you chords and allows you to play along but doesnāt really show you unique strumming patterns per song. An easy default is to try applying old faithful. Alternatively you could watch Justinās lesson for a song for the strumming pattern, or listen to the song and see if you could figure it out.
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Hi Alan and also a welcome from me!
What youāve described I think is perfectly normal, itās a different beast going from OMC to actual songs as youāre thinking of a bit more than just the single change.
As JK has described mixing in a bit of a strumming pattern beyond just down strokes is a good call, youāll likely find you feel more of a flow to the song with it which could help unclutter your mind. Perhaps in tandem with that knock 10% or 20% off the BPM of the song.
It will come along with more practice though and certainly donāt feel disappointed, itās all part of the evolution. Youāll look back on this period and smile!!
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Hi Alan and welcome.
Iām a couple of months in to learning and with regular practice, my changes have got both better and faster. Keep at it 
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But the app does show the strumming pattern? Top right corner thereās a little icon that you can click to show the chords and strumming pattern for the song. Though youāre right itās hardly a unique pattern, it does show whether to do 4 down strums per bar, just one, old faithful, etc.
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Iām about 6 months in, and Iāve had the same struggle (we all have). It just takes time and practice. Personally, I could rock my OMC but hitting those changes in songs was hard. When it finally clicked, it was pretty awesome! Just keep practicing, and youāll get there.
You could also throw in some metronome training, using a 4:1 tempo, and upping the bpm if you can change smoothly.
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Been a couple of months since I used the app so it may have changed, but then it seemed the strumming patterns in the app didnāt match the actual song.
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True; though I thought that had to do with certain songs being proposed for certain grades/modules at which the original strumming pattern would not yet have been taught or deemed too difficult.
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@aporter At some point in the lesson plan Justin does a video on strumming, and describes a ā3 minute strummingā exercise.
I found that one very helpful, and so did my girlfriend.
Donāt be afraid to skip ahead in the lesson plan if you have not seen that one yet. Though stay with Justinās plan overallā¦it really is very well structured!
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Thank you all for your words of encouragement!
I had missed the place in the song app where you can see the suggested strumming patterns. Plus, I find that some songs just have more interesting beats than others.
Now to just make sure I practice slow enough so that āpractice makes permanentā.
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