How to Switch Chords Faster on Guitar: A Simple 4-Step Exercise
So in today's blog, I want to tackle the topic of chord switching.
And usually, the problem isn’t:
“I don’t know the chords.”
The problem is:
You haven’t practiced the movement between the chords enough.
That’s a different skill.
So if you want to get better at switching chords, one of the best things you can do is stop practicing entire songs for a few minutes and isolate the actual chord change.
Don’t practice the chords. Practice the change.
Let’s say you’re having trouble switching between Em and G.
You already know how to play Em.
You already know how to play G.
So spending another five minutes holding an Em chord isn’t necessarily going to fix the problem.
What you actually need to practice is:
Em → G
and then:
G → Em
That movement is the thing your hands haven’t learned yet.
This sounds ridiculously obvious when I write it out.
But a lot of students don’t practice chord changes this way.
Instead, they play through the entire song again, they reach the difficult chord change, it goes badly, then they continue playing for another 20 seconds before they get another chance to practice it.
That’s not very efficient.
If one particular change is giving you trouble, isolate it.
Do it again.
And again.
And again.
Make the rhythm easier before you make it harder
Another common mistake is trying to practice chord changes using the full strumming pattern immediately.
Now your brain has to deal with:
remembering the chord
moving your fingers
landing cleanly
keeping the beat
remembering the strumming pattern
and somehow not looking terrified 😆
That’s a lot.
So instead, simplify the rhythm first.
Give yourself a ridiculous amount of time to change chords.
Then gradually take that time away.
Here’s a simple four-step exercise I use for exactly this.
We’ll use Em and G as an example, but you can do this with basically any two chords.
Exercise 1: One strum per bar
Start with the easiest version possible.
Play Em on beat 1.
Then do nothing on beats 2, 3, and 4.
Use that extra time to calmly move your fingers into the G chord.
Then play G on beat 1 of the next bar.
Again, wait for beats 2, 3, and 4.
Then change back to Em.
So you get:
Em — 2 — 3 — 4 | G — 2 — 3 — 4
You have almost an entire bar to prepare the next chord.
That’s intentional.
At this stage, I don’t care how fast you can switch.
I want the movement to be clean and controlled.
No panic.
No throwing your fingers at the fretboard and hoping something good happens.
Just:
Play.
Move.
Prepare.
Play.
Exercise 2: Two strums per bar
Once Exercise 1 feels comfortable, take away some of your preparation time.
Now play on beats 1 and 2.
Rest on beats 3 and 4.
Then change chords.
So:
Em — Em — 3 — 4 | G — G — 3 — 4
Now you only have two beats to make the switch.
A little more demanding, but still comfortable.
Exercise 3: Three strums per bar
Next, play beats 1, 2, and 3.
Rest only on beat 4.
Then change.
Now the exercise starts feeling much closer to actual music.
You have:
Em — Em — Em — rest | G — G — G — rest
Beat 4 becomes your preparation beat.
Use it.
Don’t wait until beat 1 of the next bar to suddenly remember:
“Oh yeah. New chord.”
The change should already be happening before the next chord arrives.
This is a really important habit.
Exercise 4: Four strums per bar
Finally:
No built-in rest.
Play all four beats.
1 — 2 — 3 — 4
Then change chords and keep going.
Now we have:
Em Em Em Em | G G G G
This is where you’re actually maintaining a continuous rhythm through the chord change.
And if the first three exercises have done their job, this should feel much easier than if you had started here.
That’s the whole idea.
You’re not magically getting faster.
You’re gradually reducing the amount of time your hand has to perform a movement it has already practiced.
Your fingers shouldn’t arrive one at a time forever
Another common beginner habit is building every chord finger by finger.
First finger.
Second finger.
Third finger.
Check everything.
Strum.
That’s fine when you’re first learning the shape.
But eventually, you want the hand to start recognizing the chord as one movement.
Not three separate instructions.
The goal is to make the movement automatic enough that you don’t have to rebuild the chord from scratch every single time.
Keep your fingers close to the fretboard
Watch what your fingers do when you change chords.
Do they lift half a kilometer into the air?
Beginners often do this without realizing it.
Every extra bit of movement takes time.
