Easy Chord Changing Exercises

Playing guitar chords isn't easy at first, but these chord changing exercises will help set in the muscle memory and make changing chord more physically comfortable.

The exercises below exclusively use those major and minor basic guitar chords, down at the first few frets. It's important to master changing between these chords before you move on to more challenging chord forms (e.g. barre chords).

So, download the backing tracks for each exercise (right click, "save as"), whack them on your mp3 player if needed and try to keep time with the chord changes. There are examples to help you.

Start slow just on your own (preferably with the aid of a metronome) and take your time gradually getting up to speed. Enjoy!

Simple chord changing exercises with 3 chords

No need to focus too much on complicated strumming patterns at this stage (that's for another lesson!), just downstrum the chord once through each change, just like in the examples.

Exercise 1: Example - Download Backing Track

Sequence: Am - G - D

A minor	G major
D major

Exercise 2: Example - Download Backing Track

Sequence: Em - C - A

E minor	C major
A major

4 chord changes

Exercise 3: Example - Download Backing Track

Sequence: A - D - G - E

A major	D major
G major	E major

Exercise 4: Example - Download Backing Track

Sequence: C - Am - Dm - G

C major	A minor
D minor	G major

5 and 6 chord changes

Here's where things get a bit trickier. The chord changes are faster and more frequent in these exercises. Remember, start slow with a metronome and build up your chord change speed gradually. No rush!

Exercise 5: Example - Download Backing Track

Sequence: E - C - G - D - A

E major	C major
G major	D major
A major

Exercise 6: Example - Download Backing Track

Sequence: Am - D - Am - C - G - E

A minor	D major
A minor	C major
G major	E major

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