Greetings all,

🙃 Hi, my Name is Darren and I am returning to the site after a three or four year break.  I am determined to conquer the guitar, if it kills me, and it probably will 😬.  I am just progressing from that beginner stage but I am being held back by the strumming pattern and chord speed changing issue.  As I live alone there is no-one to ask for advice, so, I am hoping that there is someone out there that can throw a little advice in my general direction.  Maybe my practice routine is totally upside down and I need to start again.  I am practicing every day as time is something that I have plenty of  so................... I have even given myself the incentive of purchasing a Gibson SG Standard '61 Maestro Vibrola' Vintage Cherry with Nickel Hardware & a PRS Myles Kennedy Signature 'Hunters Green', but I am not allowing myself to play them until I get myself to a worthwhile standard.  Yes you have worked it out, I am crazy 😜, but a little craziness helps.  So, time to hang upside down for half an hour before I practice again.  Take Care & Keep up the hard but great work.

Darren J

Welcome back

This is a fact, the more I play the better I play. So keep practicing and learning songs. And if there was one big aha moment for me it was learning to play by ear. I used to download tabs now I just listen, find it on the guitar and play it. I’m not looking for perfection, I just want to play a tune. 

Good luck

Bill

Hey, Darren.

You mention strumming patterns & chord changes being challenging.  At the beginner stages it's best to separate tasks & focus on them in isolation, then gradually put things together as you automate them.

For example, for part of your practice session, pick two chords you are struggling with.  Just focus on the motions of switching between those chords.  Don't strum in time, don't try to add in any other tasks.  Just focus on the motions required to get smoothly, efficiently between those two chords.

For another part of your practice session pick one chord (or two that you find easy to change between) and just focus on strumming in time.  Turn on a lesson with that chord, or a backing track or a metronome and strum in time.  Pick an easy pattern, quarter notes at first, then gradually add in some very specific eighth note strums.  The GF courses are great for finding material focused on this.  If you need links to specific chords, please ask.

You'll need to just focus on these tasks in isolation for a while until your mind & fingers are willing to do these motions automatically, gradually becoming second nature.  It takes some students a shorter time and some a longer time.  But the same thing has to happen.  You have to repeat the motions until they become second nature.

Hope that helps.  Keep practicing!