GUITAR
HOW TO SWITCH GUITAR CHORDS FASTER: 4 DRILLS | David Harsh
Are you struggling with switching between chords? You may know chords individually, but the moment you try to play them in sequence, in rhythm, things just don’ t sound so good. Can this be fixed? Yes. This challenge isn’ t a talent problem, it’ s a training problem, and training problems have solutions. Today, I’ m going to take you through four drills that will cut your chord switching time in half, plus a pro tip at the end.
You’ ll want to check out the accompanying video for some of what I’ m unable to cover here, and to see these drills in action.
Why Guitarists Struggle with Chord Changes Your brain is learning a new motor skill. In the early stages of learning any motor skill, whether it’ s catching a ball, typing, or forming a guitar chord, it must consciously think through every step: which finger goes where, how much pressure, where to look. That feels slow and clunky. But with repetition, those steps collapse into one smooth, automatic movement- muscle memory- which stops requiring your full attention.
Most beginners try full-speed transitions before they’ ve built any muscle memory. When it doesn’ t work, they think they’ re not musical.
They’ re not- they’ re just skipping the step where muscle memory gets built. That’ s what these drills fix.
The biggest chord-switching mistake is stopping the strum to make the switch, even for a fraction of a second. That hesitation breaks the groove. The goal is to speed up your transitions while keeping the rhythm going in your strumming hand.
Drill 1: The Silent Switch This is the foundation of everything else. No strumming, no sound- just switch silently between two chords, over and over, as smoothly as you can. If you’ ve been playing a few months and have C and D down, use these.
If newer, try C2 and Dsus4: trickier names, easier shapes. Any time I refer to C and D,
you can sub in these shapes and voicings if you want.
Set a timer for sixty seconds and switch back and forth, as slowly as needed to stay accurate. Watch your fretting hand and lift your fingers as little as possible- slide them along the surface instead of lifting high and dropping back down. Less movement means faster switching.
The only risk here is your fingers may not land on the correct strings- the next drill checks for that.
Drill 2: The Ridiculous Switch A colleague of mine, musician and coach Dawn Jones, taught me the phrase“ reduce it to the ridiculous”- a level where“ pretty good” and“ close enough” don’ t apply. If you’ ll be playing this transition thousands of times, wouldn’ t you want to play it well?
With C and D, look closely and you’ ll find two
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