Practicing your open-string chords.
Changing chords clearly in rhythm. [Beginner Lesson]
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Anyone who ever picks up a guitar, almost immediately learns that there are chords you must know how to practice, in order to actually play songs on that guitar. There are countless practicing methods and exercises to help you learn how to memorize these chords and how to change them clearly in rhythm. There simply aren't any magic cheats or shortcuts to learning how to play any instrument properly. You have to invest honest, genuine practice time in learning your instrument. There is no other way to get better. The following exercises are focused more towards beginners who struggle to learn, practice and play chords on the guitar so that they can play them in songs.
Beginner Lesson
Let's establish the chords we will be practicing. We're going to use the chords in the key of C major.
First! Get a metronome!
You will need a metronome for these exercises. You can download free apps for your phone. Once you have the metronome, set it to 60 beats per minute (bpm). Each beat (click) will represent one-quarter note, which you will play as one strum. You will also set the time signature at 4/4 time. This means that there will be four strums per measure. If 60 bpm is too fast, you can slow it down in increments to whichever tempo you are comfortable with in changing the chords clearly in rhythm. Try not to go below 50 bpm. The ultimate goal is to be able to play the chords in a progression as quickly as 90-110 bpm.
Remember to strum each chord in the measure, four times.
Exercise 1)
4/4 || C | Dm | C | Em | C | F | C | G | C | Am | C ||
Exercise 2)
4/4 || Dm | Em | Dm | F | Dm | G | Dm | Am | Dm ||
Exercise 3)
4/4 || Em | F | Em | G | Em | Am | Em ||
Exercise 4)
4/4 || F | G | F | Am | F ||
Exercise 5)
4/4 || G | Am | G ||
Practice these exercises ten times each day. Each day, speed up the metronome by two or four bpm. Do not cheat the values of the chords. Each chord should sound clean and complete for every measure.