Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be edited without the prior written permission of the publisher. You are free to distribute it in its current, exact form. Disclaimer All the material contained in this book is provided for educational and informational purposes only. No responsibility can be taken for any results or outcomes resulting from the use of this material. While every attempt has been made to provide information that is both accurate and effective, the author does not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or use/misuse of this information. Check Out My E-Courses The 90 day Acoustic Ninja Course (click HERE for more info) OR The 90 day Electric Bootcamp Course (click HERE for more info) Free Stuff Sign Up to my blog at by clicking HERE to receive a free eBook and plenty of exclusive free content Contents Getting Started ................................................................................................. 4 The Fundamentals of Posture and Positioning ................................................ 8 Sitting Posture .............................................................................................. 9 Standing Posture ......................................................................................... 11 Hand and Thumb Position .......................................................................... 13 The Essential Chords ..................................................................................... 16 1) `Pivot` method ........................................................................................... 20 2) `Freeze` method ......................................................................................... 21 3) `Blast` method ........................................................................................... 22 4) `Diamond` method ..................................................................................... 23 5) `Lift up` Method ........................................................................................ 24 6) `Keep On Strumming` Method .................................................................. 25 Supercharge Your Finger Strength ................................................................. 26 The Need for Speed ....................................................................................... 28 60 Second Changes ................................................................................................................. 28 Time Trial ................................................................................................................................ 28 Random Chord Generator ...................................................................................................... 31 How to `Shortcut` Your Chord Changes ........................................................ 32 The Most Common `Shortcut` chord changes ........................................... 34 5000 Changes to Perfection ........................................................................... 38 Getting Started More often than not, the first HUGE obstacle that most beginner students arrive at is being able to change chords fluently. For many novice players, the frustration of learning to change chords is so big that often success or failure here decides whether or not they will continue learning guitar or give it up altogether. It’s no surprise really, as changing chords takes a huge amounts of finger strength, coordination, muscle memory and concentration to be able to move 2-4 fingers from one place to another while pressing down those dastardly strings. In this eBook, you`ll find 6 simple and systematic solutions to master this area of guitar in quick time as well plenty of powerful tips to help you master this essential are of guitar playing..... quickly. Follow these 6 powerful steps and you`ll save hours and possibly months of frustration. 4 Join my blog at http://guitardomination.net/free-stuff/ to receive a free eBook and plenty of exclusive free content Even Usain Bolt was slow once Even Usain Bolt ran slowly at some point. Well, by his standards anyway. He had to learn some technique to get faster, just like you are doing now. All the techniques outlined in this book will make a huge difference to your ability to change chords quickly and effortlessly. Once you’re able to change chords effectively and quickly you will literally open the door to being able to play a huge amount of songs. Armed with a few simple chords and a capo, many guitarists have gone on to achieve great things. All the way from Bob Dylan, The Beatles, more recently Ed Sheeran, and many more in between have based the majority of their songs and careers around the simple chords and capo combination. No matter what your aspirations are on guitar, whether it`s to play like Metallica, Foo Fighters, Led Zeppelin or Radiohead, a great place to start is by learning the essentials and one of those essentials is the ability to change chords fluently. All these artists use basic chords in their songs at some point. When learning anything new, it’s definitely best to break it down into chunks. Trying complicated strumming techniques, and learning to change chords at the same time is not a good idea. There is far too much to focus on. So, for this lesson, we will focus on only the left hand changing chords fluently and in a future book (sign up here to be notified and receive it when it is out) we will focus purely on right hand rhythm technique. Once you have both techniques down, it is fairly simple to put them together, 5 Join my blog at http://guitardomination.net/free-stuff/ to receive a free eBook and plenty of exclusive free content and you`ll be well on your way to mastering the basics of rhythm guitar. 6 Join my blog at http://guitardomination.net/free-stuff/ to receive a free eBook and plenty of exclusive free content It’s really not that hard once a methodical system is used. Each step gets progressively harder, so go through the steps in order of 1 to 6, moving onto the next step once you have mastered the previous step. When practicing chords changes limit yourself to practicing the changes with just two chords at first even if you know plenty more. Learning how to change between two simple chords is much better and far more useful than knowing 30 different, complex chords but not being able to change between them. 7 Join my blog at http://guitardomination.net/free-stuff/ to receive a free eBook and plenty of exclusive free content The Fundamentals of Posture and Positioning Before we tackle the specifics of how to speed up the fretting hand in regards to our chord changes, we really need to look at how you and your guitar fit together. Ignoring posture and positioning of your left hand in your guitar playing is like taking a drive around the United States with an un-oiled, spluttering, noisy engine that won`t even get you off your drive way. Many guitarists start off on a very bad foot when it comes to posture. They slouch back on a soft chair, or they are hunched over the guitar with the headstock pointing downwards in this cool looking but very inefficient way. Does this sound familiar? If so, let`s sort this very important aspect of your guitar playing out once and for all. Not only will good posture help you avoid injuries, it will make all aspects of your guitar playing more efficient and it will most certainly help with your chord changes. Bad posture might look a bit cooler but it can cause problems to the wrist and hand, leading to repetitive strain injury and injuries to the tendons and joints as well as back problems. If you`re injured or constantly in pain, believe me your chords changes won`t be getting any quicker, but that will be the least of your worries! 8 Join my blog at http://guitardomination.net/free-stuff/ to receive a free eBook and plenty of exclusive free content Sitting Posture You may not play classical guitar, and you may never really want to. That`s totally your choice of course (although I do definitely recommend learning a few classical pieces at some point - classical guitar is awesome) but you can learn a huge amount just from looking at the way classical guitarists sit with their instrument. Classical guitar music has some notoriously difficult phrases, chords and lead lines. Therefore to play this style of music well, the guitarist needs to be in the most efficient position possible with his or her guitar. Look at photo of the acclaimed and superb guitarist Brian Katz below. When you are sitting down, this is the sort of posture you should be replicating. 9 Join my blog at http://guitardomination.net/free-stuff/ to receive a free eBook and plenty of exclusive free content Key Points: The guitar is placed in between the legs as opposed to the round part being placed on the right leg. The headstock is pointing upwards as opposed to the lazy guitarist who points the headstock downwards. The left leg is raised on a small footstool to allow your left hand to be at a comfortable height. If you mimic players like Brian Katz, you will have a head start on all the lazy technique guitarists out there and the techniques in this book will be even more effective. 10 Join my blog at http://guitardomination.net/free-stuff/ to receive a free eBook and plenty of exclusive free content Standing Posture When playing standing up, for most guitarists looking cool is everything. Having the strap nice and low, with the guitar swinging round by their knees just like Tom DeLonge of Blink 182 or James