Change Guitar Chords Without Stopping: Em, Am and C

Your Em sounds fine until Am is due. Then the strumming stops while you rebuild your hand. Give that change a smaller job: keep counting, move only the fingers that need to move, and arrive at the next chord on a planned beat.

This lesson takes two pairs, Em↔Am and Am↔C, into an original four-bar accompaniment. Em means E minor, Am means A minor, and C here means C major. You should already be able to form each chord separately. Start with Em, Am and C: Map the Change beside you. The first goal is a continuous count with deliberate rests; uninterrupted strumming comes later. No particular speed is required.

1. Know the three shapes and their sounding strings

Use standard tuning: E–A–D–G–B–E, from thickest string 6 to thinnest string 1. Yamaha’s beginner guide confirms this order. Tune before checking a chord; otherwise a correct fingering can still sound wrong.

In these diagrams the nut is at the top and string 6 is on the left. A numbered dot means a fretting finger: 1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring, 4 little finger. An open circle means play the open string. An X means leave that string out. A dot labeled 2 is finger 2, not an instruction to find fret 2; read its vertical position for the fret. The first space below the nut is fret 1; count the spaces downward.

Read these as front-facing neck diagrams, not as a view down from your lap. Em has six sounding strings; Am and C have five, beginning on string 5. The numbers inside the dark dots identify fingers. Keep this exact fingering convention while comparing the movement maps; other legitimate fingerings would change which fingers can remain in place.

Choose these versions, matching the placement lists in Fender’s open-position lessons for Em, Am and C:

• Em: finger 2 on string 5, fret 2; finger 3 on string 4, fret 2. Strum all six strings.
• Am: finger 2 on string 4, fret 2; finger 3 on string 3, fret 2; finger 1 on string 2, fret 1. Start on string 5.
• C: finger 3 on string 5, fret 3; finger 2 on string 4, fret 2; finger 1 on string 2, fret 1. Start on string 5.

Fender’s Am page gives conflicting finger assignments in its opening prose and bullet list; this lesson follows the bullet list: middle on D, ring on G.

These are chosen fingerings, not the only correct ones. Use a comfortable seated position that leaves both hands available. A pick or your usual gentle finger downstroke is enough; this lesson does not require a new strumming technique.

Before you play, point to string 5 in each diagram. In Em it is fretted by finger 2; in Am it is open; in C it is fretted by finger 3. String 5 is the starting string for Am and C. For Em, begin one string lower in pitch, on string 6. Practice finding the starting string without sounding it, then make one quiet downstroke through the allowed strings. Reset rather than sweeping harder when you miss the starting point.

2. Check each string before starting the timer

Hold Em and pluck strings 6 through 1 separately. Listen for six clear sounds rather than one convincing sweep. For this inspection, ignore the printed tempo and take as long as each string needs; the rhythm is only an organized reference. The sounding pitches are E2–B2–E3–G3–B3–E4. You do not need to read the staff to do this check: follow the string numbers beneath it. The guitar staff writes each pitch one octave above its sound.

Em, one string at a time, bass to treble. The first four strings occupy bar 1; strings 2 and 1 begin bar 2, followed by a two-beat rest. This is a listening reference for the held shape, not an arpeggio to race through. The repeated E and B pitches belong to different strings and octaves; each deserves its own check.

If one string is silent, look for a neighboring fingertip resting against it. If a fretted string buzzes, place its fingertip close behind the fret wire on the nut side, then pluck gently again. If an open string buzzes, first check for accidental finger contact and try a gentler pluck. Persistent buzzing may need a teacher or guitar technician to check the instrument. Avoid answering every unclear sound by squeezing harder.

Use the sound to choose the next check. A dead string and a buzzing string are observations, not complete diagnoses. Check placement for fretted strings and contact or attack for open strings; persistent buzzing may need an instrument check. Fender’s buzz guide also distinguishes technique from setup. This untimed inspection belongs before the chord-change attempt, so you can listen closely without trying to repair a finger while also following a click.

Repeat with Am, plucking strings 5–1: A2–E3–A3–C4–E4. Keep the thin E string clear of finger 1. The change map keeps the shapes and their sounding strings together.

Am begins on the open A string, not the low E. Four quarter notes fill bar 1; the high E begins bar 2 and the dotted-half rest fills its remaining three beats. If the final E is muffled, inspect the neighboring index finger on the B string before changing the entire shape. Keep the same five-string boundary when you later strum.

For C, check C3–E3–G3–C4–E4 on strings 5–1. The open G is especially revealing: finger 3 must leave it free. Low E is a chord tone in both Am and C, but including it changes the bass of these chosen shapes. For this exercise, omit string 6 and stop any leftover low E vibration with a light touch of the strumming hand before the next chord.

