If you have watched advanced guitar players at concerts or on TV you might have been discouraged by how complicated guitar chords appear to be. It is true that some guitar songs or instrumentals do call for chord shapes and changes that require alot of practice but you can easily become an accomplished electric or acoustic guitarist without being a virtuoso. It is quite possible to stay with easy guitar chords for your whole career.

The first thing you need to do is find a list of songs that you want to learn to play. The first criterion for choosing songs is whether you like them. The others have to do with the use of open chords and chord families which we will now take a look at.

Apart from your personal enjoyment, the use of songs as tools for learning chords has a practical value: it is much easier to learn groups of chords rather than one at a time because changing from one chord to the other helps your muscle memory to learn the fingerings.

Another thing that simplifies the process of learning guitar chords is the fact that popular music relies heavily on a form that uses only three chords for any song. This is not a hard and fast rule but you will find it holds true for most popular songs. An effective way to classify chords is to separate them into families which are simply combinations of chords that sound well together. In the key of A you have A, D and E. In the key of D the chords are D, E minor, G and A. In the key of G they are G, A minor, C, D, and E minor.

And the family of chords for the key of C is C, D minor, E minor, F and G. To make your guitar practice time most effective begin with learning one chord family at a time and finding “three chord” songs that contain your chords.

The key to beginning as a guitarist is to learn what are called “open” chords. These are chords that only require you to use two or three fingers to make the chord shapes. Open chords are played in the first position on the guitar fretboard, that is, within the first three frets. An example of an open chord is the E minor chord:

E——–0—————

B——–0—————

G——–0—————

D——–2—————

A——–2—————

E——–0—————-

The E minor chord requires you to place two fingers at the second fret on the fifth and fourth strings. What could be easier?

If you want to become an electric guitar player, you might be interested to know that power chords are the simplest to play. Power chords usually only need two fingers and are combined with the use of distortion to fry the brains of rock music lovers of all ages. So you have something to look forward to.

Ricky Sharples has been playing guitar his whole life, and is presently engaged in building a blog which features free guitar lessons, videos, articles and reviews to help you Learn The Guitar for free. Ricky updates the blog constantly so if you are interested in learning to play guitar there will be an enormous variety of tips, tools and tutorials for you.

Author: Ricky Sharples
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The best thing to do if you want to learn to play guitar chords is to identify the most common mistakes, and also to identify your own “bad-habits”. In this article, I’m going to show 5 of the most common mistakes that people learning guitar chords are doing and you should avoid.

1. The first and the most basic mistake not only playing chords on guitar but for the entire guitar play is a wrong posture. Many beginners tend to bend their body over the guitar to look at the strings or even to “listen” closely to the sounds which is pretty dumb.

A wrong posture fatigues your whole body and affects your playing. So, the first step to learn to play guitar chords is keep a loosen posture, relax your hands as much as possible and you’ll see that everything will go right.

2. Another important mistake to be knocked out if you’re to learn to play guitar chords is not visualizing the chord itself. As I said previously, most students tend to look at the fretboard and at their fingers instead of visualizing the position of their fingers. To correct this try playing with your eyes closed and hear the music instead of looking at it.

3. Many beginners practice with one single chord which is totally wrong. That’s because they don’t understand the learning process and they focus on the chord that sounds good to them.

To learn to play guitar chords properly you need to practice with at least 3 chords at the time combining them all the time and creating new exercises. This also helps you develop a faster fingering technique.

4. The pinky is as much important as the other fingers of your fretting hand but some people leave it out of business completely, some even hide it behind the fretboard. All your fingers must be hovering over the strings all the time! For example, when you play a D chord, your pinky finger must be somewhere over the high E or B.

5. Another bad-habit for playing chords is not picking the chord. Sometimes by strumming a chord you will see that you’re hitting dead notes. It’s a good thing to stop and repeat until you do it right, but a more experienced guitar player will pick each note separately to analyse fast which string is giving the dead note. What you can do is apply more pressure or get a better position for your fingers.

These are just a couple of bad-habits that beginners do when they learn to play guitar chords. To learn to play guitar chords properly, focus on these mistakes first, then try to find yours and eventually you’ll be on the right way to becoming a good guitarist.

