Chord changes - should I focus on them or songs?

Evening everyone . Wanted to get some feedback . I’ve worked on chord changes pretty regularly for the past 7 months and I would say as of last month I pretty much had all the open chords at 60 or well above. So I changed focus a bit to things I had been neglecting like song playing and I have been practicing daily the F chord and all the F cheats . I still worked with chord changes but not as much . I’d say I practice 1 1/2 hr a day 5 or six days a week . Visited my chord changes yesterday and I was a little surprised at how rusty I got . With the new items above I really can’t spend the time on everything and 5 to 10 min a day is not enough . So is this something to be watched or will my fluid cord changes come back rather quickly after I progress with the F chord and all his little brothers???

I would spend 5 mins a day max on chord change practice. As you get better that can become 0 minutes or it can be hard chords.

Practice songs. They have chord changes in them.

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This. Once you are at a certain level (60/min is fine) move on, practice chord changes as part of the next stage of learning. They are something you will use all the time and improve all the time.

There is no ‘and I’m done’ moment with them. There is always new chords and new a/b changes etc.

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Hi @Nightwatchman

My recommendation would be to find some songs with F in them. That way you can practice the F chord and open chord changes at the same time

+1 from me on that comment. You only need to change chords as fast as a particular song requires. If the song has a difficult chord change then concentrate on that one.

I would agree with the other comments on here. Practice songs, they will keep your usual chord changes up to the speed required. If you have any difficult changes (for me it’s A to G to D) practice those independently until they are good enough for the song they appear in. Make sure that you have a selection of practice songs that contain all the main chords.

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“Practice songs. They have chord changes in them.”

Another thumbs up for this, you’ll identify changes to specifically work on from time to time from new songs and chords but otherwise let the music flow!

Did someone call my name?

MODS

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100% agree.

Which one are you Richard?

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If you want to learn songs, then learn songs - they have chord changes in them, as stated above (unless you want to work on single-note melodies). If you, then focus on chord changes.

I’d definitely advise you to concentrate on some songs now.
Sounds like you’re chord changes are moving on very nicely so time to put it all to work with some songs.
Just practicing chords without any context can be very soul destroying unless you start to make music!
Always try and relate your practice back to a song or some sort of musical idea.
You’re far more likely to keep at it.
Good luck :+1:

Oh come on now … :wink:

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Thanks everyone for the advise !!! Advise taken. Thank you.