How to Practice Guitar Chords:

Exercises, Tips, and Advice

February 7, 2020
Learning how to smoothly change between
guitar chords is an important skill to learn.
Many styles of music rely heavily on chords,
so practicing guitar chords should be a big
priority for beginners.
In this lesson, you will learn:
 Which guitar chords to learn first
 How to practice guitar chords
 Guitar chord exercises to practice every
day
 Answers to common questions about
guitar chords
If you’re a beginner and want to learn
chords, bookmark/favorite this page so you
can keep coming back to it to go through the
exercises.
Table of Contents show
Guitar Chords to Practice Daily
Before we look at how to practice guitar
chords, let’s look at the first chords you
should learn and practice.
The first chords you should learn are easy
open chords that are used in countless songs.
The eight guitar chords you should learn
first and practice daily are: Em, Am, C,
D, G, E, A, Dm.
Learning these chords will allow you to start
learning some of the Easy Chord Based
Songs in This Lesson.
Here are the chord diagrams for the eight
guitar chords to practice:
If you don’t know how to read the above
chord diagrams, read this guide on chord
diagrams. The guide includes a handy
printable PDF.
Understanding Guitar Chord Names
The guitar chords shown above are split into
two types: Major and minor.
The chords with the little ‘m’ next to the
letter are minor chords. When you see
something like ‘Am’ or ‘Em’, you call those
chords ‘A minor’ or ‘E minor’.
When you see a chord name and it is only a
letter like ‘A’ or ‘G’, those chords are Major
chords. You would call those chords ‘A
Major’ or ‘G Major’. Some musicians prefer
to just call these chords ‘A’ or ‘G’ and leave
off the ‘Major’. So if somebody says “play
the chord C”, they mean the chord C Major.
There are many other types of guitar chords,
but as a beginner, start by learning some
basic Major and minor open chords.
How Long to Spend Practicing Guitar
Chords
As a guitar teacher, I can tell you that the
key to memorizing guitar chords is not how
long you spend practicing them, the key is to
practice them regularly.
If you want to get good at playing guitar
chords, practice them every day without
fail for at least five minutes.
As long as you practice every day, you will
improve at a rapid rate. Short and regular
practice sessions are far better than one long
practice session.
If you practice your chords for 10 minutes
every day, you will do far better than
somebody who practices chords for an hour
but only does it once per week.
If you really want to learn guitar chords
quickly, practice your guitar chords twice
per day. Have a short practice in the
morning and another practice in the evening
before you go to bed.
Splitting your practice up like this is far
more effective for your memory than one
long practice session.
How to Practice Guitar Chords
Effectively
To practice guitar chords effectively, you
need to split your practice into three areas:
1. Memorization: learn to recall each
chord instantly by memory
2. Chord Changes: be able to instantly
switch between any two chords
3. Timing: be able to move into a chord
at the right time
The exercises covered below will help you
develop all three areas so you can practice
guitar chords effectively.
How to Memorize Guitar Chords
Before you start practicing guitar chords,
you need to know what to play.
Memorizing guitar chord shapes will help
you move your hands into the chord shapes
faster and change between different chords
faster.
This is an important first step and if you skip
it, it will take a lot longer to be able to play
guitar chords.
The good news is that you can practice
memorizing guitar chords anywhere – you
don’t even need to have a guitar with you.
Read through this guide for advice on
practicing guitar without a guitar to learn
more.
Here are the steps to memorizing guitar
chords:
 1. Choose a chord to memorise
2. Study the chord diagram
3. Close your eyes and imagine placing
your hand into the chord shape
4. Open your eyes and look at the chord
diagram to check if you were correct
5. Repeat for a different chord
While the above steps might sound too
simple to work, it is ridiculously effective.
Let’s go through an example to show you
how to do it.
Memorizing Chords Exercise
Step 1 is to choose a chord to memorize.
Let’s use the chord G Major.
Step 2 is to study the chord diagram. Here is
the chord diagram for G Major:
Here are all of the things to look for when
studying a chord diagram:
 How many strings you need to play
 The frets you need to place a finger on
 Which finger to use for each fret
Take a look at the above diagram for G
Major and find these three things before you
continue.
Here is what you should have found:
  How many strings you need to play: All
six
 The frets you need to place a finger on:
third fret on the sixth string, second
fret on the fifth string, and third fret
on the first string
 Which finger to use for each fret: first
finger on the fifth string, second finger
on the sixth string, and third finger on
the first string
This is all the information you need to play
the chord, so that’s why it’s important to
memorize it.
Step 3 is to close your eyes and imagine
placing your hand in the chord shape. If
you’re in public and it would be strange to
close your eyes, just imagine it in your
mind.
This might feel strange at first, but it’s an
extremely powerful memorization
technique. As a guitar teacher, I spend a lot
of time learning about different
memorization techniques and visualization
works incredibly well.
Just close your eyes and try to remember all
the details from Step 2.
Remember which frets you need to play and
which strings to play them on. Then imagine
where you need to place each finger.
Finally, imagine how many strings you need
to strum.
Imagine what your hand looks like as you
play the chord.
Try this now before you move on.
Step 4 is to open your eyes and check how
accurate you were against the chord
diagram.
Take a look at the G Major chord diagram
above and think about how close you were
to what it shows. Did you position all of
your fingers in the correct places?
Step 5 is to pick a new chord a repeat the
steps.
Pick one of the other eight basic open chords
from earlier and try repeating the steps.
Jumping back and forth between the
different chords helps you reinforce your
memory.
You’ll get the best results if you practice
each chord 3-5 times.
I know this might feel like a strange exercise
because you don’t play anything on your
guitar, but it will speed up the learning
process.
Students who use this exercise to memorize
chords before they try to play them on guitar
learn the chords significantly faster and with
less effort.
Guitar Chords Exercise 1: Getting
Comfortable With Guitar Chords
The first thing to do after you have a decent
memory of a few chords is to get used to
playing them.
The goal at this stage is to simply feel
comfortable moving your hand into the
chord shapes.
For most beginners, this might be tricky and
your hand may feel awkward in some of the
chord shapes. Don’t worry if it feels
awkward at first, you will get better.
To practice this exercise, simply pick a
chord and move your hand into the chord
shape.
Choose one of these chords to start
practicing:

