I finished Justin’s grade 2, module 14, playing without looking video today. Great help! I really wasn’t looking a lot, except when making some chord changes that were giving me fits, especially the ‘C’ chord. Another thing in looking at where my fingers go instead of just playing the chord was, I saw that I had too many options on where to put my fingers. I noticed I was actually looking where to put my fingers to form the ‘C’ chord especially. When I didn’t look, the fingers just went to where they were supposed to go. I’m not saying that all of my chord changes are super smooth at this point, but I can see the value in just ‘playing the chord’ and thinking about it less. I’m just getting into some other chords like a B7, Bm, Cm, etc. and I’m just going for it when I play them. If they’re off, they’re not far off, and I give myself credit for the notes I hit correctly vs. getting frustrated because the whole chord isn’t 100% right. Great video and advice on playing without looking.
Hi Jim, and you deserve credit, my friend nothing wrong with praising yourself well done and keep at it cheers HEC
Good job Jim!
Definitely advantage to playing without looking… I often take it to the next level & play with a 4w nightlight on or even no light at all. It’s difficult at first, but I found that it really helps with finger placement accuracy!
Tod
Great achievement. Congratulations.
When I first started playing and in particular when I did my first open mic I learned very quickly the disadvantage of looking at the fret board while playing, it made my voice fade as the vocal mic was directional and when I turned to look at the fret board my vocals didn’t come through. Yikes.
I’d never paid attention to such detail in watching other guitarists perform so when I saw my next live act, I was amazed to see the guitar player just about never seemed to look at his fretboard and yet here was I glued to it for every chord change. At that time I couldn’t imagine not looking.
It probably took another year or so for me to realize I didn’t need to be glued to the fretboard and now nearly 15 years later I don’t look at it much. Stuff just gets easier the more you do it.
I have the fortune/misfortune to have a bad pinched nerve and it makes it hard to look at the fretboard. I am making progress finally! Ow….
Thanks Hec, I was hoping some of that would help to encourage others if they read the post. Appreciate the feed back!
Ouch is right. Pick on though!
Thanks Tony, I appreciate the feed back and sharing your story as well. Happy picking!
Using your eyes slows you down. Much better to let the fingers learn where to go - slowly at first but they learn quickly. Just think about the lenght of the communication: “brain says play a C chord - eyes go find me where that goes - receive notive back where on the fretboard to put then fingers - then put the fingers in motion” versus “brain says play a C chord and the fingers know where to go”. No brainer really 
I had similar moments as others here when I was struggeling to get some chord changes sound clean, and what fixed it in the end was close my eyes, visualise what movement the fingers would have to make for the change and then slowly let them find the way and then optimise it. Totally agree we need to spread the word on this!
It’s about letting go.
Look all you want, but do not contemplate.
You are taking steps; keep on it.
_R
Another squished nerve player here - Most of my cervical vertebrae are damaged, and the nerve compression soon teaches one to not look at the guitar neck!
With new chords, I tend to either look at the neck with the fingers in place, close my eyes and visualise (and then try to repeat without looking) or use a small mirror mounted on the back of the guitar stand and then try to close my eyes and visualise.
Like others, I find if I then look at the neck things go wonky, and my fretting tends to be worse than not closing my eyes.
Continued success with the guitar playing, Andy. Hope for you the playing takes your mind off the neck pain like it does for many. Music’s a great distraction.