It can be a very useful mental trick, when you’re learning to switch guitar chords, to simplify the process of putting your fingers down by asking the following question:

“Which finger will I put down first?”

It can be a daunting task to remember all of those shapes, but if you can remember, for example, that when you switch to the D chord “I’m going to put my middle finger down first,” it can help you to plant the chord faster in time for your next strum.

It’s simple, but effective.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

If you’re a beginner, the number one thing you can do to improve the sound of your chords is to make sure that you don’t play the strings with the X’s on the chord chart diagram.

Often times when you are practicing, you’re concentrating on your strumming, or keeping a beat, but if you want your music to sound good, avoid those strings with the X’s.

This will build your confidence, not to mention your listening skills.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

This post is going to state the obvious.

Learn and memorize as many guitar chords as you can. You can do this by purchasing a guitar chords poster, or the “Learn Guitar Chords DVD” (shameless plug).

But for serious, here, this single act of memorizing as many chords as you can will improve not only your muscle memory and your dexterity, it will prepare you to play all kinds of different songs.

The internet is a goldmine when it comes to songs, lyrics, tabs, and lead sheets, but you won’t be able to utilize that information without having memorized many guitar chords.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

When you are making and strumming different chords, it’s important to keep your fingers curved up and over the other strings to prevent muting (a dull or clunky sound). It can be difficult at first, because your fingers might not want to cooperate, and with some chords it might feel like you’re stretching your fingers too far.

There are a couple of things you can do to make this comfortable for your fingers:
1.) Make sure you’re sitting up straight and holding your guitar straight out.
2.) Try to use just enough pressure when pressing down your strings. Too much pressure and you’ll fatigue faster, and your fingers won’t cooperate.

You should be able to slip a pencil or pen through the curved part of your fingers. That’s a pretty good gauge of how much clearance you’ll need.

Finally, you know your chords sound good when all the strings are ringing out clearly and crisply, and there are no clunky, dull, muted sounds on any of the strings.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox