Solve It With These Proven Method’s
      ( Full Explanation Below)

The Key To Getting Your Chord Changes Cleaner And Smoother Is To :

1  Practice Chord Changes Separately With The Chord Hand First.

2  Start With Chords That Are Already Clear To Practice Changes

3  Choose A Strum That Is Second Nature

4  Use Linked Changes and Pivot Fingers

5  Knowing The Exact Beat To Move The Chords To Change

6  Form The Chord Changes In Mid Air And In One Go By Putting Focus On Your Leading Finger

7  Keep Fingers Close To The Fret board While Changing

8  Use Only As Much Chord Pressure As You Need

9  Keep You Strumming Hand Moving And Not Stopping During Chord Changes No Matter What

10  Use A Beat Or A Metronome To Practice Your Chord Changes With

11  Tap Your Foot With The Metronome While Practicing All The Above

All these points above are stepping stones to achieving smooth chord changes, but the most important and seemingly and counter intuitive is to:
Keep Your Strumming Hand Moving And Not Stopping During Chord Changes No Matter What even if the chord hand lags behind the strumming hand a bit, or even a lot at first . This seems counter intuitive, but it works way better and faster than any other method. It makes you learn changes faster, and more accurate, helps chord changes work more in sync with the strumming in general.

I have used this method with teaching and seen this work like magic hundreds if not thousands of times .The details below will show you how all these method’s used together will speed up the process and make chord changes cleaner, more in sync and will set you up for better rhythm technique as well .

Lets look at it all in detail.

1  Practice Chord Changes Separately With The Chord Hand First

Look at the chord hand, and watch it while you go through your chord changes without strumming. Observe it closely and ask yourself exactly what is your hand doing? What fingers are lagging slow, which ones are leading? Observe observe observe. All the things you observe with your changes will relate to the following steps. Connect with your playing by watching your playing closely.

2  Start With Chords That Are Already Clear To Practice Changes

Choose chords you can already can play clearly. Make sure you don’t have to think about where the fingers go too much at this stage.

You want to free up your brain tasks to concentrate on continuation of strum. Therefore choose chords you know.

The focus in the upcoming steps will be on changes, not where do my fingers go? So lets get some simple chords ready, and we will try to use chords that are linked. An example of some linked chords would be  G to E minor , Am to C , Am to D7 etc. Notice there are some fingers in the same place for each chord. I will explain these more below in linked changes.

3  Choose A Strum That Is Second Nature

Start with a strum that is already easy for you to play so that you don’t have to think about strum patterns while you play. You won’t be focusing on what strumming patterns to use…..we want to set you up to focus on your changes. This will make it ten times easier for you to be able to learn smooth and seamless chord changes .

4  Linked Changes and Pivot Fingers

Its best to start with chord changes that are linked with common fingers for example C to Am , Em to G , Em to C . Notice how each change has a common finger or fingers in each change , they are linked .

 

This is sometimes called a pivot finger , or a linked change, or an easy change.But don’t think you will have the linked finger glued into position while you change chords. It may move within the fret and/or come off the fret board completely.
Next step , practice going through the chord changes  …..by themselves , with no strumming whatsoever . Now look at your fingers and notice what they have to do to get the changes happening , and to get the fingers into the position they need to be to be clear . You will be surprised just how easy it is to get this hand to make the changes by themselves . This should give you clues that it is strumming and changing together that causes confusion the mind.

This is why the not stopping changing method which I’m about to show you is so cool. So first let’s make sure the strum pattern and the chord changes can operate separately and easily .

5  Knowing The Exact Beat To Move The Chords To Change

The exact beat or time to move from one chord to the next , is crucial  . . The chord change is happening on the off beat . In a 4/4 strum pattern you will move your chords on beat + after the 4 , so your chord is in place already for beat 1 of the next bar .

1+2+3+4+ 1+2+3+4+

If you played this in slow motion you will notice that there is a mid-air strum, transition strum, that by itself sounds a bit messy ,but in among st the strumming pattern at normal speed, it will sound really smooth.

 

6  Forming The Chord Changes In Mid Air And In One Go By Putting Focus On Your Leading Finger

A lot of chord formations should eventually form millimeters above the strings and clampdown in one go. Don’t worry about getting this perfect right from the start, or even putting too much brain power into it . It will start to correct by itself, as long as you are taking care of the main points I have mentioned. You will start to see it happen in some chord changes before others. Beginner’s usually try to form chords one finger at a time, and this is slow but its not a huge problem, but something to reverse with the leading finger trick  .. . Bear in mind you eventually want your chord changes to happen in one go , most of the time .It won’t be the case all of the time, some elaborate changing patterns don’t always work out this way. The basic open chords like C D A G Em Am D7 F E etc will definitely be the case .

Great trick for making chords form in one movement

Most beginners will lead a chord change with their first finger. When you change to a C Major chord , do your fingers move in the order 1,2,3….? Knowing what leading finger to put your focus on during the chord change will help you form the chord in one movement.

