Guitar: Chord changes from D to A: An Open Learning Guide

Here I'll show you in slow motion how to change from D to A. Try to follow the sequence exactly. What seems slow to you now will become incredibly fast over time. Just by singing the examples you will practice the correct movement sequence over and over again and your fingers will get used to the position.

The first few chord changes are not extremely fast. Speed ​​takes time and comes with practice. Note that it would be much easier and faster if a teacher showed you everything and you didn't have to read everything.

It is more important to be able to play the chord changes than to be able to play the individual chords. You will then learn the chords automatically.

It is important to change correctly, i.e. in the right order. The aim is for the fingers to then be placed smoothly on the fingerboard. If you "just" place your fingers on the fingerboard, you run the risk of placing the fingers one at a time, with each finger still having to find its place. It is then not a smooth movement, but three choppy movements that take much more time.

What today happens slowly, one after the other, will soon solidify, so that the fingers know their position so well that they can sort themselves out in the air. After a few weeks, the fingers know the position they should take so well that when making small or large chord jumps (D-A; C-D / G-Am; Em-D) you can put all your fingers down at the same time without even looking at the fretboard.

Of course, the fingers are sorted then too, but that happens in the air. You do exactly the same movement sequence that you are learning here in slow motion.

It will take a little while before you can play pieces that require extremely fast fingering changes. But there is still time for that. For the first strumming patterns, where you always switch back and forth between the bass string and the melody strings, it is perfectly sufficient to take care of the fingers of the top three bass strings first. Because they are struck first. The fingers of the melody strings therefore have a little bit of time.

You don't even need to think about it too much, because it happens automatically. Take your time and don't develop false ambition. That would simply be out of place here. In traffic, too, you often shift down a gear before overtaking.

Pay attention to the position of your middle and ring fingers! One position or the other will appear again and again in the next 6 chords for the “Campfire Diploma” and in 3 chords for the “Folk Diploma”. It is worth paying attention.

In many songs, you don't start with the beat pattern right from the first word. Look at the song sheets to see where the first chord is.

Source and licence

Text adapted from Guitar/Chord changes from D to A by Wikibooks contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. This adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.