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[soundian]

Originally Posted by Frosty Jack

Might sound daft but I remember years ago my epiphany was realising that sometimes you don't have to move all your fingers. Going from chord to chord, you can often leave one or two where they are for the new chord. That really helps your changes to flow better, giving you a more fluid style. Just find a nice chord sequence (eg C, Am, F, G) and do it overandaoverandoverandoverandover...

I also found this useful when learning:
if you do find you have to move all your fingers, find one with a short distance to travel and move it first. That'll hopefully "anchor" your position so the rest can be moved more easily/accurately. As you practice (and there's no getting round it, hours of boring practice are in store for you) you'll find the time decreasing between moving the anchor finger and the rest following.

[Sam L4]

If you are using a plectrum whilst picking, start with learning alternative, its a bit weird to get used too but you might as well get into good habbits from the start.

Don't waste your pinky, use it a lot from the start and you'll have a world of benefits a few years down the line.

[Sam L4]

Originally Posted by Chris

I used to just practice changing between chords, not really playing a particular song.

Incidentally if anyone's got any similar tips for the keyboard/piano...

Learn your major/minor chords shapes first and pratice moving between these. Then introduce the left hand doing octave stretch bass notes.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Sam L4

Learn your major/minor chords shapes first and pratice moving between these. Then introduce the left hand doing octave stretch bass notes.

For a moment there I forgot what I asked and thought you were talking about guitars still. The last bit of that makes much more sense now I've remembered I asked for piano advice.

[delius]

Best advice I have is to learn by playing things slowly - painfully slowly. Why? There are obvious advantages: it develops your awareness of what you're trying to to, It helps you focus on the fingering/timing of the chord shape or phrase, which makes accuracy more important than speed/ tone etc. There's a physiological element to this which isn't musical - it's about developing muscles/ co-ordination and programming muscle memory.
You'll find that it's so much easier to play chords/make changes/ play tricky passages at tempo if you practice them slowly.

I think this takes a little discipline too, as there's a bit here about delaying gratification: we always want to try to push the boat out and play faster than we're ready to play something, which is always counter-productive. Good practice habits pay off massivley when it's time to perform! (Another hint - singing or humming what your trying to do helps connect body and mind and is another tool for placing awareness back to what your practicing.)