So when you release the first chord, try to keep your fingers reasonably close to the strings.
They don’t need to completely leave the neighborhood. 😆
You can also compare the two chord shapes.
Ask:
What actually needs to move?
Which finger has the farthest distance to travel?
Can anything stay close to where it already is?
The more efficient the movement becomes, the easier the chord change gets.
Don’t sacrifice the rhythm to save the chord
This is another big one.
Imagine you’re strumming through a song and the next chord is coming.
Your left hand isn’t quite ready.
A lot of students do this:
STOP EVERYTHING.
Find the chord.
Okay.
Continue.
Musically, that’s often worse than playing one slightly imperfect chord while keeping the rhythm moving.
Eventually, you want the right hand to think:
“I don’t care what’s happening over there. We’re still on beat 3.” 😆
That doesn’t mean accuracy doesn’t matter.
Of course it does.
But keeping time is also part of playing music.
When you start putting these exercises into songs, try not to let every imperfect chord completely derail the rhythm.
Practice the chord change that is actually giving you trouble
Let’s say a song has:
G – D – Em – C
Maybe G → D is easy.
D → Em is fine.
But every time you hit:
C → G
everything falls apart.
Don’t practice the entire four-chord progression 50 times.
Practice:
C → G
That’s the problem.
Fix the problem.
Then put it back into the song.
I use this idea all the time in lessons.
Shrink the target.
The smaller the problem becomes, the easier it is to actually solve.
When should you move to the next exercise?
Don’t rush through the four steps just because Exercise 4 looks more impressive.
A simple rule could be:
Can you do the chord change cleanly 10 times in a row?
If yes, try the next exercise.
If not, stay where you are for a little longer.
And “cleanly” matters.
If your strategy is:
“I technically changed chords 14 times, although nine of them sounded like a collapsing bookshelf”
that doesn’t count. 😆
Accuracy first.
Then reduce the available time.
Add a metronome
Once the movement itself makes sense, add a metronome.
Start slowly.
Maybe 60 BPM.
The exact number doesn’t matter.
What matters is that you can stay with the click.
Then work through the same four exercises.
One strum.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Once that feels easy, increase the tempo slightly.
Don’t jump from 60 BPM to 120 because you got excited.
Small increases are fine.
Use the same exercise with other chords
Once Em → G feels comfortable, use exactly the same system with other chord changes.
For example:
G → C
C → D
Am → C
Gm7 → C7
Bbm7b5 - Eb7(b9)
Dmaj7#11 → Amaj9
And later you can use it with harder changes.
Barre chords.
7th chords.
Whatever you’re working on.
The exercise doesn’t really care which chords you use.
You’re training the transition.
Then put it back into the song
This is the final step.
Because the goal isn’t:
“I am now incredibly good at alternating between Em and G while staring at a metronome.”
The goal is to play music.
So once the chord change starts feeling smoother, go back to the song that was giving you trouble.
Try it again.
Usually, you’ll notice that the difficult section suddenly feels much more manageable.
And if it still doesn’t?
Pull the problem back out.
Practice the transition again.
Then put it back.
This is a much more efficient way to practice than playing the entire song from beginning to end and hoping the difficult parts eventually fix themselves.
Try this today
Pick one chord change that gives you trouble.
Then:
Play one strum per bar.
Repeat the chord change 10 times.
Play two strums per bar.
Repeat 10 times.
Play three strums per bar.
Repeat 10 times.
Play four strums per bar.
Put the chord change back into the song.
That’s it.
You could probably do the entire exercise in five minutes.
And five focused minutes on the actual problem can be much more useful than 30 minutes of replaying the whole song.
Because if you want to get better at switching chords:
Don’t just practice the chords.
Practice the space between them.
Want help getting your chord changes smoother?
If you know the basic chords but still struggle to change between them smoothly, that’s exactly the kind of thing we can work on in lessons.
We can work on:
cleaner chord shapes
faster, more efficient chord changes
keeping the rhythm going while you switch
strumming patterns
barre chords
and applying all of this to real songs
I teach private guitar lessons in Takadanobaba and online, in English or Japanese, and lessons are built around the music you actually want to play.
If you’re interested, you can check out the trial lesson page here:
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