Playing different guitars & moving to different chords

[Bud G]

I just bought a Taylor 614 CE & trying to adapt to it from a classical guitar ( which I’ll keep). The difference in neck width is a problem. I notice Brian switches Guitars on almost every lesson but seems to have no problem adapting to the different necks! Also, on chord changes to say a E7#9 (Hendricks chord) or to a A#dim7 again Brian appears to “glide” in & out of these chord changes. It takes me quite a while to conquer these changes. Does anyone have a method or something they can recommend! Or is it “practice, practice, practice”?

[Vorocnan]

Wow that’s an expensive guitar hope your enjoying it, but will be a big change from a classical guitar, I find every lesson is a challenge with a new fingering and fretting position, it can take me months to get some of these fluent but the more you do it you will adapt, so with a new guitar and new material it will take time but look forward to you posting.

[sunjamr]

I started off with a classical guitar, so I know just what you mean. For most songs, I like the sound of steel strings more than nylon strings. Steel strings have more sustain, and you can do better bends and slides. If you had steel strings on a wide classical neck, it would be difficult to make full bar chords unless your fingers are super strong. On the other hand, on a classical guitar it’s easier to hit single notes without touching the neighboring strings. To me, an electric guitar is much easier to play than an acoustic, because the strings are lighter gauge, and the G string is unwound. So the first thing I do after buying an acoustic guitar is put on super light strings, which reduces the volume a little bit, but makes them much easier to play. And as Vorocnan says, the more you do it, the more you will adapt to the new playing techniques.

BTW, I used to live near Sam Pacetti and heard him play many times, and he often plays classical music on a steel string acoustic guitar. Like this:

Sunjamr Steve

[DC]

For switching between different guitars, I find that after switching frequently for a while, my brain just gets it sorted out and muscle memory (well, it feels like muscles but is in the brain) takes care of things. But right now, I haven’t played my classical in about a year so it will definitely feel odd for a while.

For getting chord changes up to speed, the best exercise I have found only takes 1 minute. Take two chords that are causing problems changing between them, set a timer for 1 minute (I actually use 1m10s to give me time to start on 1) and count how many changes you can make in 1 minute. Record that number (I use a spreadsheet). Don’t try to make music or play to a rhythm. Just focus on making the changes.

I keep everything in a spreadsheet, and each practice session I pick the 3 slowest changes and do those. I make sure to only record the last count, not the highest. So if I find a particular chord change is getting rusty, the count might go down.

When I find a chord change giving me trouble when learning a piece, I add it to the list.

DC

PS: I did not invent this exercise. It’s from Justin Guitar, he calls it One Minute Changes. I just can’t emphasise how much this has helped me stay on top of learning new chords.

[Author]

Posts