I’ve only started trying to learn guitar agian recently, but thanks to the early lessons on this site, plus videos by others on YouTube, I’ve had a bit of an epiphany that should be a big help with my progress going forward. I just wanted to share a couple of things I’ve been doing.
Like all beginners, changing chords quickly can be a challenge. I believe one mistake I’ve been making is thinking that a chord is just where I place my fingers, when it is, in fact, where I place my entire hand including: fingers at the frets, thumb position, finger arch, and the position of the palm.
The first goal is to improve my muscle memory. I do this by putting my hand flat on my lap, to completely reset the hand, then fretting the chord, then back to the lap. Each time I take notice of all the elements of hand position that I mentioned before.
The next step is to prevent my brain from micromanaging my fingers. I just want to think A chord or Dm and go right to it. I’m accomplishing that by always using a metronome when practicing chord changes. I set it to 4/4 and on beat 1 go to chord 1, then on beat 3, I go to chord 2. Beats 2 and 4 are the time for the change. I set the tempo so that it is right at the point where it’s becoming a challenge. That way not only am I learning rhythm, but I’m so concerned about getting the change on time, I’m not overthinking positioning the individual fingers.
Of course, I’m not exactly lightening fast at the moment, but I am seeing some solid progress. I just wanted to share that.