Fingerstyle chord transitions question

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Hello everybody,
begginer here /50 days in/

I have been practicing my chord transitions in fingerstyle (pima).

Now my question regards proper technique on transitions: if my last string is played using the left hand still pressing the chord, then my transition can be delayed slightly but in a perceptible way. (even if my chord transitions are relatively well executed)

Or, I can prepare for the chord transition and play an open string for the last note before i again press down my fingers for the next chord.

I’ve observed many guitar players, even professional musicians switching chords letting that last strum ring out openly in transition and I see it can even give it a special quality if used musically. Now fingerstyle seems to be a bit different heres, so I guess my question would be:

  • should i play the chord “until the end” or do you find it musical to play an open chord for the last note of the last strum before the chord switch?

Thx

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Justin covers this somewhere - sorry, no time to search for the lesson. He shows that an open string strum can sound just fine in many cases while you are changing chords.

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Oh, I went back t practice and I guessI’ve just answered my own question: for most pima played chords the first note os often played on an open string, right? In that case my whole question seems a bit irrelevant now , haha. Maybe it’s relevant only if I play like only the strings of the fingers that are pressed down, not the whole chord? Should I also practice this, but then it means the root note wouldn’t be played, for instance in an e major, I wouldn’t play the E string. Any views would be really helpful! Thank you all in advance and have a lovely day!

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A little early in you journey to be to concerned about but when playing fingerstyle if the last note played with the fretting hand need to ring out you hold that string down until the next note is played.

In fingerstyle you don’t think in chords you think in melodic terms. Sometimes one chord transitions to the next, one note at a time.

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If you are playing a fingerstyle ‘pattern’ - a regular pattern such as pimapimapima etc then the most important thing is that the pattern and rhythm remains consistent. If this means you sometimes play an open string when transitioning then that is normally going to sound just fine. In an ideal world you would hit the fretted note then change chord, but just like strumming, sometimes that’s just not possible and so long as you keep the rhythm the audience won’t notice. If you interrupt the rhythm trying to get the last note then that will be noticed.
There will be some ‘chord melody’ fingerstyle songs where the melody is being played on the top strings, and in this case it’s going to be more important to hit all the melody notes, but don’t think that’s what you are getting at here.

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The first note is often the root note of the chord, played on one of the lower strings (in folk and blues, probably 99% of the time). Sometimes it’s open (A, E, D, etc. chords), sometimes not (C, F, G and others). You are right that when it’s an open chord you have extra time to get the chord down while you are playing the open string on beat one. (Note that sometimes beat 1 will involve “pinching” a bass note and a note on the higher strings, in which case you may need the full chord already).

Even if the chord you are changing to requires fretting the bass note, you can save some time by first getting the bass note fretted and while you are playing it, get the other fingers of the chord down.

Personally, I don’t like doing this. I would play all the notes as slow as necessary in order to make the chord changes smoothly. If you really must fingerpick faster than your chord changes allow, then I would skip the last note (the and of 4) completely, instead of playing an open string.

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@muso
Aleksander, it is a very good question with many possibilities to consider when answering.

My main pick up from your post is this …

If you are that new of a beginner you need to build rock solid foundations with the basic skills - chord grips, chord changes, good rhythm based on 1, 2, 3, 4.
Learning PIMA from the very start isn’t part of Justin’s approach, it is more of a classical guitar perspective perhaps but classical begins with single note melodies, not chords and arpeggiation of chords with finger picking patterns.

Coming to your question.

One of the first songs Justin teaches fingerstyle is Everybody Hurts - REM.
The change from D major to G major uses the open G string at the end of a bar, not a fretted note. THis is perfect for beginners as it allows fingers to lift and prepare for the next chord.

And I would say that is the best way to approach learning for you. Yes, incorporate open strings as much as you need to make the chord changes happen on time.
Landing on the next chord at the right time is far, far more important than ensuring the final note of a bar is fretted within a chord grip or open.

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I will be direct and honest, but bear with me.

This IS a good question but, in my eyes, also an indirect signal that you need to get your “rhytmic auto pilot” to a more robust level.

