Finding an easy chord change hard

[mdean2805]

I am really enjoying learning to play guitar and am finding Guitar Tricks to be excellent. I am trying the basic country picking course and had no problems at first. But for some reason my fingers (or my head) do not like the chord change from E to B7. In theory this should be quite easy as there should be no need to move my second finger. But I just cannot do it smoothly and cannot seem to keep my second finger still. My head tells me that this should be easy but my fingers do not agree.

Has anyone got any suggestions or is it just a matter of practicing until I get it right?

Mike

[dalduque]

It's a matter of building muscle memory.
Practice makes perfect.
Practice, practice, practice.

[drf46]

I never liked that change either Mike. Hang in there. You will get it.
Doug

[dutchfinest]

I detest the open B7 and the 4 string 5 chord.

Just hang on, you will get to barre chords sooner or later and you can toss those open chords in the fire place.

I must however admit one thing. If you go slow, and repeat (I take multiple lessons per day and mark for myself when I have mastered the concept. Only when completely mastered I stop repeating that lesson daily) until I can do it fluently.

Patience is required with such an approach though.

[mdean2805]

Thanks for the replies. As I thought it is just practice. I do keep a check of how I am doing. It is just unfortunate that some days I seem to go backwards, but I will keep on trying.

[Mike51]

The E to B7 always felt awkward to me as well. As someone with big fingers I always thought it wasn't enough real estate for all those sausages.


Until one day I wasn't thinking about moving my fingers and they just kind of moved on their own. Second finger staying home, 1st and 3rd fingers changing strings in the same fret column. Sometimes its better to clear your mind and allow your subconscious to handle things for a while.