I’m super new to this fun journey… so is it advisable to NOT look at the neck/fingers when you do these chord changes and the counts? I saw the video and was like, hey this is a piece of cake. Man, it certainly isn’t. hehe.
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I haven’t played guitar in years I was worried about this exercise but I was happily surprised 
. Also I found singing the count helpful for me!
Hi John, I’ve been at this for about a year, but am still a solid beginner. My understanding is this: while ideally we could all do this blindfolded, few ever do so. So, looking at the neck is ok. (Have you ever watched your favorite player performing a piece that they are totally lost in? They close their eyes, look at their hands…seems it’s all ok!) It’s just that we don’t want to rely on looking at the neck, and strive to minimize it. More seasoned folks may have additional (better) guidance!
Keep having fun!
Wow, I feel like a fool - I had to go back and watch the video, because I’ve spent the past couple weeks counting each A-D pair as one change, when we’re instead counting each chord played. By that metric, I can push 45-50 changes, but they are extremely sloppy – because I was shooting straight for 30 A-D pairs, which would be 60 changes per the lesson! I’ll definitely have to work on getting clear chords now that I understand the lesson better.
I feel like my picking can get quite sloppy before my minute is up, though. Sometimes I’m strumming straight down the strings, sometimes I’m coming down at an angle and scraping across the pickguard. The latter usually sounds pretty ugly. What should I do to get a more consistent picking sweep?
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I understand from other people’s comments that there are several approaches to chord change exercises, what you are doing now is fine for the OMC’s but you also need to be progressing over time to perfect changes, this is where you need to slow right down and make sure the chords sound “perfect” and then gradually combine the two methods. The next step is to introduce air changes so the chord is formed before placing the fingers on the strings. Regarding the “sloppy picking” I’ve had this problem, what I have tried to do is isolate the issue, muting the strings and treat it as a separate training exercise starting slowly and building up the speed in the hope It’ll improve over time. Good luck!
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Wow - this was a super helpful exercise. Was surprised when I did 30 on my first go… though about 27 sounded a bit funky… Four attempts later I did 74. Will keep practising now to improve the sound!
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Started this lesson today! 45 changes in 1 min. But many were not sounding good. Great exercise
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27 on my first minute
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12 on my first day learning these cords!
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31 changes on my first attempt. Fingers were on the right strings and in the right frets, though they didn’t all sound clear on the strum - most but not all.
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Thank you!
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Should I be focused solely on the chord changes when doing this or is the strum of the strings also important? For instance, in this exercise, Justin shows D to A. D’s strum uses four strings while A’s uses 5. I ask this because I feel like I spend more time fumbling with the strings(strum) when doing this exercise than my fingers. Should I be stopping to look at the strings and make sure I’m associating the strum with each one? Or should I be looking solely to practice the changes? Is the strum thing more of a (perfect 1min change) as discussed later on in the course?
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Hi @JustChance
If I understood right, the question you are asking is how important is it at this stage in your journey to hit the correct strings (e.g only the four bottom strings for D chord)
I think it is important to make the effort, however if you do occasionally hit the fifth string while playing a d chord for example then that is fine. It will still sound okay.
Keeping the hand moving and getting the right chord shapes are most important at this stage in my opinion.
If you find you are hitting all six strings every chord you might want to address it by muting the strings (holding your hand over the strings) and focusing just on the strums…Again no big deal if you occasionally hit a wrong note at this stage.
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thank you
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This is primarily an exercise for your fretting hand, and I think you’ll get more benefit by just strumming all the strings if that is easier.
The time to focus on strumming the correct strings is Perfect Chord Changes.
By practicing both exercises, you will find that your string targeting will improve, as well as your speed. Especially when you get to Perfect Fast Changes.
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Thank you
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About 20 on my first try. Proud of myself, for someone who hasn’t done anything like this before.
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From an average of 47 chord changes yesterday to an average of 66 today - at least according to the App. It’s amazing how repeating stuff regularly does seem to pay off indeed 
I’m still using the old A though, since it’s so ingrained in my muscle memory, even when I haven’t touched a guitar for more than five years.
I suppose, the old A will do or should I actually invest in relearning the shape?
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