Morphis Mailbag: Difficulty with Chord Transitions

Dear Blake:
I've been practicing chord transitions a - g major for months now, many hours each day, and my fingers just are not learning, I cannot change without looking and I find chords like a and b difficult as my fingers don't fit well between the frets (I have a standard nut width ibanez acoustic-electric) my brother however has got this nailed in just two months!  Is there anything else I can do aside from what your site recommends?  How can I make my fingers remember the shape?

Blake:
Ultimately your goal will be to not look at the guitar when you play these chords. However, it sounds to me, that you have not been playing the guitar for too long. So it's not the least bit surprising to hear you need to look at your hand on each transition. That's okay to do, you have to do that in the beginning.

It's hard to diagnosis a problem via email. My advice would be to slow down. When I have trouble with something, I slow down to a crawl and practice each step until I got it.

Chord transitions are difficult to learn, so just take a couple of chords and transition between them slowly. Try things like Emaj to A minor, G to D, C maj to A minor.

I know it's frustrating, so don't give up! Just be patient.