A chord is composed of multiple notes played simultaneously that work together to produce sound. Chords can be great fun to learn and are the basis for most songs!
Open chords are among the easiest chords to learn, making them suitable for beginners. Furthermore, their shapes are fully “transposable”, meaning that you can move them all over the fretboard with minimal change to tone quality and quality.
Major
Bob Dylan’s classic Knockin’ on Heavens Door utilizes four easy chords – G, D and A major guitar chords – making this song ideal for novice guitarists to start strumming along with.
Major and minor chords both contain three notes known as triads, making up each chord, but their sounds vary considerably – major chords have more positive tones while minor are usually darker and melancholic in tone.
Add an extra pop to these chords by playing them with sus4 chords, which resemble power chords but exclude the third note (sus stands for suspended). Incorporating this chord directly before or after another parallel major or minor chord works especially well.
Minor
Minor chords can be intimidatingly complex for beginners, particularly given how they relate to major chords. Repetition is key for mastering any chord progression – which is where an excellent guitar learning app comes in handy!
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’s chord progression is straightforward to practice thanks to only four easy chords – G and D chords both require two beats while A and C chords have three. This symmetry helps beginner guitarists focus more easily on rhythm and lyrics when practicing.
Exercise this progression will strengthen your chord transitions and timing skills – essential skills when moving onto more complicated songs. Furthermore, it will lay a solid foundation for interpreting music; which is ultimately where magic happens!
Blues
Blues chords are an effective way to bring some spice and character to your guitar playing, plus they’re easy to play! Phrasing chords is also essential for blues guitar – we will discuss this subject further in an additional lesson.
Basic blues chords that should be familiar are G minor, A major, and C major. All three chords can be easily played in open position without needing additional fingerings (such as using a barre chord on G major).
B minor is another powerful blues chord, also an open position chord and easy to play. Add a flat 5th for that classic blues sound; an example can be heard in Bob Dylan’s song Knockin’ on Heavens Door.
Power Chords
Power chords are one of the main tools of any rhythm guitarist’s toolbox, used to produce powerful and recognizable riffs and melodies such as Nirvana’s iconic “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Power chords are two note chords which can easily be moved around on the fretboard to produce different tones while providing easy transition between chords – they even make use of accented hits and palm mutes which give it its distinctive sound!
Power Chords consist of just two notes – the root and 5th interval. As opposed to traditional chords with three separate notes, these power chords more closely resemble a duad (two notes played together).
Power chords can produce very big and punchy tones when used with distortion and gain, making them an invaluable way of filling out a mix. You could add an extra octave if desired to thicken and fullen them even further.