Uncle Bob's Guitar Lessons
Lesson 6 - Chord Change Tricks
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Like the G to D Chord Change and C to G Chord Change techniques, this is a 'shortcut' method for switching between your G and C chords while playing. Really, this technique is something of a 'cheat' in that you're actually playing a C9 chord instead of a C chord, but in many songs it works. (A great example of this is Trading my Sorrows by Darrell Evans.)
Once again, you traditionally play your G and C chords like the following:
This is actually quite difficult to master when playing a song that has several quick changes between G and C chords. Here's why this is so difficult:
- The index finger (1) has to jump from the B on the 5th string to the C on the 2nd string.
- The middle finger (2) has to jump from the G on the 6th string string to the E on the 4th.
- The ring finger (3) has to jump from the G on the 1st string to the C on the 5th string.
Whenever possible, I prefer to use the following illustration instead of playing the traditional way, where the G chord is rearranged and you substitute the C9 for the C chord:
As you can see, this is a lot less movement. Here's what happens:
- The index (1) and middle (2) fingers have to move over just one string.
- The ring finger (3) and pinky (4) don't move at all!
Like the G to D Chord Change technique, this technique creates a pivot point when changing between chords, and it greatly minimizes the amount of movement that you need to use when changing between these chords.
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