pauses when switching chords

When I switch chords there is always a few second pause between them. Will the pauses stop with practice or is a transition necessary for each time I switch a chord...

It'll get better with time and practice. Learn to use "pivot" fingers; usually a finger shared among adjacent chords that can help anchor your fretting hand and make the transitions smoother. If you have to alter the "by the book" chord fingering to do it, do it.

It doesn't even have to be on the same fret. Think of the transition between C and G7. You want to use the 3rd finger to fret the A string third fret with the first and second fingers "hovering" over the next two positions. A quick slide of the third finger down to the second fret as you place your other two fingers, and you're done! Try going back and forth between these two chords until you can do it without even thinking about it. Then think of other common chord movements and how you can facilitate moving between them by finding one finger that can stay in place (or nearly so) during the transition.

If the song simply doesn't allow it, read ahead and ready your unused fingers over their next target positions. That should help too.

Okay. I was confused if in between chords you would always need to do a transition like an open strum or something like that. Thanks

No, I'm talking only about finger movement. It should eventually happen smoothly enough that you don't even miss a strum. Try the C and G7 thing. You'll get used to it pretty quickly.

Here's a quick example of what I'm talking about:

Ohh ok, that makes more sense. I'll try and practice it

Pinkpocky said:

Okay. I was confused if in between chords you would always need to do a transition like an open strum or something like that. Thanks

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Dave is right about setting up your chords for easier transitions. Also, with practice when your playing gets up to full speed you will often use the sound of the open strings to your advantage when changing, but don't practice that. Work on clean changes first. I wonder how many players don't even realize they're filling with some open string sounds.

Time and practice will improve your chord transition skills..I always try to find a finger position in both chords
that they have in common while switching chords and keep your fingers lower to the fretboard for a smoother and
faster the transition...cuts the slack time there..

Pinkpocky said:

When I switch chords there is always a few second pause between them. Will the pauses stop with practice or is a transition necessary for each time I switch a chord...

Click to expand...

Yes, the pauses will disappear on their own. Now get off the computer and pick up that ukulele.

There's a UKE MINUTE about this.

http://ukuleleunderground.com/lessons/how-to-switch-chords/

Try playing slower until the chord changes are smooth. Then as you improve, increase the speed.

Pauses will stop with correct practice and with planning.

Correct practice means that you slow down as much as it takes until your chord changes are fluid at that speed - that is your "current speed." Now, keep practicing at the current speed, especially the first few minutes when you're "warming up," and only gradually try to increase your speed from there.

If you have to play nursery rhymes at 20BPM to avoid hesitation then that's whaty you have to do. It is much more important to play fluidly than fast. The speed will come with time - but if you try to push your speed up to fast you will get to the point where you don't even realize that you are still hesitating at the chord changes - until you go to play with someone else - then it becomes disastrously obvious.

So, get a metronome (or use an online one) and play as slow as you need to so that your strum on the new chord falls exactly on the beat.

Another big thing is don't try to build the chord a finger at a time. Learn the shapes of the chords as if your fingers were a rubber stamp. As you lift your hand from one chord all of your fingers move together to the shape for the next stamp, then you put them down on the fingerboard pretty much all at once (with some chords you can intentionally hammer on a chord for a desired effect but with practice that should never be necessary.

Finally, the planning part. Some chord transistions are tougher to switch between than others. Look at the entire structure of the song you are planning to play and choose chord fingerings that make the transitions easier, not necessarily the individual chords easier. Song accompaniment is not a set of chords - it is a set of chord transitions. Make the transitions easy!

For example, the typical "open G" three finger G chord that everybody learns early on is usually easier to finger than a barred G at the second fret. But, if you have a passage that is bouncing back and forth between G and Em you want to use the barred G because it makes the transitions easier.


John

+1 on practicing with a metronome. I find that steady beat really pushes me. It's so easy it is to hesitate just a little on difficult transitions without it.

