WEBVTT 00:00:08.526 --> 00:00:10.345 Hello, Justin here. 00:00:10.345 --> 00:00:14.211 Welcome now to your first "1 Minute Changes". 00:00:14.211 --> 00:00:17.048 Now, this is a little exercise I developed a long time ago 00:00:17.048 --> 00:00:20.738 when I was teaching in a primary school and I couldn't get the kids to practice guitar. 00:00:20.738 --> 00:00:24.302 So I made up a little exercise that was kind of a competition 00:00:24.302 --> 00:00:27.291 to see who could make the most chord changes in one minute 00:00:27.291 --> 00:00:30.606 and what was really weird was that they all practiced loads, really enjoyed it 00:00:30.606 --> 00:00:32.617 and got really good at doing their chord changes. 00:00:32.617 --> 00:00:36.603 So, I kinda took the idea and applied it to some older people and found 00:00:36.603 --> 00:00:39.362 that it worked for them as well and then most...nearly.... 00:00:39.362 --> 00:00:43.562 ...or in fact all of my beginner students over the last few years have used this technique 00:00:43.562 --> 00:00:47.795 to get their chord changes faster because it's kinda the hardest thing. 00:00:47.795 --> 00:00:51.725 If you thought maybe, you know, having a slight pain in your fingers playing these chords 00:00:51.725 --> 00:00:57.053 was a little bit of a hard uphill battle, now the changing between the chords, 00:00:57.053 --> 00:01:00.623 is really gonna cause you a bit of problems because that's actually the... 00:01:00.623 --> 00:01:03.226 ...probably the hardest step when you first start playing the guitar 00:01:03.226 --> 00:01:07.399 is getting those chord changes. It's not that hard, it just takes practice. 00:01:07.399 --> 00:01:08.456 So you gotta stick with it. 00:01:08.456 --> 00:01:12.995 Now, what I'm gonna show you is a really, really kinda tried and tested method 00:01:12.995 --> 00:01:15.279 for getting your chord changes faster. 00:01:15.279 --> 00:01:17.825 So, what we're gonna do is, we're gonna pick a pair of chords. 00:01:17.825 --> 00:01:22.654 We might do first, say, D and A. 00:01:22.654 --> 00:01:24.986 First, as a first one. It doesn't really matter which ones you choose 00:01:24.986 --> 00:01:26.947 but let's say D and A chord. 00:01:26.947 --> 00:01:30.583 And we're gonna try and make as many changes between D and A 00:01:30.583 --> 00:01:32.775 as we can in one minute. 00:01:32.775 --> 00:01:35.338 So you need some sort of timer device, right? 00:01:35.338 --> 00:01:39.515 I use the little countdown timer on my iPhone but you could use things like egg timer 00:01:39.515 --> 00:01:41.581 or anything else that's got a countdown timer. 00:01:41.581 --> 00:01:46.906 I'm sure there are countdown liners... countdown liners ...countdown TIMERS online 00:01:46.906 --> 00:01:50.764 if you have a look around, if you did a google search I'm sure you'd find one. 00:01:50.764 --> 00:01:52.639 So, maybe using something like that 00:01:52.639 --> 00:01:57.077 and the idea would literally be that you have a look at your clock or your watch 00:01:57.077 --> 00:01:59.665 and you go: "Right here, OK, it's starting...now! 00:01:59.665 --> 00:02:07.331 (plays) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12..." 00:02:07.331 --> 00:02:13.109 ...and you just keep going for a whole minute, trying to make as many possible changes as you can 00:02:13.109 --> 00:02:14.157 in that time. 00:02:14.157 --> 00:02:18.680 And when you have arrived at the end of that minute and you know how many you've done, 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:23.290 in your practice schedule, you write the number of changes that you made in the little box. 00:02:23.290 --> 00:02:26.675 And this is really good now for your motivation 00:02:26.675 --> 00:02:28.572 because you get to watch yourself improve. 00:02:28.572 --> 00:02:30.834 Every time you're practicing you got a target 00:02:30.834 --> 00:02:33.835 'cause you know: "Last time I practiced, well, I got like seven changes in a minute. 00:02:33.835 --> 00:02:37.147 OK, I'm definitely gonna beat that this time. Alright, let's go for eight!" 00:02:37.147 --> 00:02:42.095 You know, it's a really good idea to write it down in your practice schedule 00:02:42.095 --> 00:02:45.307 and then compete with yourself. And a lot of it's kinda mental. 00:02:45.307 --> 00:02:48.838 You gotta be pushing yourself, really trying to make it faster, trying everytime. 00:02:48.838 --> 00:02:52.280 Have the mindset that you're going really, really as quick as possible. 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:55.266 Now, you can't make the chords kinda rubbish, right? 