Acquiring chords can help develop finger dexterity and expand your repertoire of songs, plus they’re easier to remember than bar chords without taking up as much fretting hand space.
Chord diagrams use dots to show where your fingers should go; those marked in black indicate which finger should be used for playing each chord.
1. Open C Major
Beginners to guitar may find this chord shape more challenging. To play it successfully, new guitarists need to learn how to scrunch their fingers close together without accidentally muzzing other strings (particularly low E string), such as accidentally muted other strings like G string. Therefore it is advisable to practice open chords regularly until they become an integral part of your playing style.
With this open chord, it is necessary to tune your second string up a half step to C and ensure your guitar is playing in its key of C major.
After that, use your index finger to barre the third fret for a C-major barre chord and strum its bottom five strings as you name the notes and their functions (Examples 3a-3c). This is one of the most frequently seen chord shapes among guitarists; you may hear it used by Aretha Franklin or Creedence Clearwater Revival during songs they sing!
2. A Minor 7
Almost anyone listening to any kind of music will likely have encountered minor seventh chords at some point in time, as they’re prevalent across genres and easy to pick up with some basic chord theory knowledge.
These chords contain a root, minor third, major fifth and flat seventh tone; sometimes this seventh can be left out to create less tension in the chord and make it sound less stressed out and relaxed. Such chords are known as augmented chords; their sound differs significantly from regular major 7th chords.
As you explore chords with extra notes tacked onto them – such as minor 75 and Bbm7 chords – extensions will often come up. These extra notes serve to color and enhance chords.
Understanding these distinctions will increase your ability to build chords and comprehend how music works, as well as deepen your intuition of how chords relate to one another and interact with scales and arpeggios you are already learning.
3. G Major
G chord is one of the most frequently used chords in popular music, and one of your first major guitar chords to learn. It can be found across genres including classical (such as Beethoven’s Sonatina in G), folk, rock, country songs – it even serves as the key for both British and New Zealand national anthems!
This open G chord requires some practice as you need to stretch out all six strings without accidentally muted adjacent ones. Beginners might find it easier to play a G power chord (more of a G5 chord), as it requires less finger stretch.
When playing a G major scale downward, begin with your pinky on G, followed by middle finger on F#, index finger on E and thumb on C – repeat this pattern until the scale has finished its run.
4. C Major
C major chord is one of the most versatile and important chord shapes to learn, having been featured prominently in classic country songs like Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, as well as more recently by Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean.
To play this shape, begin with your index finger on the fifth fret of the third string and move it with your ring finger to the sixth fret with your pinky staying at seventh fret. From here, all other fingers follow this same pattern – the second finger plays D, third plays E and your thumb plays G.
Move this shape up and down the neck to produce variations, and get used to moving between different finger positions. Take it slowly, focusing on producing clean sound rather than speed. Over time, you will improve both accuracy and speed when transitioning chords.