When learning a song, it is generally wise to begin with just a handful of chords at first. This helps ensure you focus on understanding its strumming pattern, feel, and rhythm before adding more chords later.
Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” is an ideal song to start playing as it contains several barre chords which can make for fun finger exercises.
A Minor 7
“And It Stoned Me” by Van Morrison is an excellent introduction to guitar chords for beginners. This song uses only five chords, making it an ideal song to learn with.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” is an easy acoustic guitar chords song for beginners to master. Only three chords are used in its composition – making this song ideal as an introduction to chords for guitarists starting out.
Blind Melon’s “No Rain,” one of their signature hits during the alt and grunge music boom of the 1990s, features four simple chords for easy guitar playback.
C Major
A C major chord can be formed using any six open strings on your guitar, in any way you choose – most commonly an A shape with an X at the eighth fret. Each form of this same chord produces different tones depending on what key it’s used in.
This song uses an easy sequence of C, Am, F and G chords for beginners to practice their chord progressions. It makes an ideal song to help build skills for playing chord progressions.
D Major
As with other major chords, this one includes three unique notes. Furthermore, its “X” above the nut indicates that no note from low E string should be played at any point during its construction.
As you create this chord, pay particular attention to your anchor fingers; these are the fingers which remain still when transitioning from one chord to another. By paying close attention to them during chord changes, your shifts should become faster and smoother.
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is an entertaining song requiring only two open chords and can be easily strumminged by beginners. Additionally, this tune serves as an excellent way to assess finger posture as many novice guitarists tend to kink their wrist one way or another when playing it.
E Major
Songs using chords F – C – G are ideal for beginning guitarists to learn. If you haven’t read up on intervals (the distance between notes), be sure to do that first before continuing here.
The black dots on a chord chart represent which frets to press down with your fingertips (index finger for fret 1, middle finger for fret 2, ring finger for fret 3 and little finger for fret 4) when performing chords. Sometimes charts also display an “X”, showing where strings may ring freely unplayed by any one member.
F Major
F major is often thought of as difficult, and indeed does require strength and coordination for beginners to play successfully. However, there are ways of making the journey less daunting for newcomers.
First, ensure your index finger is not stretched across all six strings – this can lead to sore fingers down the road.
As beginners may discover, it is also important to ensure your first finger doesn’t mutes the high E string. Beginners may find angling their finger slightly can help stop this from occurring and avoid muted strings altogether.
G Major
G major chords provide an ideal introduction for beginners, since they don’t involve bar chords which require stretching the fingers across the fretboard – which may prove tiresome to new guitarists.
This song utilizes G, Am and C chords which are all straightforward open chords – making this an excellent way to practice strumming techniques.
This song serves as an ideal introduction to inversions, which are different ways of playing the same chord. These inversions help shorten distances on the fretboard between chords by shifting their positions slightly.
A Major
Two chords and simple strumming patterns make it simple to play a variety of songs using two chords only, making this perfect for beginner guitarists as it doesn’t require using bar chords.
The A major chord is an accessible open chord for beginners to master, though its fingerings require slightly more stamina than other chords.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s classic is an absolute must in any guitarist’s repertoire and it is straightforward to learn once all chords have been learned.