As one example use the C chord and put your concentration on your third finger to get there first. and don’t even worry about fingers one or two , they will follow quick and after some time , will correct the problem without you even having to think about it, and fingers 1 and 2 will eventually change at the same time as the third finger . If you do the 1 2 3 finger change on the C chord starting with first finger then second finger then third finger in order of placement, your chord hand will say to itself …dum da dum , no rush i’ll just take my time …, and it will take much longer to learn the chord change on time, so this is why its best to concentrate on your leading finger for certain chord changes .
A chord leading finger 3
D chord leading Finger 3

7 Keep Fingers Close To The Fret board While Changing

Try not to release your fingers like springs away from the fret board.

If you do this, you will make your fingers travel unnecessary distance …. the more distance you travel away from the fret board the more distance you have to travel back and the harder it’s going to be to get your changes cleaner and on time . Don’t make movements you don’t need to . Observe and watch for this , nip it in the bud if you catch yourself doing it .

8 Use Only As Much Chord Pressure As You Need

Make sure you are using the right amount of pressure on your chords and not too much !

If your chord pressure is too strong, the muscles in your hand are going to be too tight and restricted to make a good chord changes and get there on time.proper release and grab is part of the smooth process. The over tightness squeezing will make your chord changes shoddy and your hand sore etc. Chord clarity will suffer and so will your changes. Be graceful with your chord movements and economical with the pressure needed to make them clear. Don’t waste energy clamping down harder than you need to .

 

9 Keep You Right Hand Moving And Not Stopping During Chord Changes No Matter What

Here we go this is what we have been heading for This trick works

This is the biggie .

Now that we have the basics in place and we don’t have to think about strumming changes too much, we can now push the chord hand to do its thing by not by stopping the strumming hand .This is where you need to shift focus and concentrate on the strumming hand . I know this sounds back to front but stick with it . I have seen students struggle with chord changes for ages and use this method like magic. Be patient, it wont happen instantly, you have to push through it, It will also help your rhythm feel and changes way more in the long run . Even if your chord hand is slow doing a 123 change and not getting itself position on time it doesn’t matter , keep your right hand moving . Again this will seem back to front because you are forging ahead with your strum when your chords aren’t ready yet . Your mind and muscle memory will automatically speed things up using this method like you wouldn’t believe .

You just have to ignore the sound of your chord is not being in position yet .This is the tricky bit . This is why everyone stops strumming BUT it is amazing how fast this trick works . It is a mind trick to push through because your my mind is telling you “hang on my chord hand is not ready yet!” . If you can push through this barrier I promise you your chord changes will reach a new level very quickly. Even if you have no chord on the fret board whatsoever while you are strumming a few beats of the next bar, don’t worry, if you continue strumming you are doing it right to practice this technique. If you stop strumming ,you get it wrong, keep it moving.

This technique also helps with your internal beat in general . The stop starting with chord changes is a hard habit to break for beginners and is one of the first things I usually try to break people out of with all these tips. The continuation of rhythm is really a really important step to getting great strumming technique. Guitar playing and learning is full of cool things that can happen automatically if you set things up properly. This is one of them.

 

10 Use A Beat Or A Metronome To Practice Your Chord Changes With

A metronome beat or a beat of some sort can help your chord changes and strum in general stay in time.

Lock your strumming pattern in to the metronome or the beat and apply the not stopping method. A beat will help regulate your strumming patterns and give you a clock mechanism to stick to.

11 Tap Your Foot In Time With The Metronome

Tapping your foot in time with a metronome is linking your internal beat with your playing . It is extending the internal beat which emanates from your spine to the extremity of your foot . This will give you greater control of your rhythms in general. This will help your chord changes by making stronger the signals from the brain to the hands and feet . You will gain more co-ordination and dexterity by making this inner pulse stronger throughout your body. For a lot more info on this read https://goodguitarsense.com/index.php/2020/02/26/646/

 

Conclusion

Observe The Above Methods While Practicing Your Chord Changes , And Keep Physical Movement And Focus On The Continuation Of The Beat .

Remember The Beat Must Go On 

 All the Best Mark

Step By Step Guide
The Process

The best method of making up open tuning s on guitar is to start one string at a time and start from a fixed note point. First decide on the starting string and note.  Then tune the adjacent string to an interval that sounds good to you. Repeat the process string by string to find intervals that ring true to your taste as you add extra strings and intervals and possibly chords. You can also tune an adjacent string to unison, (which means the same note) .I prefer to put theory aside while creating a tuning and go into ear mode and create what I instinctively just like. Later on I might look at the theory  and analyze what I have created.  A lot of people think that inventing a tuning would be one of the most difficult things you could ever attempt, this is simply not true. I discovered years ago that it is one of the easiest things I have ever tried on guitar!

Step 1  Start With One String Setting The Starting Point (Sixth String)

Start with the sixth string and put it into a tension that you like the sound and feel of. By feel I mean do you like the feel of that particular string when you play , does it sound good as well?  Your starting note doesn’t have to be tuned to E , just put it anywhere you think the string sounds and feels good      when you play it.  Remember though, every string has its limits to how high or low it can be tuned . But also remember we are making our own rules here and working outside the box of convention .

