Hi Jamie. I'd suggest practicing the guitar itself till you can change chords easily and without looking.Learn your major,minor,minor sevenths,major sevenths, the more the better.Practice till changing chords becomes second nature.

And do yourself a favor and make sure your guitar is set up for max playability.Nothing will discourage a new player faster than a hard to play guitar.

There is an excellent book, "how to write songs on guitar" by Rikki Rooksby. My local library has an excellent collection of songwriter books, and I've checked them all out. Rooksbys' is a diamond in the rough [Linked Image]
There are plenty of chord progression examples in the book.

As far as exercises,you can always hum melodies as you practice changing chords.
It is a technique I use to come up with ideas for song melodies.

Hope this helps, and good luck [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by TonyW (edited 10-08-2004).]