And here is an awesome downloadable free metronome program that lets you make your own (kinda crappy sounding but still better than blip-blip-blip) drum machine.
http://www.weirdmetronome.com/

I have used it to practice my hand-drums with but now I think I am going to use it for uke.

Since I suffer the same problem, after reading this thread I decided yesterday's practice session for me was to set the timer and spend that whole time switching from F to G to F to G to G to G (you get the idea). I will do that with the metronome tonight.

Thank you experienced players for helping us noobs!

I wrote Uncle Rod's Ukulele Boot Camp precisely for this eventuality among ukulele players of all skill levels.

Try the exercises slowly at first then at regular tempo. You can also work on them at faster than normal
speeds to really loosen those digits!

The link to the Boot Camp is integrated into my signature below.

keep uke'in',

Lodes said:

There's a UKE MINUTE about this.

http://ukuleleunderground.com/lessons/how-to-switch-chords/

Click to expand...

Thanks! I had never heard of doing that before. I hate missing beats.

OldePhart said:

Pauses will stop with correct practice and with planning.

Correct practice means that you slow down as much as it takes until your chord changes are fluid at that speed - that is your "current speed." Now, keep practicing at the current speed, especially the first few minutes when you're "warming up," and only gradually try to increase your speed from there.
...

Another big thing is don't try to build the chord a finger at a time. Learn the shapes of the chords as if your fingers were a rubber stamp. As you lift your hand from one chord all of your fingers move together to the shape for the next stamp, then you put them down on the fingerboard pretty much all at once (with some chords you can intentionally hammer on a chord for a desired effect but with practice that should never be necessary.

Finally, the planning part. Some chord transistions are tougher to switch between than others. Look at the entire structure of the song you are planning to play and choose chord fingerings that make the transitions easier, not necessarily the individual chords easier. Song accompaniment is not a set of chords - it is a set of chord transitions. Make the transitions easy!

Click to expand...

John, this is great advice. It's also good for anyone playing a new song with a complicated chord sequence. I'm playing one that has C7, Fdim, F over 3 beats and I need to forget my regular strum speed on it till my fingers get that triple-axel combo like jumping fleas. (Or look at the bridge for Heart and Soul on p 104 of Daily Ukulele--seven 7th chords over six words.)

Yes Rhythm and tempo...practice with songs you know by heart...Nursery Rhymes is a good way to go..might
sound stupid and lame, hey but it definetely works...remember the horse before the cart senerio..rhythm and
tempo is the foundation of music..

mm stan said:

Yes Rhythm and tempo...practice with songs you know by heart...Nursery Rhymes is a good way to go..might
sound stupid and lame, hey but it definetely works...remember the horse before the cart senerio..rhythm and
tempo is the foundation of music..

Click to expand...

That is so true Stan. Most people won't actually notice if a chord change lags by a beat as long as the beat doesn't get interrupted (obviously, there are exceptions). There are other tricks you can use with really tricky transitions, too.

One is to "scrub" all the strings open as a transition from one chord to the next. This in essence gives you two strum periods to make the chord change. In fact, depending on what key you're playing in even playing the open strings without muting them often works. A very short Am7 (i.e. all open strings in GCEA tuning) actually sounds fine between most chord transitions in the keys of C and G and sometimes in the key of F. The Am7 is the vi, ii, and iii chord respectively in those keys. The vi and ii are often used in songs and often work fine as "passing chords" even when they aren't written into the song. The iii is less common but works sometimes.

The other thing that often works on tricky transitions especially if you're doing an 8th or 16th strum is to use a single passing note or a partial chord in place of one of the strums.

But, whatever technique you use, keep the rhythm steady. As long as you keep the rhythm steady it almost doesn't matter how you accomplish it. That's something I had to learn when I switched from lead guitar to bass in the band - I could play really sloppy on lead guitar and as long as I didn't hit something horribly discordant nobody notices - drop a beat on the bass and it's like dropping a whole stack of dishes on the floor!

John

If I were to use a metronome, how would I use it to help me practice?