how do i properly practice chords?

I have been practicing c major chord everyday for about 3 weeks yet no muscle memory has kicked in i practice 30 min to 1hr but i find the longer i practice the worst my technique gets so its jus 15 to 30 min now i cant help feeling im doing something wrong clean sounds are not a problem for me (so far) im just worndering why havent i mastered the c major chord yet my normal routine is slowly placing my fingers on the frets strum the strings take my hand off the fret board shake my fingers and repeat are there alternative ways the get the muscle memory going? i really want to start switch between c major and d major thank you

Hi Matt

this is not uncommon. I think you need to take a break from it for a bit and move on. And you may have to do this several times.

Maybe sit it aside for a day or two and come back to it. I don't know our brains work this way but sometimes the information is in there but we need to take a break to get the wires untangled.

Good luck.

I am finding that the muscle memory seems to be developing faster for me when I do chord changes than it does with the off/on hands drill. If you think about it, most of the time your hand will already be on the strings when you go to play a C (or a D). The only time you go from hand completely off of the guitar to hand fretting a chord is at the beginning of a song, right?[br][br]

Something about the urgency to hit the chord with the beat in a song seems to force me to focus and be more committed to using a shape instead of placing individual fingers, too.

All of that said and hey, guess what? I still suck at this! Good thing there is no deadline and no pressure beyond whatever I put on myself.

Hi there,

Just like Dave said above my post, chord changes are a really great way for your muscle memory. I would suggest learning a simple song from our song library that uses the C major chord and trying to learn that.

Give it a shot! Let us know how it goes.

Best,

Billy

Thank you all for your replies i will most definitely start doing chord switches and look up some simple songs i will let you guys know how it goes.