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.