In order to do a chord change, you have to know at least two chords on a banjo. In the first part of this article the C chord was discussed in detail, and you already know how to play G.
Start by playing an open G and strum it four times, now change to C and strum it four times. Practice this until you can go from chord to chord without hesitation. Don’t move on until you can move between G and C very smoothly.
I used four strums of each chord for a reason, a lot of the music you are going to learn has four beats per measure. A beat is the basic building block or pulse of the music and gives music its structure. A group of beats make up a measure of music, in this case we will have four beats in each measure.
To keep things simple I will indicate our two chords with G and C. So our simple exercise above would be written as follows.
G G G G C C C C G G G G C C C C G G G G …….. etc.
I have left extra space between the chord changes to indicate each measure, but there is no space when you play. You may have heard someone joke that a musician only needs to know how to count to four, that’s our next goal counting to four.
Start counting… One Two Three Four One Two Three Four. Keep a nice even pace and count aloud. I know what your thinking, I don’t want to count aloud, I’ll count to myself. Please count out loud, it will help you stay in time. When you feel ready, start playing a G chord, and try to stay in time with your counting.
Try the chord change exercise again, but this time count with each chord.
Keep playing and counting until you can play without thinking about it. Listen to this exercise here:
What you should Know.
- You can change from G to C with ease.
- A beat is the pulse of the music.
- A measure is a group of beats.
- You can count and play at the same time.
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