How To Learn Guitar Chords Fast
A brand new guitar student once told me with a smirk he had a gig in a week. So I rifled through my desk until he asked what I was looking for. I grinned and said a magic wand...
Once you start learning guitar chords, you'll be inundated with tiny black dots. To keep it all in perspective just remember the tortoise and the hare story...
But maybe you’ve also heard the following advice...
Practice makes perfect.
Practice makes permanent.
Perfect takes practice…
Truth is we’re always learning. Repetition reinforces what we’ve learned. That’s why you’ll hear people say, “That’s how we’ve always done it.”
So how do we supercharge the learning process so we can just play from memory? Because the quicker we can do this, the better chance we have at sticking with it...
From what I’ve heard, memory consolidation happens when we sleep. That’s when stuff makes the journey from short term memory to long term memory. But it only happens when we sleep.
So if you want to learn something really fast…
One learning hack would be to practice before sleep and after sleep. And in many cases that means a little practice during my nightly netflix binge. And then a little more practice during my nascar style morning routine right before work...
Memory consolidation is not really super convenient right?
Well you might be in luck if you take a nap on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Just grab your guitar before and after that nap. Just make sure to nap at least 90 minutes. I’ve heard it takes that long to get an REM cycle to benefit memory consolidation.
So how do you learn guitar chords really fast if you can’t practice before and after sleep?
If your routine doesn’t allow you to bookend sleep with practice, it might be time to go old school on your unique learning style…
The 3 main learning styles are: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Here’s a couple ideas that don’t require a guitar to get you started for now, but it’s only the beginning...
Visual learners: review chord flashcards that have a chord box on one side and the name of the chord on the opposite side...
Auditory learners: listen to recordings of chords and tell yourself the name of the chord out loud while the chord is being strummed…
Kinesthetic learners: draw chord boxes over and over and over and over…
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
What if you want your ounce of effort to produce a pound of results?
Then you can boost your learning by combining techniques. Here’s an example for how to learn guitar chords really fast…
PRO TIP: Draw or trace chords on flashcards while listening to the chord being strummed and telling yourself out loud the name of the chord.
There’s also something to be said about goal setting. Most importantly it’s writing them down and reading them a couple times a day.
Your goal might read: I will know all 7 chords in the key of G major by (insert day and time).
But why this goal? The cool thing about this goal is that it would give you access to a lot of songs. Mainly because most songs can be put in the key of G. And most online resources will even let you transpose the song from its original key into the key of G, thus simplifying your learning curve once again. It could really give you a lot of momentum to learn the other keys as well!
Fact: If you learned 1 major key a month, you would know all 12 major keys in a year. And we can help you do that if you’d like. We even have the perfect practice plan to walk you through all 12 keys in as little as 6 weeks, but no need to rush. Slow and steady wins the race every time!