C uses the same five sounding strings as Am, but its bass is fretted C and its G string is open. Hear that G separately after moving finger 3 away from the Am position. This sequence checks the result of the movement, including accidental contact with neighboring strings; successfully reaching fret 3 with the ring finger alone does not prove that the whole C chord is clear.

Guitar teacher David Taub’s open-chord guide also recommends individual-string checks before strumming. If the shapes remain unclear when untimed, work on them with your teacher before adding the beat.

Try a simple listening test: form C, pluck only string 3, then only string 2. You want open G followed by fretted C. If both are silent, inspect each separately. If G is clear but C is not, check finger 1’s placement on the B string and whether another finger is touching that string. Finish by checking all five strings again; fixing one contact can accidentally disturb another. You are collecting useful information, not grading the whole hand with a single strum.

3. Em→Am: move the pair without squeezing

With our Em fingering, fingers 2 and 3 both move one string toward the thin E. Finger 2 goes from A to D; finger 3 goes from D to G. Both stay at fret 2. Add finger 1 on the B string at fret 1. No fretted finger stays planted through this particular change.

The paired fingers keep a similar relationship while changing strings. “Move the shape” does not mean drag pressed fingertips sideways across the strings. Release their fretting pressure enough to travel, keep the movement close to the neck, and place them at their new destinations. Reverse both arrows and remove finger 1 when returning from Am to Em.

Practice that route without strumming. Form Em, release the moving fingers, and place Am. Then check its strings. For the return, remove finger 1 and move fingers 2 and 3 back toward the thick strings. Say the destinations before moving if you keep landing one string too far.

Fender’s chord-change tips recommend close movement and preparing the next shape. Use that idea here without hurrying. Aim to place the arriving fingers together; slow untimed placements can establish the route first.

Each 4/4 bar has four quarter-note beats. Set one metronome click per beat and say ‘1, 2, 3, 4.’ Each stemmed slash here is one downstrum lasting a beat. The half rest occupies two silent beats; a dotted-half rest occupies three; a quarter rest occupies one.

Downstrum Em on counts 1 and 2, silence the strings on 3, and use 3–4 to prepare Am. Play Am on the next 1 and 2. A slash stands for the complete chord above it, using that chord’s allowed strings; it does not identify a single pitch. Keep saying all four counts even though the last two have no strum.

Use Change on the Count for the timed work. Start around quarter note = 60 if comfortable, or choose slower. Count in one full bar. In this two-bar repair drill, finish both bars’ counts before stopping to reset. Later, in a complete loop, keep counting through a missed chord and aim for the next planned arrival.

Separate the two hands briefly if the new bass boundary causes trouble. With Am already formed, practice starting a downstroke on string 5. Then form Em and start on string 6. Once those starts are predictable, return to the pair drill. If the fingers arrive correctly but the low E keeps sounding in Am, more fretting-hand repetitions will not directly solve the strumming-hand target. Give that target its own slow attempt.

4. Am→C: keep the actual common fingers

Form Am. Leave finger 1 on B-string fret 1 and finger 2 on D-string fret 2. Move only finger 3, from G-string fret 2 to A-string fret 3. That is a change of string and fret, not a slide along one string. The G string becomes open.

Retain two actual finger positions, not merely two pitches with the same letter names. Fingers 1 and 2 can stay in contact while finger 3 changes location. This differs from Em→Am, where the paired fingers both move. The map describes the Am and C fingerings in this lesson; changing either fingering means checking the shared positions again.

Pluck C’s G string after each landing. Then return finger 3 to G-string fret 2 for Am, leaving the other two where they are. Check that the open A string is free again. Small adjustments of the retained fingers are fine; “keep” does not mean lock your hand rigidly.

Use the same two-strum rhythm as before: Am on 1–2, stop on 3, prepare during 3–4, then C on the next 1. Reverse the pair on another pass. Listen particularly to C’s open G and Am’s open A after landing. Leaving fingers 1 and 2 down saves movement, but it does not guarantee the other strings have escaped accidental contact.

Work both directions on the change map. A clear C→Am does not automatically mean Am→C is ready at the same tempo. Write down which direction stalls, so the next attempt has a specific target.

Test the map away from the instrument: which finger moves in Am→C, and where does it go? Answer: finger 3, from string 3 fret 2 to string 5 fret 3. Which fingers stay? Fingers 1 and 2. Now play that answer once and check the G string. Use the printed Try it on Map the Change to connect the verbal answer with the actual landing rather than memorizing a sentence alone.

