Learning major chords is an essential element of guitar playing. These versatile chords can be found across numerous musical genres and will become staples as part of a guitarist’s skill set.
Chord diagrams illustrate what fingers to use at each fret and where open strings should be located. Each number represents which fingers to use (1 for index, 2 for middle finger, 3 for ring finger and 4 for pinky).
This is the initial inversion of an A major chord.
A Major
A Major is one of the first chords you should learn and one of the most fundamental. Most chord progressions consist of only major and minor chords, making this chord an essential element to master.
This chord is a major triad, composed of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes from C Major scale. Positions (patterns) on fretboard can be moved up or down using simple one-fret moves to produce other major chords and familiarize you with its layout. This exercise will be especially helpful as an introduction to using fretboard.
B Major
Chord progressions often feature seventh chords as part of their harmonic vocabulary, too. A minor seventh chord (m7b5) combines a minor triad and seventh interval of the minor scale for an effect more melancholic than upbeat.
Musicians rarely limit themselves to chords from just one major scale, which means you’ll often encounter songs containing multiple key chord progressions. Understanding how these different chords combine to create different moods is central to musical theory – Fender Play makes learning the basics of chords, scales and guitar chord theory easy!
C Major
The open C major chord is one of the first guitar chords beginners learn and an excellent starting point to building their knowledge of music theory. For instance, this chord teaches players how to fret all six strings using correct fingering for major chords.
By employing this fingering, you can discover other major chord shapes such as C6 and Cmaj7 chords – just major chords with an additional 6th note from the major scale added on top. They can also be played as minor triads.
Other altered chords containing major scale tones include min7b5 and m7#9. These chords essentially provide a minor triad with flat 3rd, 5th, and sharp 9th notes from the major scale.
D Major
This bright-sounding major chord consists of the 1st (root), 3rd, and 5th notes from D major scale, making up its root note, third note, fourth note and fifth note respectively. It often occurs alongside G major chord in chord progressions.
The open D chord is often one of the first guitar shapes learned, and can be heard in numerous songs by artists ranging from Led Zeppelin to Demi Lovato.
One method for playing this chord is as a barre chord, which requires more advanced finger strength in order to fret the four lower strings correctly and produce pleasing sounds in its context.
E Major
E Major chord is a versatile chord shape often utilized in Blues and Rock music. Usually accompanying this chord with either a flat 7th (Emaj7) for bluesy sounding melodies, or fifth for major 7th sound (Emin), E Major chord is also known by its abbreviation E (EMajor).
E chord is an accessible chord to learn, offering numerous variations for beginners. Most beginners start off learning this basic form in open position E, making for a good starting point as they advance and discover different shapes and more complex voicings on the fretboard.
E Major is comprised of E, G# and B. It can be played easily using an open E shape with your index finger at the 1st fret of G string and your middle finger at 2nd fret of A string.
F Major
F Major is a key chord and can be challenging for beginners to play correctly. To master it successfully, it’s crucial that finger placement on the fretboard be correct as well as practicing strumming and changing to other chords with ease.
This version of an F chord requires more strength to barre, since its sound consists of flattened third note from scale that creates more of a minor sound than in an F major chord voicing.
G Major
G Major chord is one of the first major guitar chords you should learn, as it is used frequently in songs and is an integral component of basic chord theory.
As with other major triads, the G major triad contains both a root note and perfect fifth note; these latter notes must always be 7 frets or three and a half tones higher than its respective root note, giving stability and resolution to the chord.
Musicians rarely compose their songs using just one scale, so learning chords from various major scales is crucial in order to appreciate how a song comes together as a whole. Understanding their interrelation can give you insight into its construction.