Hi I have a rather peculiar question. I have mental/emotional health problems and I take several medications. But they have side effects, just like all medications. The problem is that one of these side effects is tremors, and I’m wondering if this is hindering me. I’m practicing the Dm chord (changing chords Dm - Am and Dm - A), which has been more difficult. I use fingers 1, 2 and 3 for Dm. Since I’m doing the course again, I know it’s a matter of practice. However, it seems I’m not progressing any further. In the OMC exercise, I’m not going much past around 75 on Dm - A and 65 on A - Dm average (I know the requirement is something between 20-30 or 60 ideally), but I like to be around 85+. It’s been difficult to reach this goal; my fingers are often off the strings (even though the requirement is only to place the fingers on the correct string and fret). Or is this normal? Like not always being able to get 85+ in this exercise? What’s happening?
There’s no reason whatsoever to aim for 85 OMC - you won’t need that kind of speed to play songs.
Dm isn’t the easiest chord, and lots of people struggle with it. But it’s also a chord that’s not used all that often, so if there has to be one chord at which you are a bit less good, let it be Dm.
So my guess is there’s nothing wrong, you’re just aiming too high. Don’t let this slow you down, and move on if you’ve mastered the other exercises.
I have to agree with Els, there is no need to aim for 85 pm. If you can hit 60 plus you will be good for most songs you encounter and that is where it matters most. Any reason you chose 85 as a target ?
Your mistaking chord changes for BPM. A song at 120 BPM, 4/4 time will have 30 chord changes a minut if there is a chord change per bar. Even less if any chords last more than 1 bar. So as a beginner 30 changes a minute is more than enough to play any of the grade 1 and 2 songs.
it would be more useful to have 30 changes a minute with all 8 chords in grade 1 than spending a long time trying to get 85 changes on a few chords.
Others commented von the BPM, which I agree with, but you also talk about fingers slipping or missing the strings when grabbing the chords, particularly Dm I presume.
When learning a new chord shape portraying to get it to become second nature, it can be very frustrating, and often just changing from moving from a different sharpe to another in a change sequence can throw you off even though you were ok before, For example you nail changing open G to Dm, but then you try going from C to Dm and it falls apart. This is because there are different subtle finger movements involved.
A method that I think justin talks about, I cannot remember where, is to initially just grab th chord, so Dm doing it slowly and concisely, and then releasing it and shaking your hand out. you repeat grabbing the chord many times until it feels natural. Initially don’t even bother strumming the chord, once you can grab it easily the try and check all th4 strings sound out fully, adjust you grip as needed and re-practice grabbing, Once Dm is all good then practice going from say G to Dm until easy, and th4n from another chord shape a to Dm and so on. When you are comfortable with the changes between chords, then add strums patterns and gradually increase tempo, start with D D D D, then Du Du Du Du, and then ‘good Old Fathful’, at first jus tcdhange chords =on beat 1, but as it gets easier change mid bar or on another beat,. The more you vary what you do but try to get accurate withe each you do the easier it will become. Every guitarist has to do this to an extent when they lear a new chord shape of comination of changes, but I am told it gets with time.
Lots of good advice so far about one minute changes.
But I have an additional question… Are you also practising perfect chord changes in the same practice sessions you do OMC?
It’s very important to do both. There have been a few cases here where people only focus on OMC, and neglect PCC. This often leads to problems… They can do a lot of fast sloppy chord changes that don’t sound good.
I don’t really understand why it works, but there is some kind of synergestic effect between these two exercises that - done together – leads to significant improvement.
Given that you play Dm with fingers 1, 2 & 3, your 3rd finger is on the B string and so provides an anchor to change to A then back again. Your 3rd finger stays in contact with the string, slides down from fret 3 to fret 2 (going Dm to A) then back up again (going A to Dm).
Great advice, I’ll try to anchor the finger on my practice session today (Dm - A).
By the way, I’m not playing any songs, I’m doing only chord progressions, and I chose Dm - A because is hard (for me at least, until I master it) and I want to practice hard things as well, like Justin says to practice things that you can’t do
Just remember that it’s not uncommon that songs people like playing are not the ones they like listening to. And make sure that you don’t hamper your progress by being over-selective. It might actually result in you needing longer to get to the stage where you’re able to play what you do want to play.
I have a rather peculiar question. I have mental/emotional health problems and I take several medications. But they have side effects, just like all medications. The problem is that one of these side effects is tremors, and I’m wondering if this is hindering me. I’m practicing the Dm chord (changing chords Dm - Am and Dm - A), which has been more difficult. I use fingers 1, 2 and 3 for Dm. Since I’m doing the course again, I know it’s a matter of practice. However, it seems I’m not progressing any further. In the OMC exercise, I’m not going much past around 75 on Dm - A and 65 on A - Dm average (I know the requirement is something between 20-30 or 60 ideally), but I like to be around 85+. It’s been difficult to reach this goal; my fingers are often off the strings (even though the requirement is only to place the fingers on the correct string and fret). Or is this normal? Like not always being able to get 85+ in this exercise? What’s happening?
. And getting faster (and precisely) is good, right?