5. Prepare during the last beat

Stay with the two-beat preparation window until you can make three consecutive changes in each direction, on the next beat 1, with the intended strings clear. If one direction fails, repair that direction before shortening the window.

Now shorten the preparation window: strum on 1, 2 and 3; rest on 4. Stop the strings with a light touch of the strumming hand on 4, then move the fretting fingers. Keep counting. A quarter rest takes the same time as a quarter note; it does not pause the bar.

Count “1, 2, 3, 4” through each bar. Beat 4 is silent preparation time, and the new chord arrives with the following beat 1. This written version deliberately shortens the chord’s sound to make room for the change; it is not yet four uninterrupted strums. If one beat is too little time, return to the previous half-rest version without changing the count.

Look at the next chord before the rest begins. For Em→Am, think “pair moves, index joins.” For Am→C, think “keep 1 and 2; move 3.” Preparing mentally early does not require releasing the present chord early. Use Tempo & the Metronome to separate the speed of the beat from the number of strums.

During a timed pass, keep the count if a chord misses. Skip a strum if necessary, and aim for the next planned arrival. After the pass, stop and inspect the failed change. This gives continuity practice and repair practice their own turns; neither task needs to crowd out the other.

Make the rest audible as silence. Simply lifting the fretting fingers will leave some open strings ringing, so it does not reliably stop the whole chord. Touch the sounding strings lightly with the strumming hand at the rest, then lift that hand in time for the next downstroke. Rehearse this on one chord before changing shapes. The purpose is a clear start and stop that you can hear against the click.

If the click disappears under your guitar, reduce the strum volume or move the metronome where you can hear it. Count one bar aloud without playing, then add just the first strum. You should be able to tell where beat 1 falls before asking the fretting hand to catch it. Tempo & the Metronome is useful here even when your chord shapes are already secure.

6. Give each chord two bars, then one

Begin Em–Em–Am–Am. In the first bar of each chord, strum on 1, stop the strings with the strumming hand on 2, and keep counting silently through 2–4. In its second bar, strum on 1–2–3 and prepare during the rest on 4. You count eight beats per chord, including the silent ones. The second Em bar still belongs to Em.

Two bars per chord gives you time to settle after an arrival before preparing another change. Bars 1 and 3 have one strum each; bars 2 and 4 have three. Do not confuse a rest with a chord change: the chord symbol remains Em throughout bars 1–2 and Am throughout bars 3–4. When repeating, prepare Em during bar 4’s final rest.

This spacious rhythm is an article variation. Play route A with the sheet’s three-strums-and-a-rest rhythm.

Run Am–Am–C–C the same way. Keep the click unchanged so the comparison tests finger movement rather than a new tempo. The metronome sheet starts with listening and clapping to the click; do that first if counting while moving still feels crowded.

Only the chord pair changes here. Keep fingers 1 and 2 in their shared positions while finger 3 moves during the preparation rest. The open G belongs to C in bars 3–4, and the open A returns when the route repeats to Am. Check those strings between passes, rather than adding inspection beats inside the printed four-bar route.

Then try one bar each: Em–Am–C–Am. This order makes every boundary a pair you have practiced, including Am→Em when the loop repeats. Use three strums and a rest in every bar. Change on the Count provides a four-repetition record for the loop.

This is the first complete accompaniment target: four bars with a continuous pulse and a planned silent fourth beat in each. Count the final rest before returning to Em. There are three changes inside one pass and a fourth at the repeat boundary; the very first Em placement is the starting chord, not a completed transition. Practice the returns to Em too; the worksheet’s printed log records the three changes inside each pass.

For later harmony study, The Primary Chords: I, IV & V uses C, F and G. Those are different chords and a different task; Em, Am and C are not the I–IV–V family in C major.

Try removing the rest once three consecutive four-bar passes keep all the counts and clear arrivals, including the return to Em between passes. This is a suggested practice check, not a speed deadline.

When the rest version is reliable, try four quarter-note downstrums per bar. Plan ahead during count 4, but make the final strum on the old chord before releasing its moving fingers. At first, that may require a slower click. Return to the rest version if the count keeps stretching.

The chord order is unchanged, but the preparation rest is gone. Strum the old chord on beat 4, release the moving fingers afterward, and arrive at the new chord on beat 1. The transition can shorten the previous chord’s resonance; it must not add time to the bar. Treat this as a later variation, not a reason to abandon the slower version that keeps your pulse steady.

Listen for the bass boundary when moving from Em to Am. Skipping string 6 on the new downstroke does not automatically stop the open low E left over from Em. The rest version gives your strumming hand an explicit moment to silence it. Keep that result when removing the rest: touch the unwanted bass before the Am arrival while keeping the next beat in place. Ask your teacher to watch this transition if stopping the bass disrupts every downstroke.

