Learning guitar chords is one of the most frustrating times for new guitarists. Your fingers are new to the fretboard and the strings, just getting the correct fingers into the correct position can be a chore, but I can assure you all the effort, cursing and determination is worth it.
Take a look at what I’ve learned from my students who have all gone through the stage of learning guitar chords, I present their struggles so that you can learn from them and hasten your own success in this area.
1. Giving up too soon
Like anything you learn you’re going to suck at it when you first start out, and this goes for everyone, I don’t care if you’re Jimi Hendrix or Joe Blow from down the street, you are going to have a hard time when you try to learn guitar chords but you absolutely have to stick to it.
The critical time is when you’re almost there, you know how to make the shape of the chord, and can sometimes strum it cleanly and you’ve been practising for the past 7 days but haven’t seen any improvement… well that’s the worst time to give up because you’re so close, you just need to get over that next rise and you’ll see how it all comes together.
2. Not visualizing success
When you are forming a chord it’s really important to visualize where each finger is going to move to, and how it’s going to happen. I guarantee you will speed up your chord changes if you follow these simple steps:
Look at where your fingers are now, visualize where they need to be and figure out the shortest distance you need to move them in order to form the new chord.
Sometimes you won’t have to move half your fingers because they’ll be used in the other chord. Keep looking for these ways to speed up your playing
3. Making it too hard for yourself
Changing from one chord to another is without a doubt the best way to learn guitar chords. However if you make it too hard and pick some nasty chords it can really put you off the idea. Make sure you pick some easy ones like G to A, E to A, D to G.
4. Not working on your fingers
It seems really obvious to me that you use your fingers to form these chords and to strum them, so you need to exercise your fingers and build up some finger strength. This can be done using little finger weights, pushing down hard on the strings, doing wide scale exercises (stretch those fingers and use that pinky!), and doing good old finger press-ups (not so popular).
5. Looking at your hands too much
I always say you should be wearing a blindfold once you can play each chord. You need to be able to form the chord without looking at it. You can drive a car without looking at the steering wheel and foot pedals all the time… as the saying goes ‘practice makes perfect’.
6. Only practicing one chord at a time
This is a bad habit some people get into, and it’s not really their fault, it’s just they way their tutors have been teaching them or that they’re reading a book or tutorial that doesn’t really convey a solid learning process.
By practicing 3 chords at once you’ll find you learn the fingerings for each of them a lot faster than if you learn just one at a time. It has to do with how your brain works, giving your brain 3 different patterns to memorize in varying orders strengthens the pathways in your brain so that when it comes to remembering that chord your brain is able to bring up the information a lot faster.
Just try it! It works.
7. Leaving your pinky out of sight
This is a weird one, but I see people doing it all of the time! Your fingers should be hovering over the strings of your guitar ALL OF THE TIME. Meaning that when you form a D chord your pinky finger should be hovering somewhere over the high E string or B.
A lot of the time people will tuck their pinky fingers under the fret board or some other weird place, and it really makes it difficult for them to learn more advanced chords later on.
8. Not understanding to root note
The root note of a chord is its bass note, it determines which string you should start strumming or picking from. An E chords root note is an E which is played as the open low E string on your guitar, this means you start strumming or picking from that note.
9. Not picking the chord
Sometimes by strumming the chord you will notice you are hitting a lot of dead notes, however most beginners will stop there and keep strumming until they get it right. It’s kind of like a brute force way to learn guitar chords.
As a more learned student (and reader of my blog) you will know it is better to pick each note separately so you can quickly analyze what string is giving you the dead note. You can then apply more pressure or move the finger slightly to get it into a better position. This can save you a lot of time and heartache.
10. Not using all your senses
I believe the best way to learn is to engage all your senses in the activity, you should be seeing the guitar chord in a photo (of someone playing it) in a diagram (of where your fingers should be) and even in a video so you can see how the person gets their fingers into position.
Although sight is a great way to learn, when trying to learn guitar chords you can’t get very far without being able to hear the guitar chord being strummed or picked so you can compare yourself to a professional. Getting information into your brain from every angle is the best way to succeed at learning how to play guitar chords in the shortest amount of time.
Look for tutorails and courses that use a multitude of ways to teach you, not just text!
Conclusion
I haven’t put these tips in any particular order; they’re all solid gold tips to being able to learn guitar chords faster than anyone else. I’d suggest writing down each method onto a piece of paper and start using it in your daily practice, you’ll be surprised at how fast you can see results.
Check out my full guide to learn how to play guitar chords.
Good points, especially number 1. You have to really want to learn to succeed at guitar. Too many people give up early on.
Hi,
Thanks for the info.
I’m a total beginner in Guitar playing since 1 month. All the tips are morale boosting.
These tips are really good… Your page is bookmarked.
Thanks
Really ,the tips enhances the confidence of the newbie, and not to GIVE UP the Practice.
thanks
vishu
Great tips! thanks.
