How to Practice Guitar Chords: Chord Transition Exercises for Beginners

Beginner guitar chords: where to start

Em and Am are enough to start: they are easy to finger and work well together. Then add C, G and D. Ten chords are enough for hundreds of songs, as described in ten chords for hundreds of songs. For the easiest chords to begin with see your first chords.

How to practice a single chord

Place your fingers and check each string one by one to make sure it rings. If a string is dead, the problem is finger position: a finger rests on a neighboring string or does not press the fret firmly enough. Adjust and check again. More in clean chord fretting.

Then strum the chord evenly and lift your hand away. Place it again from scratch. Placing the shape from the air is the skill of changing chords.

Chord transition exercises

Take two chords and the trainer below. It counts the beats and plays the next chord on every first beat. Your job is to get your fingers in place by the last beat.

• Start at 50 to 60 BPM with four beats per chord.
• Place the next chord on the last beat, not after the change.
• When ten changes in a row are clean, raise the tempo by 5 BPM or reduce the beats per chord.
• If mistakes appear, lower the tempo. Speed comes from accuracy, not the other way around.

Changing between three and four chords

When two chords work, add a third and a fourth. Try the most common sequence in songs: Am, C, G and Em.

Guitar chord practice: a 10-minute routine

A simple routine for every day:

• 3 minutes: one chord at a time, every string rings.
• 5 minutes: changing between two chords with a metronome.
• 2 minutes: an even strum over the changes, like in a song.

What to read next

If your changes are not getting faster, read how to change chords faster and how to play guitar chords. Every chord with a diagram and sound is collected in the Riffonic chord trainer.