Chord Transistions Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (7:07) Lesson Introduction Review

- Warm-up the hands.
- Stretch the wrists.
- Play the major and minor open chords.
- Warm up your strumming muscles by relaxing the wrists and letting the pick flow over the strings.
- Play the E major chord in the “new” way and play the type 1 barre chords.
- Play the A major chord in the “new” way and play the type 2 barre chords.
- Practice the “slanting A” technique.
- Practice the type 1 minor barre chords.
- Practice the type 2 minor barre Chords.
- Play all of the type 1 mini-barre chords.
- Play all of the type 2 mini-barre chords.
- Review and practice quantitative and qualitative techniques.
- Review last week’s exercises.

Ready?

Playing chords in between other chords, or more specifically, using chords as transitions between other chords, can be an effective way to smooth out your playing. Ultimately, after learning many of the basic skills that we’ve been discussing over the last several weeks, one of your goals should be to play more smoothly. Interpolating, or inserting chords between other chords can help you acquire a more advanced level of smoothness in your playing and help you become a more polished guitar player in the long run.

"Walking down" is one way of using chords as transitions and steps to other chords. Walking down (or up for that matter) is a technique that produces a smooth, step-wise bass line within the context of a chord progression. In other words, this technique is often used with progressions such as G to Em (with a D/F# in the middle) or C to Am (with a G/B in the middle). Notice the smooth bass movement in each progression (G-F#-E and C-B-A). The chord in the middle serves as the transitional chord.

Interim Chords
So what if you want to insert a chord in between two other chords but you’re not necessarily walking up or down? Well, you can do that too! The trick is inserting the “new” chord into your rhythm structure without losing time. It really doesn’t matter which chords you pick as long as you like them, and as we’ve been working on the concept of keeping time, this concept should fit in well with our current lesson plans. Let’s take the chords G, D and C:

G major
E_3_
B_0_
G_0_
D_0_
A_2_
E_3_

D major
E_2_
B_3_
G_2_
D_0_
A_X_
E_X_

C major
E_0_
B_1_
G_0_
D_2_
A_3_
E_X_

Exercise 1
These are three chords which I’m sure you are quite familiar with by now. Play them in the order G, D, C, D stopping briefly on the D chord. Here’s how you do it:

Play the G and C chords using the strum or "down, down, down-up-down" and just a single or "down" on the D chord. Remember that you need to keep time either by playing with a metronome. Tap your foot and count in your head to further internalize the beat. Watch me carefully in the video for more on this. I chose easy chords for this first exercise so you could get a feel for using an interim chord. Practice this exercise until you get a good feel for it. Chapter 2: (03:34) Exercise #2 Exercise 2
In this exercise, we’re going to use the chords Bm, A and G:

Bm
E_2_
B_3_
G_4_
D_4_
A_2_
E_x_

A
E_0_
B_2_
G_2_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_

Play the chords in the order Bm, A, G, A. We’ll be using the same strum as above or "down, down, down-up-down" and just a single or "down" on the A chord. Again, make sure to keeping time by playing with a metronome. This exercise may be slightly more difficult than the first as you are nows changing between barre and open chords. If you need to review previous lessons on how to facilitate and expedite changes between chords, now might be a good time to do so. One way to simplify the change between the Bm and A chords could be to play the A chord as a “slanting A” using your third finger rather than forming the A in the traditional manner. Try to practice the exercise playing the A chord with your first second and third fingers and also the slanting A technique. Chapter 3: (6:02) Pegging Your Chords When you are using an interim chord and strumming a single time as we’ve been doing in today’s lesson, it is of the utmost importance that you “stick” your chords. In other words, you need to hit your chords right on, in order to keep time. As we delve into more and more difficult rhythms and strum exercises, placing your fingers accurately and in time will be of the utmost importance. Playing the exercises in pieces can be a helpful way to facilitate quicker chord changes and can help you work out individual changes before attempting the entire chord progression.

Exercise 3
In this exercise we’ll be using the chords D (5th fret, type 2 mini-barre), G (3rd fret, type 1 mini-barre) and open D:

D(5th fret)
E_5_
B_7_
G_7_
D_x_
A_x_
E_x_

G (3rd fret)
E_3_
B_3_
G_4_
D_x_
A_x_
E_x_

In this exercise, we’ll be using the strum or "down, down-up-down-up-down" on the two D chords. Again, play a single down stroke on the interim chord, G. Play the chords in the order D (5th), G (3rd), D (open), G (3rd). Notice how the "down-up-down-up-down" strokes are hyphenated? This is to indicate to you that this strum pattern is to be played consecutively with no pauses. Watch me in the video for more on this. The snap-strum that we’ve been talking about for several weeks has now evolved. Play the D (5th) into the G (3rd) then the open D back into the G chord. Can you think of any shortcuts or fingerings that might make the changes easier and quicker for you? Chapter 4: (05:00) Sliding and Chord Changes Exercise 4
Play the same exercise listed above, but this time, slide your chords into position like I demonstrate in the video. By leaving your second or middle finger on the G string at the 7th fret and sliding it down onto the G string 4th fret, you can smooth up the transition between these two chords. Practice playing just the D (5th) into the G chord and focus on leaving your second finger on the G string. Slide that finger up and down the G string and attempt to make both of the two chords sound as good as possible. Once you have a good handle on this change, bring in the open D chord and play the entire progression all the way through.

Exercise 5
Play the whole exercise listed above. This time however, play with your eyes shut. Make sure that you’ve practiced the finger glue technique and have a good feel and mental picture of each chord. If you need to peek periodically that’s okay, but try to play the exercise as much as possible without looking.

Once again, as you probably noticed in these exercises, you will need to adjust your hands, especially from the D (5th) and the G (3rd) to the open D chord. You will notice a necessary change in the twist of your hand and placement of your thumb. Go with it! If you need to make adjustments to your chord hand to accommodate the chord changes then do what you need to do. You need to listen (so to speak) to your body as it will tell you what necessary adjustments you must make when changing chords.

Member Comments about this Lesson

Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.