Hi,

I wonder if you could help me with a question about learning the guitar. Sorry if the terminology is unclear. When do you start moving you fingers to the next chord? For example:

Two bars of 4/4 the first bar is the E chord and the second is Am. The strumming pattern is a simple down on each beat so the count would be:

1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4[br]D D D D / D D D D[br]

At what point would you start moving your fingers from the E chord shape to the Am shape?

Once you start moving your fingers in place for the Am chord the following will occur to the strings that are currently ringing out.

The Low E to mute when you place your fingers and thumb in the Am shape.

The B on the A string to stop ringing out as you lift your fingers

The E on the D string to stop ringing out as you lift your fingers (before refretting it with a different fingure if you use the standard fingure placements)

The G# on the G string would also stop ringing out for the same reason.

The open B string would stop ringing out as soon as you fret it with the C in Am (assuming you don’t fret it hard enough to cause a hammer on effect)

The high E string would just remain ringing out throughout the process until you strum the notes on the first beat of the second bar.

So do you start moving them immediately after the downbeat? Or do you look to move your fingers as late as possible, letting the E chord (in this example) ring out for as much of a full count as possible?

Thanks for the help.