Place one finger down at a time starting with

the lowest number finger the chord uses (eg:
1 = 1st finger).
Tips for getting the best chord sound:
 Use your fingertips. Using your
fingertips helps avoid accidentally
touching adjacent strings
 Place your finger as close to the fret at
possible. The further away from the fret
you are, the harder you need to press
down to avoid buzzing
 Keep your thumb low on the back of
the neck. If your thumb is hanging over
the top of the neck, you will find it hard
to reach with your fingers
Once you have all the fingers needed in the
correct positions, strum all of the strings the
chord uses (eg: C Major uses five strings).
If the chord sounds good (make sure you’re
in tune!), pick each string individually to
make sure each string is ringing out
properly.
If you notice that a string doesn’t ring out
when you pick it, check your hand position.
Either a finger isn’t pushing down correctly
or another finger is accidentally touching the
string.
Finally, lift your hand out of the chord shape
and repeat the above steps. Every time you
start again and place your fingers back into
the chord shape, it will help you feel
comfortable with the chord.
Go through all of the eight chord shapes
multiple times. Take a short break then do it
again. The more times you do this, the
sooner you will begin to feel comfortable
with the chord shapes.
Guitar Chords Exercise 2: Slowly Moving
Between Chord Shapes
Once you start to feel comfortable placing
your hand in different chord shapes, the next
step is to get used to changing between
chords.
Being able to smoothly change from one
chord to the next is an important skill to
learn before you try to learn any chord-
based songs.
In this exercise, the goal is to make every
chord sound perfect. Don’t rush or else
you’ll end up with slopping technique.
For this exercise, pick two chords to
practice. In this example, let’s work on C
Major and G Major.
Start by placing your hand in the first chord
shape. Strum the chord once and make sure
you play the right number of strings (five
string for C Major).
Now move your hand into the second chord
shape. Strum the chord as soon as all fingers
are in place.
Go back and forth between the two chords
over and over. Don’t try to speed up your
chord changes. Focus on playing each chord
perfectly.
Don’t worry about how long it might take to
change between the chord shapes. With this
exercise, the goal is to get used to changing
between the chords – speed doesn’t matter.
Here are some tips to get the most out of this
exercise:
 Some chord changes are easier than
others. Look for chords that share the
 same shapes (eg: Am and E), or only
move one finger between the two chords
(eg: C and Am). Start with those chords
and work your way to harder chord
changes
 If you notice a string isn’t rining out
properly, check your hand position. If
you notice a finger is accidentally
touching another string, stop and start
again.
 Take it slow. Playing slow gives you
more time to make sure your fingers are
placed in the right positions. If you rush,
you will make mistakes and slow down
the learning process
 Try to practice every possible chord
combination. Learning how to change
between any two chords is important for
when you see those chords used in songs
Once you feel comfortable changing
between any two chord shapes, you can
move on to the next exercise.
Don’t move on to the next exercise until you
are ready. If you try to rush ahead, you’ll
end up with sloppy technique.
Guitar Chords Exercise 3: Playing Guitar
Chords in Time
As explained earlier, the third part of being
able to play chords is to have good timing.
Once you have memorized the chords and
can comfortably change between them, turn
your practice focus towards rythym and
timing.
In this exercise, the goal is to play each
chord in time with a beat. This is an
important step before you try to play
complicated strumming patterns.
If you feel comfortable with Exercise 2, this
one is almost the same. The difference here
is that you need to switch to the next chord
at a specific time instead of whenever you
feel like it.
Here is the exercise for the chords E minor
and A minor:

