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Uncle Bob's Guitar Lessons
Lesson 6 - Chord Change Tricks
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G to D Chord Change

This is a 'shortcut' method for switching between your G and D chords while playing. Traditionally, you play your G and D chords like the following:

This is actually quite difficult when playing a song that has several quick changes between G and D chords. Here's why this is so difficult:

• The index finger (1) has to jump from B on the 5th string to the A on the 3rd string.
• The middle finger (2) has to jump from the G on the 6th string to the F# on the 1st string.
• The ring finger (3) has to jump from the G on the 1st string to the D on the 2nd string.

Instead of playing the traditional way, I prefer to use the following illustration, where the G chord has an extra note added:

This may not seem easier at first, but here's what happens:

• The index finger (1) still jumps from B on the 5th string to the A on the 3rd string.
• The middle finger (2) still jumps from the G on the 6th string to the F# on the 1st string.
• The ring finger (3) doesn't move at all!
• The pinky (4) gets lifted off the strings.

The goal behind this technique is that this creates a pivot point on the third finger when changing between chords, and with practice this makes your chord change much, much faster.