“Just smoothing it out.”
I will share a very common scenario most guitar teachers can relate to. A new adult student comes into your schedule. In the first interaction with this new student, you learn a bit about their musical background. They tell you about the music they love and want to learn. In some cases, they will have been playing guitar since they were teenagers or so.
You ask the student to play a song. The student begins to play one of the songs they know. You quickly realize this person is not able to switch their chords smoothly. Despite knowing this song, they almost look unfamiliar with it. The student will generally say, “sorry, I have a hard time smoothing it out.” This student might even have a decent knowledge of different chords and know them by name.
Why We Have Trouble Switching Chords
When I was starting out as a teacher, this used to be really surprising to me. Has this person taken a break from playing and just come back to it? Do they play regularly? Are they self-taught? Did they have a bad teacher in the past? Basically, this person is only at a beginner/lower intermediate level. So, what gives? How is it that they haven’t progressed further over the years? This was very puzzling to me for a long time.
Finally, it occurred to me what the problem was! They were thinking about their fret hand and completely forgetting about the strumming hand. This is the problem. Ask any experienced guitar player you know. They will say the strumming hand is harder than the fret hand. Most students are so concerned with fretting the chords properly that they forget to work on WHEN the fingers need to move.
Think of playing catch. A person throws the ball to you. You watch the ball coming toward you. You react by putting your hands up at the right time to catch the ball. The ball is your constant. The speed it travels dictates your response and reflexes to react and catch the ball.
In music, the pulse of the beat is the constant. You will train your reflexes to react if you keep time constant with your stumming hand. If you don’t, the reflexes don’t know when to react. Like playing catch blindfolded!
How to Improve Chord Switching
I began explaining this simple concept to students. Play a four-bar progression with only two chords. Two measures for each chord.
Now here is the important part: it doesn’t matter what tempo you choose. Just – no matter what – DO NOT STOP YOUR STRUMMING HAND. Even if you make an ugly chord switch, make the wrong chord switch, or make no switch at all. DON’T STOP YOUR STUMMING HAND.
With a few tries, the student realizes the issue. They can’t wrap their brain around keeping the right hand going during transitions. With some effort, the student begins to get it.
The issue is training muscle memory. With every repetition that a student practices, they are recording a set of events into their muscle memory. If the student isn’t mindful, they are teaching their muscle memory incorrectly. By keeping the beat with the strumming hand, the fret hand learns when to react. And with a little practice with this concept, the student is on their way to “smoothing it out.”
Happy Strumming!
JD
[JB1]“play a four-bar progression” or “play four-bar progressions”?