  • Make sure your strumming foundation is solid and on auto polit, this will actually reduce concious wondering about this. It IS a good question but it is something we do unconciously because we focus on keeping the rhythm and timing in both physical and mental ways (feeling it, nodding, tapping, counting, percussive hits, etc)

  • Regarding your experience, remain self-ciritical and record yourself and use rhytmic help. A metronome, drum track, a soudn that you loop…whatever you feel comfortable with. Prime directive should be: Can I keep up at all, no matter what the speed is? When we haven’t engrained the rhytmic timing enough, we tend to focus so much on playing the right notes, you might lose track of the rhythm. This is better observed when checking a recording of yourself.

More about this in my “Community tip” article about auto-pilot:

Meanwhile, get your strumming in. Not only is that the bottom layer of your song, it is the most important one. when thing go awry in the upper parts like melody, embellishments and decorations, you need to be able to fall back to that mid song.
Yes, many will hear me echo; “rhythm is king” :wink:

Bottom line is, if you want to FEEL FREE at a certain point, to play the notes you feel like playing at THAT particular moment, you need the brain power to do so and not be occupied with things like rhytm and how to play it.

Not to sound crude or anything but I believe this:
When you have trained your changes strumming well enough, you do your well timed changes for fingerstyle on auto-pilot as well and this wouldn’t be a concious question to ask

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Thank you all for taking your time to answer,

“A little early in you journey to be to concerned about” haha, I’ll try not to read this with a negative tone…

"If this means you sometimes play an open string when transitioning then that is normally going to sound just fine. In an ideal world you would hit the fretted note then change chord, but just like strumming, sometimes that’s just not possible and so long as you keep the rhythm the audience won’t notice. "
This has been my experience exactly

“Even if the chord you are changing to requires fretting the bass note, you can save some time by first getting the bass note fretted and while you are playing it, get the other fingers of the chord down.”
Thank you, this has been my intuition

“And I would say that is the best way to approach learning for you. Yes, incorporate open strings as much as you need to make the chord changes happen on time.”
Thx man

“Make sure your strumming foundation is solid and on auto polit, this will actually reduce concious wondering about this.”

"Meanwhile, get your strumming in. "
“…you need the brain power to do so and not be occupied with things like rhytm”

Hehe, I’ve srtuggled with some chords, especially Dmajor transitions and some callouses and finger tingling, but not strumming, 7/8 is one of my favorite patterns to practice chord transitions, hehe. (long time percussionist here)

“When you have trained your changes strumming well enough, you do your well timed changes for fingerstyle on auto-pilot as well and this wouldn’t be a concious question to ask”

Sure, I understand this, my question wasnt just about the technical part of the transition but also regarding stylistic flavor of letting open strings ring between some chord transitions- now i understand one thing is to do this accidentally another to do it on command when musical context allows it.

Have a great day everybody…

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if you CAN let it ring and it works, it sure sounds liek a sweet, organic flow. most of the times, you’ll be going to a chord that doesn’t have an open string there so muting off a note at an odd time could sound wrong.

THOUGH, making a sequence of shapes that keep one or more open string(s) going will sound very interesting. it can be a droning note and something left open in the middle of a chord shape. harder to do with great effects; I try this in my bridge section of Dust In The Wind

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Please don’t take this kind of comment negatively, especially from our well established and knowledgeable instructors and moderators.

This comment is out of respect for where you are and what you are trying to learn and has a lot of rational and experience behind it.

The intention is to help you become a better player and not struggle with something that is actually quite advanced.

Your question is excellent, and it shows you are thinking well about what is going on with notes and playing.

I play classical and steel, predominantly fingerstyle. Or, at least, that is what I am working on. Over time, you will developed skills that allow you to pick the strings and fret notes with appropriate timing to remain legato (smooth and consistent), link the segments of musical thought with the appropriate carryover or absence thereof. You will fret chords or notes as required for the musical piece, your ability and your expression.

This is all pretty advanced and after 2 months, it is great to think about, but don’t sweat it too much yet. Work on smooth chord transitions, rhythm, timing, rhythm, more rhythm.

If you want to start practicing fingerstyle patterns, and I would not be one to discourage this, make the whole pattern slow enough to make the chord change not beak the flow. (I spent a long time correcting the bits of string picking them the pause of chord changing, you don’t want to learn a pause between chord changes).

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