Originally Posted by: panu.rantanen

Hello,

I'm 42 years old guy who started learning to play guitar in January 2019. Never played any musical instrument before (I don't count primary school's horrible flute/recorder lessons).

I'm playing an electric guitar and have no interest in acoustic. Interested in rock(60's to more modern) and perhaps metal(some time later). Though my wife would like me to be able to play some kid's songs to my 4 year old boy and under 1 year old girl. :)

I've been doing Lisa's basics for few months now and did play along "Begin again" and "Cross the Line". Really painful. I've not been able to switch perfectly from one chord to another at the speed of the play along. If I strum all the strings of the chord instead of the first + the rest, then I'm doing it perfectly.

Is it a real problem if I can't nail down the chord changes at the speed of the play alongs at first?

Any suggestions how to continue to learn to switch chords faster?

I've been still practicing them and going forware a little, and probably will go forward again and continue practicing all chord changes.

I'm learning 2-3 times a week, about 1-1,5 hours each time.

I'm 43 years old and just started learning guitar last month in April 2019. I joined Guitar Tricks and bought my first guitar all in the same month. I too, am playing electric guitar and have no interest in acoustic either.

I've found the same concerns with chord speed, but have notice considerable improvements on chord change speed once I learned to go with Lisa's advice on going with a lead finger to transition to the next chord. Rather than rely on all the fingers to land on the next chord's strings, I find it so much easier to rely on the lead finger to land first then I "wrap" the remaining fingers on the other supporting strings of the chord before I strum.

The difference in performance for me is like night and day in terms of response time and speed.

I've also tried training myself to not rely on looking at my left hand so much, and try to feel and "trust" my left hand placement whenever possible.

Just know it's going to take time man. It's like the analogy for typing. We couldn't imagine we would ever be able to strike all the keys on a QWERTY keyboard without ever relying on having to look, much more be fast at it. But over time and since repetition is the mother of all skills, it was possible. As will be training our hand to play the guitar fast, swiftly and accurately.

You are not alone.