Transcripts
1. Introduction: Mastering chord transitions will allow you to play more songs, explore complex rhythms,
and develop better timing. Rhythm is just as essential to smooth transitions
as finger placement. It's what helps your playing
feel connected and musical. I'm Lancelot Houston. In this class, you'll focus on transitioning between
chord shapes, including open chords, power
chords, and bar chords. We'll also emphasize the
importance of rhythm, teaching you how to
lock into the beat using alternate strumming
and picking techniques. You'll learn an
approach that breaks down transitions
into simple steps. Building muscle memory and making smoother transitions
without feeling. Throughout this class, we'll also incorporate
rhythmic exercises, including quarter
notes, eighth notes, triplets, and 16th notes. You'll practice keeping
time with a metronome, using alternate strumming
and picking and synchronizing your chord
transitions with the beam. By the end of this
class, you'll have the confidence to move
between chords with, allowing your transitions to
sound polished and musical. So grab your guitar, set your metronome, and
let's get started.
2. Class Orientation: In this class, you'll
learn how to make smooth transitions between different types of chord shapes. Each lesson will
guide you through a variety of chord
progressions to practice, helping you develop
muscle memory for seamless transitions. All you need is a
guitar to get started. Here's what I'll be looking
for in your class project. Smooth and accurate transitions between different chord shapes, maintaining a steady rhythm, and playing in time
with a metronome. You can submit your
project by recording yourself on your phone or
another recording device. Next, we'll take a
look at the basics of chord transitions,
rhythm, and strong.
3. Foundation: Rhythm + Strumming: In this lesson, we'll explore the fundamentals of
rhythm and strumming. By developing a solid
sense of rhythm, you'll ensure that
your chord changes fit seamlessly into songs. First, let's discuss
practicing with a metronome. Practicing with a metronome is crucial to developing a
consistent sense of timing, preventing you from speeding up or slowing down as you play. You'll want to start
slow, especially if you're learning a
new chord transition, and then gradually
increase the speed. Metronomes are also great tools for measuring your progress. Try increasing the
BPM or beats per minute every couple of
days to build your muscle. For most of the chord
transitions in this class, I'm going to set my metronome
to 60 beats per minute. Once you're comfortable
at 60 beats per minute, gradually work your way
up to faster tempos. Now, let's talk
about arm movement and strumming technique. Your forearm is going to
provide the main motion for strumming with your hand
following naturally. You want to keep your arm moving in a steady rhythmic motion, even if you don't strike
the strings on every beat. You also want to keep a loose, relaxed wrist, allowing
for smooth strumming. Imagine flicking water
off your fingers. That's the kind of loose
wrist movement that you want. I'll also say that a universal
rule of making music, no matter what
instrument you play, is that relaxed people
make the best music. Anything that you can
do to put yourself in a relaxed state is going
to be beneficial to you. Now let's discuss alternate
strumming and picking. In this class, we're
going to focus mostly on alternate strumming. But check out my
other classes for plenty of alternate
picking techniques. When strumming, you
want to alternate between downstrokes and upstrokes in order to maintain the natural
sense of rhythm. Understanding basic rhythm
concepts will improve your strumming
precision and make it easier to follow
along with first, let's discuss time signatures. A majority of songs are
in what's called 44 time, meaning there are four
beats per measure, and a quarter note
gets one beat. Now, let's discuss the
different subdivisions of rhythm that we'll be
using in this class. Starting with quarter notes. Quarter notes have
one note per beat. So in a four or four
time signature, you'll count quarter
notes as such. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Moving on to eighth notes. Eighth notes have
two notes per beat. And that's going to sound
like this one and two, and three and four, and one and two, and three and four. And. Moving on to triplets, which have three notes per beat, you can count triplets, a
couple of different ways. Here's a couple examples. One triplet, two triplet,
three, triplet, four, triplet, one triplet, two, triplet, three,
triplet, four, trip. Or triple it, triple,
triple it, triple. Lastly, let's talk
about 16th notes. Here, you'll have
four notes per beat. You'll count 16th
notes like this. Oi, a two i, and a three and a fury and
a one and a two and a three and a fury and a one y and a two and a three and a foi anda. Now, I'm going to play each of these subdivisions to
a metronome in a row. Next up, let's take a look at cord transitions
with open cords.
