How To Quickly Learn New Guitar Chords

I’m going to attempt to show you, how to quickly learn new guitar chords in 5 minutes! You might call me crazy, but it’s possible!

However, there’s a small caveat. Whether this works for you will be down to your determination, persistence and focus. So, give it a go and you’ll might get lucky.

In order to maximize the time you have available, you will need to do some preparation. Let’s start!

Preparation

Firstly, we need to find a new chord to learn. This could come from a song that you’re currently learning.

Maybe you have a chord book or some other educational music books. It could be a chord someone has shown you recently.

Once you have your chord, you should first add this into your chord dictionary. If you don’t have one, here’s how.

Our second step is to prepare properly. Start by checking your email, phone, Facebook, and whatever else you check every few minutes!

Check everything that might distract you.

Got it out of your system?! Good!

Next, find a quiet spot to use. Finally, you need to find a timer, clock or watch which you can set a count-down.

As I’ll be showing you 5, one-minute exercises, if your timer can bleep every minute then that’s great.

With that, your prep is done and we can move on to learning our new guitar chord.

Learning the new guitar chord!

Now for the real fun! Here’s how to quickly learn new guitar chords, step by step. Let’s go!

Minute 1: Try It

For the first minute, try the new guitar chord. Experiment with different fingering.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t sound perfect or feels comfortable. We can sort both later.

Remember, don’t take too long, you’ve only got a minute!

Minute 2: Sound

So you’ve tried a whole bunch of different fingerings. Now is the time to settle on the one which feels the most comfortable.

You want to try and use the least amount of fingers to make it easy to move to and from.

Once that’s decided, now is the time to work on getting every note crystal clear and sounding perfect.

Start by playing each string one at a time. Listen for buzzes and muted notes.

Also, check that you’re not pulling any of the strings sharp.

When you’re confident that all of the notes sound crisp, then try playing the guitar chord in all of its glory.

Minute 3: Feel

With the chord sounding good, it’s time to work on making it feel great.

Keep playing the chord; throw around a few different rhythm and styles.

For example, try a simple Bossa Nova grove over it. Try off beats! How about 8th notes? You’ve got a million and one options here!

You’re trying to get to the point where it feels like you’ve played it a million times and have been playing it for years!

Minute 4: One Touch

If you’ve read my blog a lot, you will have seen the One Touch method come up a few times.

This is one of the most effective ways To quickly learn new guitar chords.

Here’s a recap if you’re unsure.

The One Touch Method is where you try to get the chord right the first time you hit the strings.

That means no looking, no slight re-arranging of fingers in one touch.

Trying this method will test you. Also, it will make sure that you have done the first three steps properly.

If you get to this point and can’t get to the chord within a try or two, then you probably lost focus during in the first three steps.

So, you might want to restart?!

Minute 5: Pattern

Next, we’re going to try and use our new guitar chord alongside one we already know. Start by picking any guitar chord you know well, that is close to this new one.

Try playing a simple rhythm pattern over the two chords. The first bar will be your old favourite and then a bar on the new guitar chord.

Set your metronome on a slow speed (I recommend the Korg TM60BK – the best $23 you can spend) and keep going around these two bars until you’re confident.

Watch for hesitations and buzzing.

As you get more comfortable with move between the two chords, you can gradually increase the tempo on your metronome.

Again keep watching for buzzes, fluffs and hesitations.

The Final Whistle!

When you get to the final (or only) beep, you can delight yourself in the fact that you’ve just learnt a new guitar chord.

If you followed my steps above, you’ve done a great job at doing the hard work.

Sadly, it’s not all over there, you’ll need to rinse and repeat a few times over the next week or so for it to really stick and become part of your playing.

After that, it should be well embedded into your playing and you’ll be using the new chord lots!