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Instead of buying a guitar and hoping that it will just come to you, it’s best to seek out a method that allows you to learn guitar through chords and chord progression. All music is based on chords; once you learn how they are played you can start to understand how music is made. Even if you have never taken a lesson you can still learn finger placement and how to strum so you can get the basics under your belt.

Everybody starts with the fundamentals when it comes to learning guitar chords. Even your favorite guitar player, although some are self-taught you can still trace their musical start to guitar chords. When you learn the major chords that most of music uses for songs you can begin to build a base of knowledge.

Many people think that learning guitar is hard, its not, it may be challenging and if you are ready to break down your own barrier then you can progress into a guitar player.

Since guitar tablature is different from piano notation you should find a book of basic guitar chords to start with.

There is a fair amount of practice involved and devoting just a half hour each day to playing will improve your overall thirst for learning more. Remember to start with basic chords so you can understand how music is played. Since learning new chords helps build upon your hand flexing you will find that you can play chords you thought were reserved for professionals.

Once you learn the proper finger placement and which strings to strum you will be amazed at how fun and easy learning can be.

Even if you have been challenged in musical talent department you can still learn how to play guitar chords. The root of every song comes from a guitar chord.

Common chords are the basics that everybody learns. If you buy a book of guitar chords you will see the major chords and which songs you can learn if you master them. If you like country, rock, the blues or even simple campfire songs, learning simple chords and putting them together is very easy when you learn the proper techniques.

It’s also fun to learn with a friend because you can help encourage each other as you learn to play. There are several ways to learn, you can hire a teacher, you can teach yourself or you can take a music class with other students. Its best to have a teacher that shows you what a chord looks like and which strings to play. Often times we get frustrated because we feel we are not learning as fast as we would like. You cannot rush musical development, take your time and enjoy the process.

Hallen J Miller has spent most of his life studying music and the art of Guitar. He has found a very brilliant way to teach his students how to learn guitar chords with ease. Hallen believes that everyone can learn to play guitar with his ground breaking methods and visual instruction never seen before!

Author: Hallen J Miller
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The general idea for anyone starting an online guitar course is that you will be learning to play guitar chords as you progress through your guitar lessons. If you examine guitar theory you will see that learning about scales and the circle of fifths will give you an understanding of how chords are created. You will have the power to understand why chords sound good together and you will be able to make your own chords as and when you need them according to your understanding of music. You can let go of chord charts and make the music you play your own.

For beginners, chord charts are the way they get their introduction to playing music. No sheet music or tabs to learn, just get your head around the idea that chord charts are pictures of the guitar neck, and away you go.

This is when reality can bite. Making chord shapes can be painful, and learning to make chord changes can be slow and discouraging. This is where repeated practice comes to the rescue like dude on a white horse. Practicing chord changes is the magical element that turns you into a guitar player instead of a guitar fan.

So let’s go online to find the tools to learn chords. The first step in learning guitar chords is to find some free guitar chord charts online. They are not hard to find. Then you will need to get tabs or sheet music for some songs that you enjoy. It is not a good idea to just learn chords without also learning some songs to use the chords in. That is just too boring. The next step is to watch videos on YouTube or a similar site where people have uploaded clips of themselves explaining how to play basic guitar chords.

You will possibly be able to find someone teaching how to play your favorite song.

To learn to play chords you make use of your body’s talent for remembering movements. If you watch somebody in a sandwich shop or some other line of work that involves repeated small movements, you will see that they move very fast, just like a guitar player does. Typing is a good example. You learn the location of the letters, you get a basic understanding of how to hold you hands and arms. And then you type. You type until you do not have to think about where the letters are. Your body knows. This is referred to in guitar playing as “muscle memory”.

If you are learning to play guitar chords without the benefit of a teacher, then the idea of muscle memory is your friend. If you understand that you supply the time, say half an hour to two hours a day, practice time, then your body has the ability to learn how to make fast chord changes all by itself. You just need to give it time.

