Music On The Blog

Would you like to know how to improve your chord changes? Of course you would! Is there some secret formula or magic trick that will make your fingers quicker? No… but there are some “muscle memory” exercises you can do to strengthen them. This will make a big difference in your playing.

Yesterday I gave one of my students a series of simple chord progressions to practice. As he was playing through them I noticed that he could transition easily from the C chord to the Em chord, but he had difficulty moving from Em back to C. That’s because it’s easier for the hand to close than open, and moving from Em to C requires that your stretch and open your hand. The problem he was having also affected his timing so that he was unable to keep a steady 4/4 rhythm.

Repetition is the key to improving chord changes, but there are some ways to speed up the entire process. One of the first things you need to do is to practice being observant when you’re playing. Take mental notes of any difficulties you are having so that you can create your own improvement plan . Many beginner guitar students seem to ignore the importance of listening to themselves. But this is an essential ingredient to becoming a better guitar player.

After identifying the problem my student was having, I was able to provide some simple exercises he could do to improve his chord changes. The first exercise was to focus on only these two chords by using a chord drill.

SIMPLE CHORD DRILL:

* Strum Em and begin counting to four
* Move to C BEFORE reaching the number four
* If you can do this, reduce the count to three
* When you can easily move from Em to C in three beats…
* Try it in two beats, then in one beat.

It’s important to keep a steady count. Use a metronome to prevent the tendency to slow down your count.

The next excercise is called “chord bouncing” (my own term)…

CHORD BOUNCING

1. Strum any chord (let’s use C Major)
2. Lift all your fingers up off the fretboard, while still holding the shape of the chord, and strum the strings again (open)
3. Set them back down on the strings and strum the chord
4. Practice strumming this with a count: 1 (fingers down) 2 (fingers up) 3 (fingers down) 4 (fingers up)

Your goal is to place your fingers exactly where they need to be. Try to set all your fingers down on the strings at the same time. This is a great exercise for training your fingers to memorize a chord shape.

Continue practicing these exercises until you can change smoothly from one chord to the next without losing the beat, or shape, of the chord. Be careful not to overdue it! You only need about four or five consistant repitions every day to improve your chord changes!

About the Author

Kathy Unruh has been providing guitar lessons to students of all ages for over 25 years. For free guitar lessons, plus tips and resources on songwriting, recording and creating a music career, please visit her website at: AbcLearnGuitar.com

Most of The Beatles albums were originally mixed in mono back in the 1960s because at that time stereo was actually considered to be little more than a “fad.” I know that’s hard to imagine now when stereo is the way everyone listens to music (well there is 5.1 which is similarly looked at as a fad today, but unlike stereo – it hasn’t really got the attention of the average listener.)

The stereo mixes for their songs were little more than an “afterthought” in comparison to the time and energy they spent on getting the mono mixes just right (after all, most of their listeners at the time were listening to the mono mixes) up through Magical Mystery Tour. With The White Album they began to pay more attention to the stereo mixes as well (and The White Album was actually only released in the US in stereo.) And by the time they got to their final three albums (Yellow Submarine, Let It Be, & Abbey Road) they were only mixing in stereo as mono was effectively dead.

When The Beatles catalog was put on CD in 1987, they decided to put the stereo versions on CD rather than the mono (as obviously in 1987 stereo was the standard.) This made it very difficult for Beatles fans to hear the original mono mixes, especially as vinyl was phased out and it became harder to find the original Beatles mono vinyl LPs. It should also be noted that new stereo mixes were made for Help! & Rubber Soul so the original stereo mixes for those albums were not put on CD.

I’m telling you all of this because I think it’s important to understand the context in order to get why The Beatles In Mono is so exciting to most serious Beatles fans. For the first time their original mono mixes are available on CD. And for good measure they also have included the original stereo mixes for Help! & Rubber Soul so that all of the original mixes of The Beatles albums are now available on CD, finally.

Listening to these albums in mono for the first time like I have been doing over the past week is fascinating. I’m a younger Beatles fan so I only previously knew the stereo mixes. To hear the original mono mix of albums like Revolver & Sgt. Pepper is really very interesting for me. Some of these mixes are much different than the stereo mixes. The best examples of that may be on Sgt. Pepper where there’s a lot more effects on the vocals in the mono version of the album (making it more “psychedelic” in some ways) and also the song “She’s Leaving Home” is sped up in the mono version.

I definitely recommend the mono box to all Beatles fans. Not only are a lot of these mono mixes “interesting” and the way they were “originally meant to be heard” but in some cases they are clearly superior to the stereo mixes because some of The Beatles stereo mixes are panned in such a way that they can be difficult to listen to. This is particularly true with a lot of The Beatles earlier albums. In fact I think most Beatles fans will think the mono versions of most of their early songs are better than the stereo versions.

In short, this mono box set is a “must buy” especially because it’s being made in limited quantities and there’s no telling how many copies they will make before they stop making them. These will become collectors items. And I haven’t even mentioned the awesome packaging. I’ll let you find out about that for yourself when you get your order in the mail.

About the Author

Jake Topp recommends that you Buy The Beatles In Mono online ASAP because there’s no telling when it will go out of stock for good.

Read this Beatles In Mono Review for more information.