4. Open Chords: Open chords are usually the place where beginner
guitarists start. Being able to switch between
all of the open chords seamlessly is
incredibly important in your guitar playing journey. In this lesson, we'll cover transitioning between the most
commonly used open chords. If you're unfamiliar
with these chord shapes, check out my class
guitar fundamentals, open Power and bar chords. We're going to start
with the transition between E minor and A major. Start with the E minor chord. Here you can place your one
finger on the second fret of the A string and your two finger on the
second fret of the D string. All of the other strings
will be played open. Now we're going to
move this shape and also add another finger. So this is a pretty simple transition because we're moving the entire shape remaining on the second fret, just over a. Your one finger on the A string will move
over to the D string. Your two finger on the D string will move
over to the G string. And your three finger
will be playing the B string on the second fret. Here you'll want to strum the
A through high E strings, avoiding the low E string. Here's E minor to A played
at 60 beats per minute. This time around, we're going
to place our two finger on the A string of the
second fret and our three finger on the
second fret of the D string. When we move over to the Achord, we're going to
fret this cord the same way that we did before. Practicing this transition with these alternate fingerings will get you ready for some more complex transitions
down the road. Now let's discuss switching from the E major chord to A minor. Here, when starting
with E major, we want to use our two finger on the second fret
of the A string, our three finger on the
second fret of the D string, and our one finger on the
first fret of the G string. All of the other strings
will be played open. Transition to A minor, we're going to keep
the entire shape as it is just moving everything
over a string. So your two finger
will move from the A string to the D string, staying on the second fret. Your three finger will move from the D string to the G string, also staying on the second fret. And your one finger will play the first fret
of the B string. Once again, you'll want to strum the A through high E strings, avoiding the low E. Now let's incorporate some
other cords into our practice. Here we'll discuss switching
from C major to A minor. To start with the C major shape, you'll use your three finger on the third fret of the A string. Use your two finger on the
second fret of the D string, and use your one finger on the first fret of the B string. Keeping the G and
high E strings open. Here, we won't want to
play the low E string. Now, let's transition
to the A minor chord. This is a pretty simple
transition because we only need to use
our three finger. What you're going to do is take your three finger from
the third fret of the A string and move it to the second fret
of the G string. Your one and two fingers will be anchored to their
current fret and string. Let's move on to a slightly
more challenging transition, C major to D minor. To move to the D minor chord, you'll want to have your
one and two fingers move over a string. So your one finger will be on the first fret of
the high E string, and your two finger will be on the second fret of the G string. You'll need to move your three
finger from the third fret of the A string to the
third fret of the B string. Let's move on to the
next chord progression. And this time, we're going
to use three chords. G, Cad nine and D. So let's
start with the G major chord. You'll have your
two finger playing the third fret of
the low E string, and your one finger playing the second fret of the A string. The D and G strings
will be open. And for this version of G, I want you to use your three
finger on the third fret of the B string and your fore finger on the third
fret of the high E string. Going to use this version of
G because it's going to make our transition to the
other chords much easier. So when moving from a G
to the C at nine chord, all we need to do is move our two finger and our
one finger over a string. So the two finger will go
from the third fret of the low E string to the
third fret of the A string. And the one finger will go
from the second fret of the A string to the second
fret of the D string. Here we'll not want to
play the low E string. Note that the three
and four fingers will remain anchored to their
current frets and strings. Now, moving from the Cad nine
chord to the D major chord, we're going to take our
one and two fingers, and we're going to move them to the second fret of the
G and high E strings. So your one finger will play the G string at the second fret, and your two finger will play the high E string
at the second fret. But your three finger will
remain at the third fret of the B string and we'll remove the forefinger from
the high Estring. M. Now let's take a look at a more challenging
core transition going from the D major to A major to G. Let's start
with the D major chord. You'll want your one finger on the second fret of the G string, your two finger on the second