Step 2 Add The Adjacent  String  (Fifth String)

Play strings 6 and 5 together and adjust string 5 either up or down to find a note that sounds good with string 6. Notice I am not getting you to start off on some standard tuning or teaching you open tuning basics , this is pure instinct and I want to connect your ear to your tuning creation .When you hear string 5 lock into a note that sounds good with string 6….sounds good to you  then leave it.  You have to decide. There will be lots notes that sound cool , you will just have to make a choice . As you tighten and loosen string 5 you will hear different notes lock in with different strength’s. The tuning you choose for this note will set up the possibilities for the next string tuning and so on and so on .

Trust yourself when you hear  something that you like. You will hear the two notes ring and lock-in together into something interesting .
 Remember you are making up this tuning , you are the one that decides what sounds good in this tuning, your decision making process is the thing that will create this.

Step 3 Adding The Third Note Building A Character

Repeat the same thing playing strings 6 5 4 . Every note you add will relate to the notes you have already tuned. So now the sound you create is getting thicker, and possibly more complicated. The two ways to listen, are play each string note 6 5 4 one at a time, then play strings 6 5 4 as one string . The character of the tuning you are creating is starting to build . Every note you add will add/change its character. Every string note you have set in place will help you with the next note you choose . There are lots of possibilities, and lots of different character and feel that you can choose . There is no right or wrong here , you are the creator.

This is a good place in this article to mention feel, because every open tuning will feel different, just as every chord you play feels different .

Step 4 Tuning The Rest Of The Strings Deciding On The Flavor

Repeat the same steps with string 6 5 4 3,  then strings 65432, then 654321

You have now finished an open tuning,  it might be an original,  it might be a standard open tune . In step 7, I will show you how identify it officially.

Step 5 Experiment And Observe Chord Flavors With Simple Shapes

With the new tuning you have created, try finding some new flavors by selecting one string to change from the tuning while you strum all the strings together. put simply, strum and re tune one string, as you strum. One note change in any tuning direction can make a huge shift.

The difference one note can make is incredible it can change the total feel of the tuning . This is a rabbit hole of the possibilities. The possibilities are actually endless, it’s really fun and a great way to develop your musical ear.

Step 6 Inventing Chords In The New Tuning

With your new tuning experiment lets mess around with simple one and two finger chord shapes to see what sounds cool. First , strum around on your new open tuning pattern, and then add one finger at a time any single note . You will find some notes fit really well , and some don’t. Now try adding an extra finger to that . Work in singles and pairs . The positions that work for these simple chords will also be the start of new scales for this tuning. You can start to map notes to improvise around

Some conventional chord shapes might work others will not,  keep it simple to start off with you will be surprised at some of the cords you invent in these newly created open turnings.These tuning s and chords can be incredibly powerful and resonant . Open turnings have a unique sound and can’t be emulated in standard tune most of the time.

Step 7 Identify Your New Tuning And New Chords

To see what chords you have just created,  play each note string by string into a chromatic tuner then look up the notes
you have taken from your open tuning chord to find out what chord you have just made. Try this link   https://www.scales-chords.com/chord-calculator.phph

Open Tuning s That Already Exist If you run your tuning through the chord calculator and find you haven’t invented anything new or you have just come up with open G tuning for example then…. congratulations . Don’t be disappointed it just means you have a great ear by plucking a known tuning from the air.

Another Method

Tune your guitar to a standard open tuning and then try experimenting with random string ed-tuning as in step 5 to find different flavors .

Things To Take Into Account

String Tension

Be careful not to over tighten too much and go beyond the string tension range, it’s pretty easy to break strings doing this. Every string on your guitar has its own tension range,  if you go outside of this range it’s easy to snap a string or the string will be turned to low to make any useful sound at all . After you break a few strings you will be able to tell just by how tight the strings feel as to how close to breaking point you are . Remember too that if you tighten your guitar to ridiculous tensions and leave it for a long time, you may end up with one banana neck warped thing  of a guitar….this can be more a problem for acoustics than electrics.

Unison Tuning’s With Strings

Don’t forget You can tune two strings to the same note together . Each string will cause it’s unison string to vibrate in sympathy which gives them both a unique sound and can be a powerful tool for playing melody riffs. These notes really ring when you play unison strings together, and is impossible most of the time to emulate in standard tune, or even with effects .

String Gauges

You can restring your guitar to unusual gauges depending on what tuning s you invent . Once you invent a new tuning observe the different tension you have on each string then customize your string gauges to match this new tuning . String gauges , which is string thickness, relates to how much tension is on that particular string . Now we are in the world of changing string tension, we can customize string gauge if we want !

Limitations of The Guitar Nut When Using Different Gauges The guitar nut at the top of the neck has specific spacing’s for string thickness.This may limit how creative you get with using different string gauges unless you wish to make permanent changes by filing the nut to suit.

Good Luck
                     Enjoy    Mark