Beginner guitarists should begin their studies by mastering the fundamental chords, which make up 90% of songs.
Chords consist of three notes separated by intervals; this is their core theory.
Chord diagrams depict chord names along with horizontal fretboard lines representing its strings. Numbered circles on this fretboard show which fingers should be used (1 index finger, 2 middle fingers etc).
Open C Major
C major is one of the most frequently encountered open chords. It’s a straightforward power chord that sounds fantastic when strung with five of its strings; this chord can be found in numerous songs like Mumford and Sons’ Little Lion Man as an example.
To play the chord, place your index finger on the second string, first fret. Next, move your middle finger over to the third string fifth fret and your ring finger onto the fourth string sixth fret, until all six strings produce sound when played properly. Make sure your guitar is tuned to open C tuning or you may end up out-of-tune if standard tuning is used instead.
Notice that each fret features black circles to indicate where your fingers should press. Numbered black circles within these frets indicate which fingers to use to press strings within them. Be wary not to press too hard – it takes practice before you can develop an intuition for how much pressure each string requires from you with regards to pressure applied through each fingertip.
Open G Major
Open G Major is an exciting alternative tuning ideal for blues, rock and folk music. This special tuning makes major chords easy to play while opening up opportunities for creative hammer-ons and pull-offs with just Stringjoy strings in open G. Get ready for some serious musical fun!
When playing open G tuning, think of your second and first strings as being tuned one octave lower than they would be under standard tuning; for example, your second string should sound like B while the first should sound like E. To keep things straightforward and avoid complicated music notation schemes (like Keith Richards), many open G players opt for just five strings as opposed to six stringed setups (similar to traditional tuning).
Blues slide guitarist Lowell George of Little Feat was another notable user of open G tuning; he would often perform his greasy licks using this tuning mode. You can watch a clip of him performing open G in action below.
Open D Major
Open D major is a popular blues guitar tuning, often utilized by slide guitarists. This tuning provides great potential for slide guitar as it enables guitarists to bar across all strings at any fret for big sounding chords. Learning slide guitar in Open D major can be confusing at first, since most of your go-to licks and riffs from standard tuning won’t work, however by following Lounge Primate/Brook’s advice of playing only 1 and 5 instead, this doesn’t need to be so daunting an experience!
In this lesson, I’ll demonstrate movable shapes that you can use to transform most of the songs you know in standard tuning into Open D, creating new and vibrant sounds with all of its varied voicings and chord changes. You may even discover other alternate tunings! Good luck!
Open E Major
An open E tuning can produce some stunningly sounding chords when combined with slide guitar. The lower strings can act as bass lines while chord shapes are easy to finger. Minor chords can prove more challenging due to its link with major chords; however, with some creativity and ingenuity you may be able to find viable voicing solutions for them.
As part of your practice it’s also essential to explore different chord shapes so as not to become stuck in one particular progression. Mixing up some of these moveable chord shapes could make the difference between an enjoyable or unpleasant sounding progression.
Once you’ve become comfortable with basic major chords, it’s time to explore what strings 4 through 1 can offer you. Doing this will unlock its power for your playing and prove incredibly rewarding once you understand how best to use it.
Students looking to learn guitar can benefit from understanding chords. Chords are groups of notes played together to produce a fuller sound than playing each string separately.
Chord charts are simple charts to read and display a picture of a guitar neck in vertical format, showing all strings, frets and black circles to indicate which strings to press with fretting fingers.
Basic chords
Chords are groups of notes played simultaneously. Chords may either be major or minor – major chords have only one letter (like A), while minor chords add an lowercase m to their name (such as Am).
As part of your preparation to play guitar, it is important to learn to read chord diagrams. These illustrations indicate which strings and frets should be used to play each note of a chord as well as which fingers should be used when strumming each chord and include an “x” to indicate muted strings.
Beginner guitar players should focus initially on mastering open chords, which are simple and versatile enough for use across many songs. After that, you may progress onto triads – three note chords that form simple progressions – before trying triads that feature only three notes.
Major chords
Learning basic chords may prove a challenging feat for beginners. With practice, however, they will soon sound great; but keep in mind that it may take time before you are comfortable moving onto other types of chords.
Beginners should start off learning major triad chords as an easy starting point. These three-note chords feature an interval of a third between their three notes – meaning that one note sits precisely one perfect fifth above another one – making this chord an essential tool in many songs.
Minor chords
If you want your songs to sound more dramatic, consider playing minor chords. They feature mournful tones that work well when combined with major chords in song progressions. Plus, these chords are great for beginners since you can move them easily around on the fretboard!
