Guitar Practice Routine – Chord Change Exercise

A difficult hurdle to overcome as a beginner guitar player is mastering your chord changes. You must be able to change from one chord to another quickly and without error.

You are likely to get frustrated in the beginning as your fingers won’t do what you want them to do.  This is normal and it will take time for you to develop what’s called “Muscle Memory”.  Muscle Memory develops from performing an activity over and over again.  You perform an activity so often, that eventually it becomes second nature and you don’t even think about it. This is what will happen eventually with your guitar playing.

Here is an excellent chord practice routine that you can add to your daily practice sessions.  This is a great way to improve your chord changes and develop that muscle memory.  This is a wonderful exercise that will help you become better at learning how to change between all of your open chords.

What  you do is play the following chords, in the order they are listed (I have provided links to lessons on how to play each chord) :

G Major , C Major,  E Minor,  C Major, A Minor ,E Major , A Minor , D Major, G Major, A Minor, C Major, G Major, A Major, D Minor, G Major, E Minor, C Major, D Major, D Minor, C Major, G Major

Play each chord above in the order they are listed using the following strumming pattern:

DOWN/UP/DOWN/UP

Go very very slowly at first so that you are playing each chord accurately and your changes are precise and not sloppy.  Do not rush through these chord changes.