One Minute Changes Exercise

I think I did that without noticing. I leveled off in speed but my precision got better. I do continue to work on chord perfection as well, even beyond Justin’s prescribed practice routines. I don’t feel like I’m terrible but I worried I missed something in the lessons. Sounds like it will be addressed in future lessons.

2 Likes

I’ve been playing over a year but it wasn’t until I slowed down and played more songs that I cleaned up those sloppy chords. Was a fair exercise at first but in my opinion you have to switch and practice them slower to get them 100% on the money and instill good muscle memory. I repeat until I hit them clean. At 150 BPM your soul can get crushed :slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes

The course gets away from OMC on all the chords in every module and just focuses on the new cord (makes sense or you’d be practicing the various combos all day). I can see the value in getting you to change quickly but I agree that I’ll have to slow down to get the precision and build speed again. And looking ahead, that’s exactly what Justin instructs in Grade 2. Seems like the speed and precision were merging and again, Justin said that kind of happens. In short, I didn’t miss anything and I’m doing fine.

3 Likes

They will come in line one at a time if you also make precision fingering just as important in practice. After a year+ my D chords where still sloppy as heck. I went at things in an opposite way too. I was so intent on doing things right that I was getting nowhere with speed. Speed is a great thing to get down, though, because it forces your mind to juggle and rely on automatic processes.

For what it’s worth, one of the things that I did from the get go was to write down on paper exactly what I thought my hand and individual fingers should be doing all at once. That’s going to help in beginning to have awareness of the physical requirements. Precision at speed is about the hand putting itself in the right spatial orientation for the approach. It’s why transition from one chord to another can be a new sort of nightmare when you are coming from a new angle with a new chord later. Visualization of it also helps. Look at what things look like when things sound good. Try and recreate the positioning from just moving the hand in any way imaginable, not just with chords. Lifting off completely and coming right back down is a good thing to practice too. If you put an emphasis on precision you will eventually develop it. We’ re in such a rush to play music that it often gets glossed over and then we realize we have to step back and put in the effort.

3 Likes

Exactly that.

I find myself fumbling with the chord changes constantly, however they sound good overall. At speed, which I don’t have, not so much.
Nice to have great people here to give you the pointers.

2 Likes

@danmcmartin
My 2 cents for what its worth.
I struggled with OMC too, probably like most of us did. I still do struggle with a few of the changes. (Been playing for 14 months) but what i did was just too stop focus too much on it. I think i was a bit obsessed with them in the start and lost a bit of motivation. So i started to train them more into songs and with much more focus on those i actually use. Not so much on those i dont use that much.
I do practise chord changes every day.but I do those changes i struggle with. But i do them slowly and dont focus on the speed at all. Then i try too play songs with those changes.
I dont really see the benefit of be able too change Dm to Fmaj 100 times a minute when its rearly played in any songs i like too play :grin:

Just keep at it, dont over focus it. And suddenly out of nowhere it just floats by it self, and there is no shame in a sloppy chord here and there either :grin:

3 Likes

For me, the app was the better solution. Everything is in one place, it keeps track of your progress, and has handy timers for things like OMC.

Lots of this can also be done on the website, but not as smoothly.

As others have said, the karaoke song player on the app is the killer feature. Having a wide variety of songs that you can slow down and play along with is extremely motivating!

1 Like

DavidP, I saw the “tap your knee” exercise on YouTube…the GoodGuitarist channel, I think.

I tried it, but ended up modifying it to just leave my hand on the neck, and slap the strings with my flattened fingers. This really did seem to help…forces you to re-shape the chord every time, but less disruptive than tapping your knee.

I also got a lot of value from doing this with a metronome.

Are there advantages to the knee tap that I might be missing?

Another approach that’s helped me is a “play - slap - hover - touch” exercise…really forces you to focus on relaxation and precision of your fretting hand.

2 Likes

@Tbushell

Not that I am aware of, Tom, I think the crux is just a way to create a movement away to add that next level of stretch to the exercise in a way that can be rhythmic.

Your approach sounds like it does all that is required.

2 Likes

Hi WIWWLN (easier to type that :wink: ) and welcome!
How long have you been learning for out of curiosity? When starting out there’s lots of stuff that will ache and hurt as your hands, arms, wrists, fingers (delete as appropriate!) get used to what you’re doing. All perfectly normal and it’ll get better with time.

1 Like

Is anyone else experiencing wrist pain when doing the one minute changes exercise?
Feels like my wrist is burning it usually happens when im doing the A to E chord change

1 Like

I can’t say that I have experienced any pain in the wrist when practising chord changes. How many changes are you doing? How is your wrist position when you are playing the chords?

1 Like

I’ve been playing for around a month

Ok, if you’ve been going at it quite hard in terms of time you’re putting in it could well be your wrists getting used to the positioning.

Perhaps worth slowing the exercise down a little if you’re gunning for the quick changes (I know I was early doors!). Also worth considering what @Socio says above and checking your position versus Justin’s in the lessons.

Oh and above all really try and relax with it if you can. Good luck!

1 Like

Im doing 50-60 chord changes
Here’s how my wrist looks like when playing the A and D chord:
D: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/573226542801616899/953779263037906994/IMG_20220316_1817302.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/573226542801616899/953780173751345182/IMG_20220316_1820582.jpg
A: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/573226542801616899/953780259403227186/IMG_20220316_182032.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/573226542801616899/953780174107844618/IMG_20220316_1820392.jpg

@tRONd

Your approach is exactly right. There are a lot of common chord changes and a lot you are less likely to come across depending on what songs you like.

Justin tells us exactly the same thing in a later video. When choosing which changes we should work on it should always be as and when they crop up in a song we want to play. That makes better use of our practice time and hones the skills we need now rather than some we may never need.

Well done for discovering this on your own and thanks for sharing

2 Likes

@whatiswrongwithlongnames
Kudos to you for taking those photos from such helpful angles.
It really helps analyse and hopefully help.
Justin stresses in the beginner stages that you want to keep your thumb behind the neck and your elbow low. Your thumb is coming high and over the neck, it is causing your elbow to rise and your wrist to twist.
Check these pictures I share with students:

Also, your strung height - the action - looks very high. Have you ever had your guitar set up?

Cheers :smiley:

| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide

1 Like

Thank’s for the tips Richard it feels much better now i tought i wasn’t supposed to bend my wrist like in the first picture.

Also, your strung height - the action - looks very high. Have you ever had your guitar set up?

I never modified my guitar in any way other than replacing the original strings
(Its a Squier bullet SSS without the tremolo bar if that matters)

1 Like

I did have wrist pain when I started with the one-minute changes. I used too much pressure to play the chords and my fingers weren’t loose enough. Furthermore, I can promise you that it will get better.

2 Likes

Yes I’m doing one min test between A and D daily first try was only 16 but now 22. Slow and steady for me. It really does encourage me to keep picking it up. Awesome

1 Like