Musical Instrument troubles

[Brady]

I am no expert on music but I know that people always need help or just have a general question so I have decided to make a new thread! Please help those who need it or post if you need help you can even post tips on any musial instruments!

Ill kick this off:

Is there any tips on how to change from chord to chord on guitar because it takes me 3 seconds?

See easy so post if you have any trouble or tips ;D!

Answered Questions: 1/1

[Rogue]

It mainly takes a lot of practice. That's how you get better at playing most instruments.

I'd also say the way that you hold the guitar would make shitloads of difference. But I haven't been playing enough to really help with that. So my tip of the day is: Practice. So boring, but so true.

[Brady]

Thanks Rogue I will remeber that one!
As they say practice makes you perfect

[Ross Anderson]

Yeah deffinately practise, practise all the fingerings of the chords, then do simple progressions slowly until you can start to speed them up a bit

[jeifer]

Brady - a couple of small things come to mind dude (apart from practise and more practise).
-Exploit common fingers in 2 concurrent chords. For example, Aminor and Cmajor have 2 fingers in common. Amazingly, some players when they start out actually play an Aminor, then take all their fingers off to change to a C. It's heaps easier to leave the two 'common fingers' on the fretboard and simply move the one finger to it's new position to create the C.
Anyone would think that was obvious, but often it's not.

Also, a little exercise called 'reversing', which is just reversing the order you place your fingers on the fretboard when you play a chord.
For example, when you play a C, you might put your first finger on (the 1st fret of string 2) followed by your second and third fingers.
After a short while this becomes a habit. As soon as it does, reverse the order - 3rd finger goes first (on fret 3 of string 5) then second finger, then first finger.
Your habit will be to put your first finger on first, so reversing will feel weird and take longer to get the chord. But only for a little while, and then you'll be changing chords at double the speed.

Man I'll be happy to run over any stuff like this at Music Club so grab me next time and we'll have a bash at that or any other questions.

[Brady]

Thanks Ross.... and that is some pretty handy info Jeff! Im practising heaps now and cant wait for the next meeting!

[chloexflockart]

Have you ever heard of "playing blind"? Mrs Arnold made me do that to learn to change quickly and acurately, and Jeff witnessed me doing that at the club to aviod distraction. First play the chord and REALLY LISTEN AND FEEL where your fingers are, and teh sound your hear, like what does the tone coming from each string sound like? Pick the strings one at a time. Take your hand off and close your eyes and try to repeat the chord again. And again. Until you get the right sound. After a while your brain and fingers will just do it for you with minimal fingering. This also goes for Flute and Violin. And yes, practising chord with common fingering is a great way to boost confidence and remeber chords, more often then not they are in the same key because they share common notes, so practising them won;t kill your playing. Can;t wait to hear you play, bro.

[Brady]

Thanks to everyones help I can play the start of Dammit by Blink 182and play all of Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol! Thanks heaps!

[Ben]

I used to play in the dark when I first started playing guitar, and still even now these days, just to stop myself relying on vision - I guess its the same as the playing blind thing.

Or play it behind your head, if you wanna be the next Yngwie Malmsteen (I think I spelt that right).

[chloexflockart]

How the heck does one manage to play behind their head? That would be one heck of a party trick!

[Ben]

If you practise until you know the part off by heart and don't need to look anymore, you can place the guitar upside-down and sit it on your shoulders and it is a similar action to playing normally.



Like him!