yes it does make it faster but then again if you don't only want to use open string chords you can use barre chords for any chord (major ,minor,sharp,flat)that you want and that might be easy for you as well.... but depends on the sound your striving for and then you could always do different inversion of the same chord and that also might help you switch easier between chords and also make a better sound for your liking (inversions are just shifting the order of notes in the chord here an example a C major chord is C E G and then the octave C again the inversion could be E G C E) hope i helped :)