Chord progression

Hey Kevanjake,

My best guess here is that it's all a matter of speed.

If the song were, let's say, half as fast, you could probably get it all synced up. As an experiment, you could try slowing a song down to 50% speed. That should give your hands and mind plenty of time to sync everything up. It might seem boring but you'd probably realize it starts working then.

Or just use a metronome at a very slow, painfully slow tempo and get it working until it's perfect. Then slowly increase.

Being on the spot to play along with a song at tempo can be tough, and easy to lose your place.

Just know this is TOTALLY NORMAL and part of the process. Go very slow, then speed it up once you have your hands and mind in sync. More often than not, for me, it's a mental thing -- I simply can't make a smooth transition from one phrase / part to another because I haven't trained my attention / memory to know it's coming up.

It's the same thing if you are learning some new complex word or last name with a lot of syllables. At first, you'll see the word as gibberish. You go slow, one syllable at a time, work it out. Eventually you can just read and recognize and say it easily. It doesn't help to try to do it in real time until you can go really slow.

-Carl.

Originally Posted by: Carl King

Hey Kevanjake,

My best guess here is that it's all a matter of speed.

If the song were, let's say, half as fast, you could probably get it all synced up. As an experiment, you could try slowing a song down to 50% speed. That should give your hands and mind plenty of time to sync everything up. It might seem boring but you'd probably realize it starts working then.

Or just use a metronome at a very slow, painfully slow tempo and get it working until it's perfect. Then slowly increase.

Being on the spot to play along with a song at tempo can be tough, and easy to lose your place.

Just know this is TOTALLY NORMAL and part of the process. Go very slow, then speed it up once you have your hands and mind in sync. More often than not, for me, it's a mental thing -- I simply can't make a smooth transition from one phrase / part to another because I haven't trained my attention / memory to know it's coming up.

It's the same thing if you are learning some new complex word or last name with a lot of syllables. At first, you'll see the word as gibberish. You go slow, one syllable at a time, work it out. Eventually you can just read and recognize and say it easily. It doesn't help to try to do it in real time until you can go really slow.

-Carl.

Good words from Carl. Particularly, "...use a metronome at a very slow, painfully slow tempo and get it working until it's perfect. Then slowly increase."

Emphasis on 'slow' and 'slowly.'

Good luck, have fun.

Originally Posted by: kevanjake

I am having an issue with chord progression, strumming, and keeping everything together cohesively when I play. When I'm "noodling" with the guitar it seems I can change chords fairly decent - however, when it comes time to play along with a song everything falls apart. Either I change chords seamlessly, strum seamlessly, but never both. Also, as soon as I start to play at normal speeds I tighten up my muscles, press the string too hard, and generally fall apart. Any suggestions on drills? Or anything I can do? I've quit guitar a few times because of similar issues - and at 40 years old I'm determined to stick with it. Thanls for any help!

Have the exact same issue. When setting my own pace, noodling around I do fine. Give me a D D U U D U to strum and the left hand gets stupid along the way or I slow up tempo to change. I think Carl has the best advice to our solution..as my Pro guitar friends say..ROME was not built in a day.,