I would also add: not learning the theory behind the music. Understanding how chords are formed can help you tremendously in memorizing and building them.
Awesome post about the mistakes that people make when learning chords. It’s very common to find in guitar instructions that people do not practice chords properly.
Very nice, I’ll keep looking back every so often.
I once tried learning guitar but on my third day I gave up already, it’s really hard for me at that time, I badly want to learn guitar but it seems like I just can’t play even a single song and it’s really hard to switch from one chord to another. And now I’m planning to learn guitar again, thanks for your article, I’m sure this will help me soon.
thanks for the tips i havent started playing just yet but im going too keep this all in mind when i start
thanks for the tips…
Great advice, especially No. 1. Thanks.
I plan on trying the three chords tip.
Thanks! I will recommend this to all my friends.
All solid advice. Taking your time to when setting up the fingers is perfectly acceptable, because this process will get quicker over time. That’s a big one actually.
Hi. I plan to be a Country Music artist when I grow up. I have the voice, I believe, but I figured I needed to learn to play the guitar. I got one for Christmas, 2 or 3 days ago, and have been playing with it since then. I have trouble with bar chords, like B, and transitioning from one chord to another. I recently found the chords for the song Never Alone, by BarlowGirl, and B happens to be a major one. These tips helped a lot with everything else, but do you have any for bar chords?
Just wanted to say thanks for taking your time to type this up.
Im sure it will help me out alot.
Amir do you have any recommended websites were i can read up on the formation of chords?
I just started guitar and have been trying to learn by myself and I haven’t started lessons yet. I have been thinking of giving up but your tips changed that.
Very nice, sir. I’ve never seen anyone talk about your 7th point before, although it’s extremely common.
Your second point about visualizing success is also very important, yet I’ve yet to hear anyone mention it before.
Very nice set of Virtual guitar lessons
Great list. Very helpful info for the first timers
Hi, you have very good advice for the newby, I always had trouble useing my pinky when I first started playing.
yeah thats pretty cool and I also learnt guitar by using tutorials but I used a whole bunch of very cool vids about every single technique out there. Now 1 year after I started to learn this stuff I am pretty good at it and I also play in a good nujazz Band. I used this program http://iobic.de/11619. There are other ones,too. But I spent a lot of money for some shitty programs and in the end I found this one. First I thougt ” WOW, I will never learn this”.But now I am pretty good and I probably get the advanced package.
Greetz Paul
Hi, excellent points! Especialy no.1! Any new skill we want to learn, we have to be persistent to learn them. Learning to play the Guitar is no different!
Great article, really helpfull
I’m making these 3, 5 and 10 mistakes.
These ideas you gave me really help…
Thanks a lot!
Good points! I hadn’t thought of keeping the little pinky close to the strings, even though I have played for years, and do it instinctively. That is one tip I can pass on to others that are learning to play the guitar.
Moving from chord progressions to sinlge notes is a big one – its fantastic when you get it though. Great blog.
tip 6 really does speed up the process, also tip 8 is gold if you take time to know the strings before you just simply start following chord tabs
tch… it’s just impossible not given up early, since i’m trying to play for like a whole year and no good results.
i can play the chords, but i spend like 5 sec. to place my fingers in the right position and most of the times they sound weird.
So tell me, how not given up with some suck skills like that? Plus I’m not one of those proud people who think “i can do it, i’ll just have to train”. I just dont have any self-esteem, so that’s make even hard to make me get the guitar and think i’ll do it.
Why the chords have to be so hard to sound good? Why i can’t place my fingers in the right positon in a quick way ? Please don’t tell me “you just have to train more”, ’cause like i said i’m trying to learn for a whole year and no results…
Oh well, i guess i’ll have to be a normal person in the world, with an ordinary job and to real talent…
Hey Johnny, I’ve been pretty busy in other areas and haven’t had a chance to approve or respond to anyone on this site, but your comment caught my attention…
Why?
Because I’ve been there. Although I was lucky enough to have a tutor guide me through it and I feel that you’re trying to teach yourself guitar without solid guidance… and the Internet is full of people just trying to sell you stuff when you need specific advice to your problem.
I don’t think anything I say here is going to magically get you past this road block, but I might be able to get you to hang in there just a little bit longer.
First of all, 5 seconds for a chord change… fine, that’s a starting point. If you were one of my students I’d get you to run through the open chords and find three that you’re most comfortable playing, most of the time people can manage the E, G, D and C before they get the A and F down.
If you can play just the G, D, C then you’ve got yourself a chord progression and playing those chords in order will sound nice.
Before you even try to do chord changes just practice getting your fingers in the right positions, I used to sit in front of the TV while my GF was watching Friends and just practiced pushing down hard on the strings, it build up my finger strength and I wasn’t even strumming… this took weeks!
