The eye is quicker than the hand??

Hello all,

this is a great website. Well, I've only got myself a guitar 3 weeks ago and I am 23 years old. I've bought an acoustic Ibanez, I think I will buy an electric guitar but only after I've learned to play better.
Anyway, I have a question for the veteran guitarists... I am now mostly learning chords and having fun with the guitar (as I've once been to music school for a couple of months as a kid and it was torture and if anything it made me loose interest, so I've decided that I won't repeat that mistake, I will only do what I want and when I want to, but most of all I will enjoy doing it). So, the question; my speed is terrible. I can play the chords but the tricks here, even the easy ones seem hard. Everything seems easy enough, but the speed is just dreadful. What I'd like to know is did everybody have these problems and does practice improve the speed in every case or is my guitar playing a lost cause and I am too old to have started in the first place? Anyway, can anyone tell me how to build up speed?

Best wishes to you all,

Andrej Petelin

I think that everyone would agree that speed will only (logically) come with lots of practice. Practice changing from chord to chord. ....not much else to say 'bout that

Here here...chord changing speed pretty much comes with practice. One little tidbit that might help would be to simplify your chord changes...take for instance an open

G chord
e ---3---
b ---3---
g 0------
d 0------
a --2----
e ---3---

Moving to an Open

D chord

e --2---
b ---3--
g --2---
d 0-----
a x-----
e x-----

Notice the D (3) on the second string. You can play this note in each chord with the same finger....probably your third or ring finger. This would be your "pivot" finger. Meaning you don't lift this finger off the fretboard when switching between these chords. There are a lot of chord changes where you can use a pivot finger to help you change more quickly:

Open C to Amin (only finger that moves would be your ring finger...first and second fingers are pivot fingers. Play around with chords and try and find your pivot fingers.

Good luck and don't be afraid to ask for help!

[Edited by fendermonkey77 on 02-01-2002 at 08:19 PM]

Thanks, I'm going to work on it.
I've got a friend who's a guitarist for years now and he's pretty impressed with my progress, he also says an electric guitar is a lot more forgiving than an acoustic so it's better to start on an acoustic.
Thanks for the help :)

Andrej

P.S.: Paul Hewson? Isn't that Bono Vox's real name?

egggggggggggzellent...
i hate getting tab that doesn't have the chords too, because then i have to figure out when i should move my fingies to the new positions.

Paul Hewson = Bono...very good.

egggggggsellent.....isn't that Mr. Burns? he he

I don't think you started too late. Well, in fact I don't think there's somthing like starting too late.

I didn't start with chords when I first started playing guitar. It's one thing I regret. I played metal so powerchords were my gods. Then I turned quickly to lead guitar.

I really started playing chords about 7 years after I picked up my first guitar. It took me about 6 months to really feel confortable and being able to switch chords with enough speed.

Don't loose your motivation and learn new songs on a weekly basis. At least one or two a week and you'll always want to play.