Understanding chords is the foundation for developing your guitar playing. Once you understand them, you can go on to use songs and chord progressions to compose original music.
Clicking the “more” link for any given root and type will bring up more guitar chords with various voicings or inversions of that chord, enabling you to save it into MyChords (36 maximum).
Scales
Scales are essential building blocks of chords, making their knowledge essential for any serious guitarist. Virtual Guitarist contains an ever-expanding library of scales in different keys and fretboard positions; when selected, a virtual fretboard will highlight all notes associated with that scale as well as provide a diagram showing where on the neck they lie.
Learn to read scales easily with this interval sequence! It is based on the major scale, but any other can also be selected. Furthermore, the virtual guitar can switch between acoustic and electric modes for you to simulate playing either type; alternatively you could switch left handed mode for left-handers!
If you are new to playing guitar, it can be challenging to move your fingers with precision through the fretboard diagram and scales displayed here. But, with perseverance and time and patience these delicate movements should become easier until soon enough your fingers will be performing all their intended complex tasks seamlessly.
For using the guitar chords virtual, simply choose a Root and Type combination that interests you and a new selection will appear. Clicking’more’ reveals even more chords which fit with that combination. This can include inversions and voicings of your selected chord, as well as different positions on the fretboard. For instance, C minor power chord can be found within C major scale and you have the choice whether to include its fifth tone (C no 3). Tunings such as DADGAD, Open G, Drop D and Double Drop D as well as CGDADGAD offer additional tunings. Pentatonic scales are useful tools for learning music for beginners since they contain less notes than their eight-note major counterparts.
Position Playing
Capo is an effective way of playing chords higher up the fretboard than you could in open position, which makes it particularly helpful when performing chord progressions or songs with repeated phrases or melodies.
The capo can be placed at any fret on your guitar and adjusted up or down the neck as necessary to meet your individual needs. Once attached, chords may be dragged from the guitar directly onto strings or chord names and saved into My Chords as long as there is space (36 chords maximum).
If you choose’strum,’ the notes will be played rapidly back-and-forth as if using a plectrum, eventually stopping once a chord has been completed. On the other hand, selecting “pick” will cause one string at a time to be plucked until stopped by either you or another player.
This will enable you to hear what each note will sound like and get an understanding of where and how the strings should be played for maximum sound. Furthermore, you can use this exercise to check the accuracy of your playing; if something sounds off-key or muffled then double-check that your finger isn’t pressing on an off-limits string or fret.
Guitar Chords Virtual can be an engaging way to learn fretboard positions, but remember that understanding music theory (harmonization) will enhance your musicianship overall. So if you want a deeper insight into what you are doing then please visit the chord theory and scales pages.
We have recently introduced a chord chart to assist in learning your finger positions for various guitar chords. Simply select from the drop-down list which type of chord you would like, and it will display on a fretboard diagram based on standard tuning or other popular tunings such as DADGAD, Drop D, Double Drop D or Open G tuning systems.