fret of the high E string, and your three finger on the
third fret of the B string. To switch to the A major chord, you'll need to move
all of your fingers. So the one finger will go to the second fret of the G string, two finger will go to the
second fret of the D string, and your three finger will move to the second
fret of the B string. Now, from the A major, let's try to go to G major. Here, once again,
you'll need to move all of your fingers
to different frets. Congrats on getting through the open core lesson
of this class. Next up, we're going to discuss transitioning between
Power Core. So
5. Power Chords: The power chords are
simple two note chords that are staple in guitar music. I want to start by making a Power chord shape on the low E string
at the fifth fret. So your one finger will play the fifth fret
of the low E string, and your three and
four fingers will play the seventh fret of the A and the seventh
fret of the D strings. Now let's take this shape, which is the A five Powerord. We're going to move it
to a D five power cord by moving each finger
over a string. So you're moving your one
finger from the low E string, fifth fret, to the A
string at the fifth fret, your three and four fingers from the A and D string at the seventh fret to the D and G strings at
the seventh fret. Practice moving between
these two shapes until you can play
it with these. Next, let's start at the same
place on the fifth fret of the Low E string to play
our A five Power chord. Now I want you to try to
move to a C five chord. Here we're going to take our one finger from
the fifth fret of the low E string and move it to the third fret
of the A string. Our three and four
fingers will be moved to the fifth fret of
the D and G string. So what we're doing here is
we're making it a slightly more complex transition by not
only moving over a string, but moving down two frets. From the C five Power chord. Let's move up two frets to
play a D five power chord. So we'll be playing the A
string at the fifth fret, the D string at
the seventh fret, and the G string at
the seventh fret. Now what I want you to do
is take this shape and move back over to the sixth
string at the third fret. So we're moving from
a D five power cord to a G five power cord. So you'll be taking
your one finger from the fifth fret
of the A string, moving it to the third
fret of the low E string, and your three and
four fingers from the seventh fret of
the D and G strings, and moving it to the fifth
fret of the A and D strings. If you're having trouble
with the power cord shape, rather than transitioning
from string to string, try just keeping the shape and moving it up
and down the neck, staying on the same string. Congrats on getting
through this lesson on transitioning through cals. Next up, we're gonna build upon this knowledge and
transition between lots.
6. Barre Chords: Barchords are the
trickiest shape that you'll be learning
in this class, but learning to transition
between them will open up a world of
possibilities on the guitar. In this lesson, we'll focus on transitioning between
major and minor chips. Start with an A major barcord. Bar all the strings
on the fifth fret with your one finger. Use your other fingers to
form an E major shape. Next, let's transition
to a D major barcord. Here, we're going to keep
that bar on the fifth fret, but move your other fingers
to form an A major shape. Next, let's move to an
F sharp minor barcord. Slide your one finger
down to the second fret, barring all the strings and play the E minor shape with
your other fingers. The next one I want to look
at is B minor to G major. Here at B minor,
we're going to bar at the second fret using
the A minor shape. Next, we'll move to
the G major chord, which we'll bar at the third fret using
the E major shape. Let's try another
set of bar chords. Here, let's go to the
third fret and play this C minor bar chord
using the A minor shape. Once you got that shape, let's move to the F
major on the first fret, using the E major shape. Next up, we'll take everything that we learned in
this class so far, and I'll play through
my class project.
7. Class Project: Now you've reached
the point where I will play through
my class project. For your class project,
choose one or more of the progressions
from this class. Or you can choose to make your own progression using
open power and barchords. Remember to play through
your progression smoothly, focusing on clean transitions
between the chords. Use a metrodom to maintain a steady beat and incorporate alternate strumming techniques.
8. Conclusion: Congratulations on making it
to the end of this class. By now, you should
feel more confident in transitioning between open
power and bar coords. Remember, smooth
cord transitions are all about building muscle. So keep practicing
and take your time. Post any questions you may have to the discussion section, and don't forget to upload your class project to
the project gallery. I look forward to
seeing your progress, and I hope to see you in some of my classes in the future.
I'll see you next time.
Lancelot Hueston, Musician - Producer
