Learning guitar chords is one of the first steps any new guitarist should take towards playing their favorite songs. These groups of notes played across multiple strings can be strung together to form melodies suitable for any genre of song, including classical pieces and pop.
Each vertical line on a chord chart represents one string, while horizontal lines represent frets on a guitar. Dotted lines indicate where fingers should be placed for playing specific chords.
Learn to Read Guitar Chords
Once they master basic chord patterns on their guitars, many guitarists may begin to take for granted what they know and strum without thinking or strategy – this is a big mistake as it keeps people from fully developing their rhythm skills while playing guitar.
Chord charts or diagrams should be one of the first things a beginner guitarist learns, as they show where your fingers should go and which strings to mute for each chord shape across all six strings.
Some guitar chords include numbers on either side that tell you which fret to play them on. Other times a black circle or “X” appears on a chord chart as an indicator for which strings should not be played.
Chord diagrams typically also indicate whether to bend the pitch of a string upward or downward; upstrokes are indicated with a V and downstrokes are denoted with a straight line beneath its note. This allows you to create more expressive and vocal guitar playing!
Strum Chords
As a rhythm guitarist you must be able to strum chords that keep time with one another. Sometimes guitarists will mute strings that don’t need to be heard or skip an altogether unnecessary string (though that isn’t always necessary). At first you may find your strumming pattern off by one or two beats but over time this should become less of an issue.
The most ubiquitous pattern for strumming guitar is to strum down on every down beat and up on every upbeat. Most songs use this rhythm as their starting point; making this the ideal place to begin your learning experience.
Once you can strum this pattern well at a comfortable tempo, increase it by one or two BPM and practice. Do this until you master it, and move onto other patterns until eventually playing any rhythm will become easy and natural – but remember this takes practice and listening to great music! Good luck!
Learn to Sing Over Chords
Before singing over a chord progression, make sure the guitar part has been fully mastered to where you can perform it without thinking. Once this has been accomplished, return to the recording of the song and listen carefully for its vocal melody – this will help you understand its rhythm in relation to its arrangement on guitar.
Suggest selecting a simple song with both guitar and vocal parts within your current skill level and familiarity, with which you are comfortable singing along (EXAMPLE 4). Choose a strumming pattern you have practiced enough that it has become automatic (EXAMPLE 4): counting to keep consistent timing or using a metronome; while strumming each chord only once while singing over the beat will help give an understanding of when and when not to strum (and sing) each syllable of lyrics.
Learn to Play Rhythm Parts
While many associate guitar chords with joyful songs, they can also be used to evoke feelings of melancholy and create an air of disquiet. Songs like “Unwell” can elicit sorrowful melodies and lyrics that convey these sentiments through learning these specific chords for playing guitar. Playing these type of chords allows you to convey similar emotions while performing music on your guitar.
Start out using a metronome to get used to the rhythm and gradually increase speed as you become more adept at rhythm. Also try different strumming patterns to see which sound best, including alternate strumming (striking downward on beats (known as downstrokes) and upward on upbeats).
Experience Groove3 expert Eli Krantzberg as he explores several techniques for arranging rhythm section parts, from fills (three different approaches) and dropouts (removing bass and/or drums from certain sections for dramatic effect) to punches (rhythmic accents that grab listener attention) and keys/bass ostinatos. Finally, watch him build an entire track from scratch as all these ideas come to life!