Oh, and make sure your guitar is in tune, or whatever you play will sound terrible
Get a tuner, download the free tuners on your iPod touch, or get a friend to tune it… whatever it takes.
Now back to the chord changes, relax, 5 seconds is a good start. If you can play a G, take 5 seconds to get to the D, then another 5 to the C then back to G you’ve got yourself a practice routine.
How often could you practice that? And please remember you don’t make improvements in one practice session, you need rest, you need sleep, you need to let your muscle memory do its thing.
That’s all I can recommend right now, and as I said I don’t think this will magically resolve your problem but I do hope it gets you to hang in there just a bit longer, for those of us without musical backgrounds learning the guitar is a lot harder, I don’t care what the “guru’s” say, it took me freakin’ ages to get anywhere but once I stopped and looked at how far I’d come (not comparing myself to the ideal but rather where I was in the past) I was happy, and it gave me the motivation to carry on and persevere.
Take it easy man, and good luck!
IT sounds like some good advice to me… I started playing about 10 years ago and I’m still not that good cause i always gave up when it got to frustrating.
Thanks for the good and encouraging advice! I’m very new with guitar and now that I’m learning chords, I find it very hard to stretch my fingers over to the correct strings without touching the other ones. I am a female with short fingers! Help!
actually any one know a good solid respectable market to trade your gold … these folks? Selling Gold
[...] Learning Guitar Chords – Top 10 Mistakes [...]
Don’t forget the pinky!
I’m serious trouble, because I learn the basic chords (D, G, E, A, C) whitout put my pinky on fret board, and now, i want learn the F, B, E7 and B7, but pinky don’t obey me.
People, put the pinky on fretboard. It will save a lot of time when you want learn other chords.
Adam, congrats for these great tips.
[ ] ’s
[...] Learning Guitar Chords – Top 10 Mistakes [...]
I am so thankful to have happened across this page. I am just starting to learn guitar and also find it frustrating. I think what you said about not looking at what you don’t know but look back from where you have come from and that makes a difference. In any area of music we are going to find others who are much more accomplished musicians than us. In piano lets say we can’t be all Liberace, in guitar we can’t all be Jimmy Hendrix, at least not without a lot of practice.
When I was living in Germany, I had to learn the language and remember crying because it seemed so hard. Once I let up on myself and didn’t try to be perfect, the language actually came together on it’s own.
We need to remember not to try and look at where we want to be, but just work on what we know now and keep doing that until it is mastered.
Thanks again
Christian Praise
I am learning how to play guitar and have only been playing for about a month and it is frustrating because i don’t seem to be going anywhere or learning anything at any rate alot of it confuses me and i don’t like my guitar- aria stg-series a stratocaster copy, i will keep playing anyways though and try to get a new guitar.
Hi, I just started playing and I was making about 4 of those mistakes :[ thanks to this, learning has gotten a lot easier, thanks!
1)Metronome.
2)Tape Recorder.
3)Log book/ practice diary.
Metronome; because it doesn’t count if it isn’t in time.
Tape recorder; forever allows you to harmonize and play over yourself.
Log book; A reallity check, and a confidence builder.
Woah, thanks for the input!
Everyone should take note of this comment, great stuff
Hey, which mistakes were you making in particular Norma, and just out of curiosity do you have a teacher you can get input from on a regular basis?
Hey Colin. I had the same feeling after buying my first guitar… I got it from a pawn shop and convinced myself that just so long as I had a guitar I could work hard to make it sound good… I finally realized if I was going to take this seriously I needed to find a way to get a “real” guitar… I went with the Fender Telecaster (Made in the USA) and it made a phenomenal difference to my feelings towards playing guitar.
As for getting frustrated… I think learning music for those of us who never did it as a child is one of the most frustrating experiences we go through in our adult life. With students who feel the same way I try to focus 80% on what they’re able to do, and make it better, and 20% on new material. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with so many things to learn, and sometimes you get sidetracked from your dream by trying to learn everything you can do on the guitar instead of focusing on just learning what you need to know to achieve your goals.
I really do hope you keep up with the practice, and try to build a practice routine around the 80% of things you kind of know how to do, and really nail those, before working on the 20% of new things you need to know.
Cheers,
Adam
Great post! The only thing I would add is the thumb. A common beginner mistake is wrapping the thumb too much around the neck. This is usually caused by trying to hold the guitar by the neck rather than letting the strap or knee bear the weight of the guitar.
Peter
Hi, great article thanks! Ive been playing for many years now and I have pretty good chops but there´s always something new to be learnt, for instance learning three chords is a real good idea i never thought of… cool
thanks alot
keep rockin´
Hi.
Im hosting a guitar chord finder to help beginners to intermediate guitarists learn new chord fingerings. Comments welcome.
Thanks, those are awesome tips!
Great tips. I found this really useful. One thing I would add is to use a metronome, playing along with recordings, or other musicians. Working on your sense of timing early and often will pay off tons later on!