00:02:55.266 --> 00:02:59.162 If the fingers are on the wrong strings, you know, then it's kinda not right 00:02:59.162 --> 00:03:02.896 - or the wrong frets - but if the chord's not perfect, that's OK 00:03:02.896 --> 00:03:06.711 'cause this exercise is about trying to get your fingers to move quickly. 00:03:06.711 --> 00:03:07.919 That's the point of it. 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:11.751 So, if it's like it's not quite perfect, that's OK. 00:03:11.751 --> 00:03:12.903 You can still count it. 00:03:12.903 --> 00:03:15.728 Now, counting it: how to count it. 00:03:15.728 --> 00:03:17.567 There's been quite a lot of debate about this. 00:03:17.567 --> 00:03:22.172 I actually intended when I wrote this exercise in the first time I taught it online 00:03:22.172 --> 00:03:25.702 that one cycle would be counted as one. 00:03:25.702 --> 00:03:29.626 So if you went D to A and then back to D, that would be one. 00:03:29.626 --> 00:03:31.512 And everytime you got back to D you'd count. 00:03:31.512 --> 00:03:39.569 So you go: (plays) 1,2,3,4,etc. 00:03:39.569 --> 00:03:44.147 Now, a lot of people kind of misconstrued that little bit and they thought it was: 00:03:44.147 --> 00:03:47.712 (plays) 1,2,3,4,5,6... 00:03:47.712 --> 00:03:50.998 Now, to tell the truth, it doesn't really matter which one you choose to use. 00:03:50.998 --> 00:03:56.321 If you wanna do one whole cycle as counting one or if you wanna do...you know, 00:03:56.321 --> 00:04:00.032 count it each time you change chords at all then that's OK. It's up to you. 00:04:00.032 --> 00:04:01.916 As long as you keep using the same system it's fine. 00:04:01.916 --> 00:04:07.866 Now, even though I originally said one complete cycle is one, I think, probably 00:04:07.866 --> 00:04:11.467 it's a bit easier just everytime you change chords to make your count. 00:04:11.467 --> 00:04:14.868 So you're going: (plays) 1,2,3,4,5,6... 00:04:14.868 --> 00:04:17.941 So that's probably not a bad way to do it. 00:04:17.941 --> 00:04:21.650 I reckon that might be slightly better but it doesn't really matter. 00:04:21.650 --> 00:04:23.118 Now , what's your target? 00:04:23.118 --> 00:04:26.178 Well, when you first start trying to do these 1 Minute Changes, you'll probably find 00:04:26.178 --> 00:04:31.499 that you get between six and eight or nine, that'd be pretty damn good actually, 00:04:31.499 --> 00:04:35.380 eight or nine would be the high end of how many changes people get 00:04:35.380 --> 00:04:36.952 in their first 1 Minute Changes. 00:04:36.952 --> 00:04:40.129 So, have a little go at picking each one of the combinations now, 00:04:40.129 --> 00:04:43.847 so it'll be D and A, D and E and A and E 00:04:43.847 --> 00:04:49.040 and take each one for one minute, see how many you can get, write it in you practice routine. 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:56.324 The target is 30 complete changes or if you're counting everytime you change chords 00:04:56.324 --> 00:04:59.907 you're aiming for 60 which is one chord change a second. 00:04:59.907 --> 00:05:03.307 Now when you get to that sort of speed you should be able to play your songs 00:05:03.307 --> 00:05:06.269 fairly comfortably. So, that's the reason for that. 00:05:06.269 --> 00:05:10.796 It's really speed, speed. Trying to get those fingers moving faster, that's the whole picture, dudes, 00:05:10.796 --> 00:05:15.163 and so lots and lots of work on this and it will lead to good things. I promise you. 00:05:15.163 --> 00:05:23.227 So, get into that. Practice hard and I'll see you for another lesson very soon. 00:05:25.181 --> 00:05:27.137 There's one more thing I wanna tell you about 00:05:27.137 --> 00:05:30.234 which is how to join me when we've gotta play something together 00:05:30.234 --> 00:05:33.225 and I'll do that usually by counting in. 00:05:33.225 --> 00:05:40.669 So normally I'll just count you a "3,4" and then we would start together on count 1. 00:05:40.669 --> 00:05:42.139 That's the normal way of doing things. 00:05:42.139 --> 00:05:46.742 Sometimes count a whole bar, like "1,2,3,4" and then we start. 00:05:46.742 --> 00:05:49.996 I think that's a little bit long-winded, especially in this sort of situation. 00:05:49.996 --> 00:05:56.106 So, often I'll just count like - I'll go: "3,4" (plays) and then we'd start playing at the same time. 00:05:56.106 --> 00:05:59.805 So, just watch out for that "3,4" count-along. 00:05:59.805 --> 00:06:05.176 OK, let's check out what's in your practice routine.