Making your chords transition smoothly without disrupting the beat

One of the fastest ways for anyone to sound like a beginner is to land on the next chord late or to completely miss the chord. The strumming hand won’t skip a beat, but when the fretting hand is scrambling for the chord it needs, the music is going to suffer in the space between two chords. Beginners make this mistake almost every time they change chords because they often think that they are focusing on two individual chords and they aren’t paying attention to the space in between. You should focus most of your attention on the space in between the two chords because the chord transition is actually one skill, and not just the two chords themselves.

A great place to begin is by shrinking down the problem. Take two chords that you know, even if those chords still sound clunky, and just work on getting from one to the other without having to strum any kind of rhythm. Put your fingers on the first chord and let the notes ring, and then switch to the next chord as slowly as you have to. Think about which finger travels the most during the transition and which finger arrives first or could travel the shortest distance to get to where it needs to be. Often, it makes it much easier for you to change chords if you don’t have your fingers flying upward so far from the fretboard. This is because when you move your fingers too far away from the guitar, they will often have trouble landing on the correct strings and in a timely fashion.

Once you have shrunk the movement down and have your transition feeling good, it’s important to begin placing it in time and getting your chords in place while the rhythm keeps going. Begin by counting slowly to four out loud while moving from one chord to the next on beat one, or whenever you want to switch. This is important because the reason why people are usually out of sync isn’t because they can’t move their fingers from chord to chord. Most people know how to move their fretting hand and their fingers from chord to chord. It’s when they have to make the change while the strumming hand keeps the rhythm moving that they begin to have issues. Many beginners will stop the strumming hand to “make room” for their fingers, and then the rhythm falls out of sync. Even if you are just down strumming a single beat, the strumming hand needs to stay moving while the fretting hand makes its transition. If the change doesn’t go smooth, slow the tempo until your fingers get better at making the change and don’t try to rush through it with your hands. Playing in time with your hands and your voice working together is infinitely better than strumming through it fast with your fretting hand missing beats.

Another great way to practice this is to set aside a few minutes of a practice session to work only on changing from one chord to the other and back. First, you want to make sure you can put your fingers in both positions correctly and that both chords sound good. Second, work solely on changing back and forth from one to the other without any other distractions. Lastly, strum a steady beat and try to land on the chord at the exact moment you start strumming. It is perfectly fine if you aren’t able to strum at first because the rhythm is too fast. Allow yourself to strum a beat during the change, or maybe even one beat rest, and keep going and keep moving. Over time you will be able to shorten the space or the amount of time that you strum and change your chord position. All that matters is that your rhythm is not lost during the transition.

Smooth chord changes are not going to happen when you just play whole songs over and over and over until it eventually gets better. Smooth changes will occur when you slow down and study that one part, that transition, and the space in between, and learn how to change from the first chord to the second as the rhythm continues going. That may not feel as satisfying as getting your guitar and strumming through a song you love right now, but it is where you will begin to feel much more in control when you are playing. Once your rhythm is moving along nicely and you have the ability to get your fingers into place in time, you will begin to feel a lot more in control of your playing when you are strumming or soloing.