Guitar Tricks Online Guitar Lessons

Extra Practice Tune

 

In this lesson we'll spend a little extra time with these new chords. If you feel like you have a solid handle on the two chords, you can skip this lesson.

In order to switch between the two chords we move our middle and ring finger up and down between the floor and the ceiling. And then for the A minor chord your index finger jumps in with the 1st fret of the B-string.

Now let's do the same example as before, but we'll switch chords twice as fast. So I'll count us in with the usual 1-2-3-4 and then we'll play the E minor chord twice and then we'll switch to A minor and play that twice as well. Then we'll repeat both chords and end on an E minor chord that we let ring.

Remember that you're welcome to kill off any chord that's currently ringing in order to have time to get ready for the next one. How long the chord rings is much less important than coming in right!

And since we play each chord for 2 bars, so you could let it ring fully the first time, then strum it again and kill it pretty quickly after that to have time to get your fingers in place for the next chord.

Anders Mouridsen
Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Tutorial:
Chords On All Six Strings
Styles:
Any Style
Difficulty:
print notation download lesson open guitar tuner
Extra Practice Tune song notation

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Questions & Answers

5 months ago
Why do my fingers hurt so bad? I play for two minutes and the tips of my fingers are all red indented and hurt to the touch. Are my strings to far from the fret board or maybe I’m pushing too hard?
Mike Olekshy 5 months ago

Hello - thanks so much for your question! It could be a combination of both things. A proper setup by a pro guitar tech is recommended if you find the action of the strings too high. Lower action will definitely make things easier, particularly when you're just learning to play. As far as finger pressure, make sure you are using the lightest pressure possible in order to make the note sound clean and clear. More pressure can cause pain and also tuning issues. Hope this helps!

8 months ago
Anders says "kill the chord" but how is he doing that? I can't see how you stop all 6 strings rinigng open during the chord switch
Mike Olekshy 8 months ago

Hello - thanks for your question. To kill the chord, simply remove your fingers from the frets and touch them gently on the strings to mute any ringing notes. You can see Anders straighten his fingers after he removes them from the frets, and the lightly touches the strings to mute any unwanted ringing notes. Hope this helps!

10 months ago
Hi great lessons thank you. I find its hard for me to hit the B 1sr fret w my index finger unless i tilt the guitar a little to see it. is this ok? Otherwise i keep missing it. thanks for any help, bob
Mike Olekshy 10 months ago

Hi Bob - thanks for the kind words and question. Yes that is okay - do whatever you need to do to be able to play the exercise! As your skills increase and your fingers loosen up with muscle memory starting to take over, you'll find you might not need to tilt the guitar at all after awhile.