Brace Yourself, A Brand New Chord Exercise Is Here.

If you're following my beginner guitar course, you should be familiar with the One Minute Changes exercises. In this lesson, we explore a new exercise to improve your chord accuracy and the speed of your chord changes!

When Nitsuj was doing his left-handed lessons, we noticed that these two exercises weren't cutting as the lessons became more advanced. And this is how the Perfect Fast Changes (PFC) exercise was born!

💡 This is a great time to practice the 9 fancy chords we explore in the previous lesson. At this stage, you should be up for a bit challenge! :)

Perfect Fast Changes Guitar Exercise

This new exercise is a magical combination of the two previous chord exercises. With the One Minute Changes, you're going back and forth between two chords. You practice how many chord changes you can squeeze in a minute. No matter how clean or messy those chord changes are, the goal is to build speed and muscle memory.

With the Chord Perfect exercise, you're focusing on getting every finger down in its proper place. You focus on ensuring that each note rings out beautifully as you pay attention to your chord shape. Now with the Perfect Fast Changes exercises - you're combining the two!

Follow these four steps to put this exercise into practice:

1. Choose two chords you find tricky to switch between.

2. See how quickly you can change between while getting each chord as close to perfect as possible!

3. Focus on both speed and quality, but if you need to sacrifice one for the other at first, focus on quality over speed.

4. Build up your speed as your progress.

🚨 It's normal not to have as many chord changes as your One Minute Changes. You might not beat your record right away, but the speed will come as you keep practicing constantly. :)

How To Practice With A Slow Strum

Strum your chords slowly. This way, you'll be able to hit each note of the chord. Then, you can check that all your fingers are where they should be. Suppose your fingers are NOT where they should be - slow down! If you're getting some muted or buzzing strings, slow down some more.

Keep slowing down until you can at least get the chords down correctly. Then, you can start building up your strumming speed.The word 'perfect' can be scary, especially for beginner guitar players! The key here is to get the chords as best you can. And remember, you'll get better and better the more you play.

Give yourself a break and trust the process, but don't be afraid to challenge yourself! Pick some chords that you need to work on. The goal with practicing is always to improve what's more challenging to you. It's not the most fun part of learning guitar. But it'll help you as you progress in your guitar journey.

Up for more? Discover your very first pentatonic scale.