Choose the rhythm version by what you can repeat. If you manage the four-strum version once but then stop on every Am→C, the three-strum version is still the useful practice setting. Keep it for another session and check the ring finger’s route. When adding the fourth strum, slow the click if needed to keep the change manageable. Once that version is steady, keep its rhythm fixed while testing a slightly faster tempo.

7. Use a short session, then write what happened

Use this short plan as a repeatable session, not a deadline for mastering the changes. Spend minute one checking strings, minute two on Em↔Am, and minute three on Am↔C. From 3:00 onward, play the loop and make a brief record; extend the session at slower tempos. Set the guitar down briefly between attempts when you need a reset.

A short session organizes attention; it predicts no learning speed. If the untimed string check needs the whole session, use the time there and record that result. Use the final block for playing and a brief note. At 60 bpm, four repetitions take 64 seconds, plus the count-in; replay a recording afterward. At slower tempos, extend the session rather than rushing to fit the timer. You do not need to fill every second with strumming to make the session useful.

The piano-oriented How to Practice teaches a useful repair loop: isolate the trouble, work slowly, get three clean attempts in a row, restarting the count after a mistake, then put it back into context. Its hands-separate piano instructions are not a guitar fingering method.

For the loop record, return to Change on the Count. Use the sheet’s 12 cells: Em→Am, Am→C, and C→Am in each of four repetitions. Mark C only when the intended chord starts on beat 1, its strings ring clearly, and string 6 stays silent for Am and C; otherwise mark W. Add a short reason such as ‘late’ or ‘open G muted.’ Practice the Am→Em joins too, and note any trouble with those separately.

Follow the sheet’s C/W rubric for the three changes inside each repetition. Write “late” for a missed beat 1 or “open G muted” for a sound problem; both need W, but the reason tells you what to repair. A separate string check after the run helps identify what went wrong, but does not retroactively make an unclear arrival clean. If you cannot judge every sound while playing, record the pass or mark the uncertain ones for a teacher; an honest “uncertain” is more useful than a guessed success.

Write the date, tempo, rhythm version and weakest direction beside the exercise log. Compare attempts at the same tempo and rhythm before trying a faster tempo or the four-strum version.

Check the final bar as carefully as the first. It ends on Am, so a repeat needs the Am→Em movement: lift finger 1 and move the pair back toward the thick strings. If you practice only the three changes inside a written line, that repeat can still surprise you. Include it during the four continuous repetitions, then finish the last bar’s count before stopping. A clear ending and an accurate return are separate tasks worth hearing once each.

For example, write W beside Am→C with “late; open G unclear.” Next session, use the same setting and repair that direction. If timing improves but the G stays muffled, the note still identifies a sound problem to check. If the count stops, write that too instead of treating a restarted run as continuous.

You can also use the worksheet before playing: name its six diagrams, fill the next-chord boxes, and check the fixed answers. Then put the pencil down and play the route using the sheet’s three-strums-and-rest rhythm. Correct written answers show that you recognize the intended sequence; they do not prove the physical change is ready. Its clean/needs-work rubric is a self-assessment, so use your ear and an occasional teacher check rather than expecting the answer key to judge your sound.

End with one uninterrupted pass. Then choose tomorrow’s smallest repair. A Tissimo lesson can give a teacher a clear task: listen to your four-bar loop, check the retained fingers, and watch whether the count continues through the change.

Free worksheets for this lesson

• Em, Am and C: Map the Change — chord grids, finger routes and a four-bar example.
• Change on the Count: Open Guitar Chords — identify shapes, complete routes and record four loop repetitions.
• Tempo & the Metronome — understand beat speed and begin with a steady click.
• How to Practice — a piano-based guide whose small-chunk repair loop transfers to this task.
• The Primary Chords: I, IV & V — a later C–F–G harmony comparison, separate from this fingering lesson.

Sources

• 5 Tips to Master Chord Changes — Fender
• How to Play an E Minor Chord on Guitar — Fender
• How to Play the A Minor Chord — Fender
• Learn to Play the C Chord on Guitar — Fender
• Eight Great Tips for Learning Guitar — Yamaha
• Open Position Chord Changing Techniques and Principles — David Taub, Next Level Guitar
• How to Read Guitar Chord Charts — Fender
• Guided Tuning Manual — Peterson
• First Tune the Guitar — Yamaha Musical Instrument Guide
• 5 Ways to Cut the Buzz — Fender
• Rest Duration — musictheory.net