If you don’t know how to read the above

exercise, read this Guide on Reading Guitar
TAB. Alternatively, you can learn How to
Read Standard Notation here.
While you can use a metronome to keep you
in time, I recommend counting the beat out
loud. This will put you under a little less
pressure than a metronome clicking.
Start by counting the beat at a slow and
comfortable pace. Say out loud “one two
three four”. Then after four, strum the first
chord as you say “one” again.
Continue to count the beat as shown in the
exercise. You can start preparing your hand
to move into the next chord as soon as you
want after the first beat.
The goal here is to have your hand in
position for the second chord so you can
immediately strum it as you say “one” in the
second bar.
If you don’t move your hand in time to play
the second chord on the beat, stop and start
the exercise again from the beginning. This
time count the beat slightly slower to give
yourself more time.
Here is the exercise for the chords D Major
and G Major:

Follow the same steps as before. Count four

beats before you start, strum D Major as you
say “one”, continue counting the beat,
change your hand into the G Major chord
shape, then strum it when you get to the first
beat of the second bar.
With some practice, this exercise will start
to feel easy and you won’t have to think as
much as you will need to in the beginning.
If you have trouble counting a steady beat,
use a metronome set to a very slow tempo.
Make sure you practice all chord
combinations before moving on to the next
exercise. You should also feel comfortable
counting and playing at the same time
before moving on.
Guitar Chords Exercise 4: Speeding Up
Chord Changes
Now that you can change smoothly between
any chord combinations and you can count
the beat while playing, the next step is to
speed up your chord changes.
These exercises will only work if you have
mastered the three previous exercises.
If you haven’t mastered those exercises yet,
don’t attempt this exercise. Keep working
on the previous exercises until you feel
completely comfortable with them. Trying
to rush ahead will give you sloppy
technique.
In this exercise, we use a metronome to
gradually force you to speed up chord
changes.
This is a very common method guitarists use
to speed up their technique and you will use
it often if you want to play fast or
complicated parts.
The exercise is exactly the same as Exercise
3. You need to strum a different chord at the
start of each bar as shown below:

The difference this time is that you will be

gradually increasing the metronome’s tempo
to keep pushing you to play the chord
changes faster.
Let’s say you start with the metronome at 80
bpm (beats per minute). You can
comfortably change between the two chords
over and over at that tempo.
What you need to do now is gradually
increase the tempo. Set the metronome to 85
bpm and try the exercise again.
If it feels easy, you increase it again. Only
increase the tempo of the metronome if it
feels easy to change back and forth between
the two chords without any mistakes or
timing errors.
Eventually, you’ll get to a fast enough
tempo that you start making mistakes.
Maybe you’re a bit late on one chord, which
causes the next chord to be even later.
Take note of the tempo – that’s your current
limit.
The goal of this exercise is to gradually
increase your limit. Over the next couple of
weeks, you will notice that your limit seems
to magically increase every time you sit
down to practice.
You will notice that some chord changes
you can play a lot faster than others. That’s
norml. Just keep working on all chord
combinations and try to push each
combination’s limit up slightly every day.
Once you can play all of the chord changes
with ease at about 150 bpm, it’s time to
move on to the next exercise.
Guitar Chords Exercise 5: Rapid Chord
Changes
The goal of this exercise is to speed up your
chord changes so you can rapidly change
between any two chords.
In the previous exercise, you could change
your hand into the next chord at any time
after strumming it. In this exercise, you have
less time to make the change.
The metronome is used again to gradually
speed up your chord changes. Start with a
low tempo that feels comfortable and
gradually increase the tempo.
Here is the exercise for the chords G Major
and A minor:

You can see from the exercise above that

this time you are playing a chord on every
beat. Every time you hear the metronome
click, you should be playing a chord in sync
with it.
This means you can only lift your hand to
change chords after the fourth chord. This
gives you very little time to change chords,
which forces you to get used to rapid
changes.
If you play any mistakes, slow the tempo
down. There’s no point playing fast if your
playing is sloppy. You want to develop nice
and tight rhythm skills.
Learning Chord-Based Songs
Once you have mastered this exercise,
practice these simple chord strumming
songs.
The lesson includes strumming patterns and
Guitar TAB for each song, as well as
introduce some other easy open chords.
Remember that there are three areas you
need to master before you start learning to
play chord-based songs:
1. Memorization: learn to recall each
chord instantly by memory
2. Chord Changes: be able to instantly
switch between any two chords
3. Timing: be able to move into a chord
at the right time
The above exercises will help you master all
three areas.
Work on the exercises every day and you’ll
find that you can memorize and learn to
change between chords in a very short time.
Guitar Chords FAQ
Here are some common questions beginners
have about guitar chords. If you found this
lesson helpful, subscribe to updates here to
be notified of new lessons and guides.
What Guitar Chords Should You Learn
First?
The eight guitar chords you should learn
first and practice daily are: Em, Am, C,
D, G, E, A, Dm.
These chords are incredibly easy to play
(compared to other chord shapes) and they
are the most common chords you will see
used in songs.
Once you learn those eight chords, you can
learn more open chords such as seventh
chords (eg: E7, A7), suspended chords (eg:
Asus2, Dsus4), and start learning how to
play barre chords.
How Do You Get Good At Guitar
Chords?
You get good at guitar chords by
practicing them over and over every day.
Practice changing between different
chords to get used to each position.
Here are some tips to help you get good at
guitar chords:
 Start slow and aim for perfect form
 Memorize the chord shapes before you
try to play them
 Use a metronome to help you speed up
your chord changes
 Practice changing between every
possible chord combination
 Have short and regular practice sessions
Even if playing guitar chords feels hard
now, you can master them in short time if
you follow the exercises covered in this
lesson.
Find out how long to practice guitar per day
in this guide. If you follow the advice in that
guide, you’ll learn guitar chords in less time.
How Do You Practice Changing Chords?
The way to practice changing guitar
chords is to slowly change back and forth
between two chords. Pick any two chords
you know and strum one of each over and
over.
Use the above five exercises to get used to
changing between chordds and start
speeding up your chord changes.
Being able to quickly change between any
two chords is something that can only
happen when you have put a lot of time into
practice.
When you see a guitarist who can rapidly
switch between chord shapes, that guitarist
has spent a lot of time working on building
up that skill. You can do it to if you put the
effort in.
What Are the Three Most Used Guitar
Chords?
While every style of music tends to use
different chords, the three most
commonly used guitar chords are G
Major, C Major, and A minor. With these
three guitar chords, you can play a lot of
simple songs.
If you learn a few more chords on top of
those three chords, you’ll be able to learn
countless songs.
Chords such as E minor, D Major, A Major,
D minor, and E Major are used in so many
popular songs.
Check out the chord diagrams at the start of
this lesson to learn these chord shapes.
Why Are Barre Chords So Hard?
Barre chords are hard to learn because
they require a lot of force from your
index finger. Your index finger needs to
press firmly across all six strings, which
can be difficult for a beginner. With
practice, barre chords become easier.
That’s why everybody starts off learning
simple open chords like the ones covered in
this lesson.
Once you master open chords, you can start
learning how to play barre chords.
 
While chords are crucial to learn, another
important area is scales. Find out how to
learn and practice guitar scales in this guide.
The lesson includes exercises you can use to
learn and master some common guitar
scales.
Save
Categories Lessons Tags chords, exercises,
learning, practice Post navigation
Can You Play Bass With a Guitar Amp?
Everything You Need to Know
How to Break Out of the Pentatonic Box