Remember that minor chords only contain three notes, so their shapes differ from major chord shapes. Therefore, it’s important to familiarize yourself with minor chord names and the shapes they form on your guitar fretboard so you can quickly identify which ones you need when writing new progressions or songs – as well as avoid string buzzes and finger pain.
Triads
Triad chords are an indispensable foundation of guitar playing. Triads also serve as a good introduction to more advanced chord structures such as seventh chords and chord extensions – although before beginning with these it’s essential that you understand intervals and how they work.
Different triads will sound differently due to the number of semitones or half tones that separate each note, making each chord sound unique. Knowing this information will allow you to make informed decisions when moving these shapes up and down the neck for flat-picking or fingerstyle. Furthermore, understanding triad progressions becomes much simpler; practicing your chords frequently will speed this process along.
Bar chords
Barre chords may present beginner guitarists with an intimidating barrier, but with practice they can be overcome and eventually allow you to explore all kinds of new songs and styles.
An effective barre chord requires proper finger placement. Your index finger should rest near but not directly on each fret to avoid buzzing strings and creating unwanted noise.
Exercise to strengthen your grip is also crucial. Even just doing a few minutes each day of this will help your fingers achieve an appropriate amount of pressure, easing barre chording up and down the neck.
Chord diagrams
Chords are an integral component of any guitarist’s playing, yet can be challenging for novice guitarists due to the need for both finger dexterity and strength. There are two categories of chords: major and minor. While major chords typically sound happy, minor ones tend to sound sadder.
Chord diagrams can be an invaluable aid for beginning guitarists, as they show where your fingers should go on the fretboard and which frets to press. Furthermore, an X indicates which strings shouldn’t be played while numbers on frets show which fingers to use (1 index finger, 2 middle fingers, 3 rings fingers and 4 pinkies). Triad chords consist of three notes.
Learn to play beginner guitar chords using our free printable chord chart! Chords are organized according to their root and type; horizontal lines represent frets while numbers indicate which fingers to press; an “X” indicates avoid playing that string while an “O” means sound it out.
When playing chords, try to maintain a straight wrist position. Kinking of your wrist may cause buzzy sounds to emanate from your chords.
Basic chords
Basic chords are an excellent place to begin when learning guitar, as they are simple to form and suitable for most songs. To master these chords, however, one needs an in-depth knowledge of both fretboard and how to read a guitar chord chart (this chart should indicate which strings and fingers are being played along with any notations such as an “x”) as well as which should not be played (noted with either an asterisk).
One effective way to practice chords is to play popular songs that incorporate them, such as Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day which utilizes E, G, and D chords. Be wary when practicing these chords as this could cause discomfort as well as stress on your wrists.
Open chords are another excellent starting point. These common chords require less fingers to play than power or barre chords.
Easy chords
Beginner guitarists should utilize a basic guitar chord chart as a great starting point, which they can refer to for years. Easy to remember and packed with vibrant open voicings of chords integral to many songs – this chart provides everything novice guitarists need!
Guitar chord charts (also referred to as chord diagrams) display a picture of a guitar neck oriented vertically, with its thickest string (the low E) placed at the left end. Each string has its own black dot to indicate where fingers should be placed for any particular note or chord – numbers surrounding each dot represent which fingers to use: index, middle finger, ring finger and pinky.
E minor and D7 guitar chords aren’t difficult to learn or master; just make sure they sound right by practicing slow changes one at a time until the changes become smooth. Consider using a metronome initially for this practice until your changes feel natural and seamless.
Intermediate chords
Once you’ve mastered open chords, it’s time to move beyond them and explore more challenging shapes such as bar chords. Doing this will open up new perspectives on the fretboard while expanding your chord vocabulary – this includes things such as:
Many chords comprise only two notes (referred to as dyads), making for an ethereal yet bluesy sound in your music.
Suspended notes are another effective way to spice up open chords by adding the element of surprise. Created by taking out the third interval from a major or minor triad, suspended notes create power chords that add energy and excitement to songs, often used by singer songwriters to add mini melodies between chord changes or build augmented chords that add another level to guitar playing – they are especially popular among jazz and rock music players alike!
Advanced chords
Chords are one of the key tools in any guitarist’s arsenal. From rock, blues and country to jazz, chord progressions are present throughout songs. However, without spending much time learning different chord shapes it can be challenging to quickly locate advanced chords on your fretboard – but in this lesson I will demonstrate some simple steps that will enable you to quickly locate advanced chords anywhere on it!
There are various advanced chords, including suspended, augmented and diminished chords. Each type offers its own special sound to add character to your music; plus they’re easy to learn! So don’t hesitate to give these styles of chords a try – give it your best effort!
Power chords are another advanced chord variant. In contrast to major chords, these multi-note arrangements consist of only two notes and can only be played on three of the lowest strings – making them especially well suited for modern rock and blues music.