If you have advanced far enough along in your guitar playing that you are working on learning chords, and putting those chords together to make songs, then this article is for you. One of the challenges about learning to play guitar is memorization. It takes a great deal of effort to learn and memorize all the chords you will need to play an entire song, not to mention the lyrics that go along with it. You can memorize guitar song chords by using just a few simple practice techniques.

The Basics:

The absolute basic element you need to possess in order to memorize guitar song chords is to ensure that you are comfortable with all of the chords that the song calls for. If you constantly have to keep making references to your chord chart, this will present significant challenges in your progress. The most important foundation to build is to know every chord in the song, inside and out. Work on this before you ever try to play the whole song, and before you start worrying about the lyrics. You might set up a guitar chord chart for reference, a large one that you can see from a slight distance, and use this as a guide while you memorize the chords for the song.

Recognizing:

You should be able to recognize when the music you are playing requires a chord change. Practice listening to a recording of the song you are learning, first without the lyrics and chords in front of you and then again with the chords. Then listen a third time without, and see if you can readily identify where the chord changes happen. You do not necessarily need to know what chords are involved at this point, but you should recognize the chord changes with just your ears.

No Lyrics:

Practice the song without singing the lyrics. You can hum the melody along out loud if it helps, but when you are plagued with trying to remember chords and lyrics at the same time, it's going to slow you down. This technique is known as isolation. You have been reading words your entire life, so it should be relatively simple for you to learn the lyrics right? But playing the guitar is most certainly a new or relatively different skill, and you need to isolate this part of memorizing guitar song chords all by itself.

Once you have practiced the whole song a few times without the lyrics, you can begin slowly plugging the words back in, little by little. Again, employ the technique of isolation by working on memorizing just the first line with lyrics and chords together. Isolate each line or phrase of the song and play it three times in a row. Go back o the beginning and put the whole song together, chords, lyrics, and in the right order. Memorizing guitar song chords is much easier if you break it down into chunks. Should you encounter a trouble spot with unusual or numerous chord changes, isolate that and spend extra time rehearsing it.
Following these tips will help you memorize guitar song chords with ease. They will stick with you, and after you memorize, you'll be able to recall the chords and lyrics for many years to come!