As a beginning guitarist, reading chord charts is key to playing the right notes at the right times. Learning how to read them will enable you to more efficiently play different chords and shapes more effortlessly.
A chord diagram represents what strings and frets are being played and read from top to bottom horizontally.
A Major
A major chord is one of the most versatile in music, frequently found across genres such as pop, rock, funk and jazz.
Chord diagrams here are simple grids that show where to position your fingers on the fretboard to play specific chords. A chord chart can be an invaluable aid to newcomers and should be learned as early as possible.
B Minor
B Minor is an essential key for numerous musical genres, from Blues to Jazz and beyond. This versatile key can elicit different emotions by shifting moods or creating certain tones of sound.
For this key, the basic guitar chord in B minor is a B minor bar chord, which can be played multiple ways; an easy way is by barre-fretting across five strings.
C Major
C major chord is one of the easiest chords to learn on guitar and can be utilized in numerous musical contexts. These chords provide a solid basis for your guitar playing journey and can help you play thousands of songs!
Use the C Major scale to craft chords rooted on its diatonic range. Furthermore, this scale serves as an invaluable reference when learning other types of guitar chords.
D Major
The D major chord is one of five foundational shapes for learning guitar. It appears in many popular songs and is very straightforward to master.
The D major scale contains seven notes that are spaced out in an order. From its root note, each note moves one whole step (2 frets) toward its second note and another step toward its third note, etc.
E Major
E Major is a key frequently utilized by rock and blues guitarists, while also utilized by classical composers, particularly when creating violin concertos.
The E major scale consists of four sharps (F#, G#, C# and D#) and is an excellent place to begin composing guitar chord progressions. As few open chords perfectly match its notes, barre chords may need to be used instead in order to complete your songs.
F Major
The F major chord has long been a mainstay in rock music. You’ll hear its familiar sound in songs by Tom Petty such as “Free Fallin”, and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall Part 2,” among many other famous hits.
Beginning to grasp piano can be challenging, but perseverance will lead to many songs being composed more easily.
G Major
G Major is one of the most frequently-used keys for guitarists, as it’s simple and doesn’t include many sharps or flats. This makes it suitable for use across genres.
As in other major scales, it follows a sequence of whole tones and semitones known as “W; W; H; W; H; H,” where each note lies one halftone away from its neighboring note.
H Major
Chords should be one of the first skills a beginner guitarist learns, serving as the basis of rhythms and harmonies.
Your fretboard provides multiple ways of stacking chords to play multiple chords at once – this feature is particularly effective in producing dominant seventh chords that feature prominently in many popular songs.
I Major
The I major chord is one of the most widely utilized guitar chords and can be found in songs spanning classic rock to pop music genres.
Chord diagrams feature three finger notes arranged vertically: index (1), middle (2) and ring (3). These diagrams also display how E is the lowest string to the left while A is higher on the right side.
J Major
The major three chords are A, B and C. For beginners, A and B chords may be challenging to learn; but soon enough you’ll be playing C chords without even thinking twice! A good rule of thumb would be to start with C and work your way up from there – memorize all chords but set a time and be patient as this path to success leads to true music performance!