Chord training
Aside from learning chords, you should practice them. This is obvious, but sometimes you need a method, and the following are resources for exercising guitar chords.
Shifting between chords
The first section is based on basic chords. The foundation of chord playing is to shift between chords efficiently. The first part of these exercises involves chord shifting on each bar, and the last part raises the level by shifting within the bar. The strumming patterns are only suggestions, the important thing here is to practice your ability to make smooth transitions between two chords.
Minor chord exercises (.PDF)
Major chord exercises (.PDF)
Chords with increased complexity
Chords that involve many fingers are normally harder to play than chords involving few fingers. Another important thing is to practice the less common chords. By varying the chords you're playing you will become more flexible. These exercises therefore go from ordinary major and minor chords to involve some seventh and ninth chords.
Major chord exercises - part 2 (.PDF)
Minor chord exercises - part 2 (.PDF)
Chord repertoire maintenance
There is a limit of the amount of chords we can keep in our memory. But with right methods, we can at least make the best of our memory capacity. One way to help our memory keep track of chords is to recognize the similarities between chord and thereby better organize our knowledge. As the following chord exercise shows, there are often small differences between chord shapes.
The following exercises are not so much playing practice, more as recognition hints that give you insights how chords are built.
Chords recognition (.PDF)
See also The Chord Training ebook.
Play through chord progressions
Other ways to practice chords are to play through progressions. These chord progressions collections can be found at this site:
Learn useful chord progressions - fundamental ways to construct progressions
Advanced chord progressions
Chord progressions in various keys
Chord progressions in famous songs
