Learning chords is essential to any guitarist. Chords are formed by stacking movable shapes on top of one another on the fretboard.
Chord charts generally display the name, string numbers (which indicate which frets your fingers should press), any strings not meant to be played (represented by an “X”) and open strings (represented by “Os”).
Open D Major
Chord charts can help beginners get acquainted with open tunings by guiding where and which strings to fret. A chord chart takes the form of a rectangular diagram with horizontally separated strings on its left and fret board outline on the right sides, offering guidance and providing direction as to where your fingers should rest on your instrument.
As soon as you begin exploring Open D, start with D major. Begin by making staggered shapes with your middle finger on the second fret of A string; once that is established, move up to inline shapes on fifth fret of A string for greater range and movement across fretboard. Both shapes can also be altered at will by moving your middle finger up or down fretboard.
Open G Major
Open G tuning is an ideal choice for blues chord progressions. It has a full sound with easily moveable bar shapes that makes creating great sounding I, IV and V chords effortless. Furthermore, dominant chords or dominant 7ths can easily be altered into dominant or major 7th chords simply by adding notes to the bar finger in front of its root; for more information please see our ebook Essential Chords in Open G Tuning (pdf chord charts).
Open G tuning really shines as an ideal platform for adding hammer-ons and pull-offs to major chords quickly and effectively, especially in blues context. Keith Richards does it brilliantly on Brown Sugar or Jumpin’ Jack Flash; in fact he even removed his low 6th string to make this easier!
Open C Major
Open C major tuning is an excellent place to begin learning chord fingering on guitar. As it only contains three strings, and each string represents a major scale degree, learning its notes is simple and their fingerings easy.
Chord diagrams depict which strings and frets are being played, along with which fingers should fret each string. A number 1 within a black dot indicates which finger should fret it (either index, middle or ring finger).
Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons is an excellent song to showcase open C major tuning’s lush and lively sound. This tune demonstrates its potential.
Open B Major
Though you won’t find many open B chord variations that you can play this shape with, that doesn’t make it any less valuable to learn. Being a barre chord may require extra finger strength but its fuller sound helps develop string muting techniques more quickly than with other B shapes.
If you already know your bar chords, this one should come easily to you. Essentially it follows the same finger positioning as G bar chord, except with your pinky muted to leave only one string visible.
One effective method for playing B chords is by shifting an open A shape two frets up on your fingerboard. This voicing makes for easier playing and adds extra flavor to chord progressions.
Open E Major
This lesser-known variation of E major can add some nice variety and contrast to your chord progressions. It features less bassiness than its first cousin and boasts higher pitches.
Beginner guitarists may find the open E major chord to be difficult, requiring tight fists to ensure your fingers do not touch any adjacent open strings – otherwise the open strings could mute themselves and you won’t be able to strum them! If this fails then the strings mute themselves and it could impede strumming.
Open chords are flexible, allowing you to move their shapes up the fretboard for different minor chords. Joni Mitchell used this tactic when writing “Big Yellow Taxi”, using an open E major shape with pleasant sound qualities and popular among blues musicians.