There is a degree of discomfort in learning guitar chords. Your left hand finger tips will hurt until you develop callouses, your back will complain about long hours of holding the guitar and your fingers are not enthusiastic at all about stretching to make chords and scales. Just remember that no matter what it looks like when you watch a professional guitar player at work, he had to go through what you are going through. And you can come out the other side playing chords, just like he can.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

You must be able to learn guitar chords to be able to play songs. You cannot play an entire song on a single string; you must know chords for that. Single string play is what kids who have no idea about playing guitar do, not someone who knows how to play the guitar.

In this article, we will discuss what guitar chords are. We will also discuss some of the problems you may face as a beginner when you learn guitar chords, and how to overcome these problems.

What You Must Know Before You Learn Guitar Chords

As a beginner, you must be wondering how difficult it would probably be to learn guitar chords. You also must be having numerous questions running in your mind. ‘Where do I start?’ is a very common question. The answer is obvious: start at the beginning; learn what a guitar chord is.

The dictionary states that a chord is the sound that emanates from a musical instrument when you hit a minimum of three pitches simultaneously. For someone who is learning the guitar, what this means is you need to hit the strings together with the fingers of the strumming hand, while holding down the strings at specific positions on the fretboard with the fingers of the other hand, to produce the required sound.

There are a number of guitar chords – simple and complex. When you start to learn guitar, you learn the easier chords first. These chords are called simple guitar chords, or beginners’ guitar chords. The easiest chords to learn are G Major, C Major, and D Major. Once you learn these chords, you can go on to work on the more complex ones.

Problems You Will Face When You Learn Guitar Chords

When you learn guitar chords, you have to be able to hold down the different strings of the guitar across strategic locations on the fretboard.

Each chord has a specific positioning of specific fingers. This gives rise to three basic problems:

- Acute pain in the fingers arising from holding down strings with fingers stretched.

- Pain, numbness, and sometimes even blistering of the soft skin on the fingers.

- Inability to switch chords rapidly.

The problems mentioned above are universal to everyone when they practice chords for the first time. As with all problems, these too have solutions.

The acute pain in the fingers arises primarily because they are not used to being stretched thus. A good way of overcoming this problem is to do a set of finger exercises before you practice each day. Practice stretching your fingers over the frets, playing single strings as you do this. This exercise stretches your fingers, while also enabling you to increase the speed with which you move the fingers across the frets.

The numbness and blistering of the soft skin is because of the skin rubbing against the sharp-edged strings for long periods of time. You can counter this by rubbing methyl alcohol over the skin of the fingers prior to practice.

The stiffness of the fingers and inability to change chords rapidly is because you have never done something like this ever before. Learn the proper finger positions for the different chords. Once you are familiar with this, practice changing chords. Your speed will increase with practice, and the stiffness will disappear.

Kirk Downing is an expert author of many guitar related articles and owner of a popular portal dedicated to guitar enthusiasts. If you’re ready to learn to play guitar, JamDojo.com has everything you need to get started.

Most definitely learning guitar chords are extremely difficult. This may be because you must use multiple fingers and strum multiple strings simultaneously. The combinations and finger placements seemed rather absurd at first.

Seriously, because I had large hands, I thought I’d never be able to warp and play those chords. After I learned them I realized I’ve made a big mistake, two perhaps. Assuming my trouble of playing guitar chords was attributed to my large fingers and hands plus getting frustrated by this. Now I know that it all had to do with the placement of my fingers rather than the size of my hands. Hence, the placement of the chord-playing hand (for me, my left hand) is very important.

So if guitar chords learning is giving you trouble, check the placement of your left thumb while playing the guitar. Where is it at? Your left thumb should be sitting on the lower portion of the back of the neck behind the second finger. NEVER place this thumb on the upper part of the neck, this is incorrect. You may find the correct positioning of the fingers feels extremely uncomfortable at first. Although this seems like a comfort issue at first, this is the appropriate technique for most guitar styles. This will differ for each person depending on the length of their fingers, the flexibility of their hands, etc.

It’s important that you don’t forget this posture. So you may play a few notes or songs then give into the temptation of returning to the old habit.

That only invites more bad habits. Practicing good habits is absolutely important if you want to master and learn guitar.

Learning guitar chords can be strongly prohibited due to lack of knowledge or support. Trying to learn a 5-string chord before you know the basic chords poses 2 big mistakes:

1. Trying to learn a 5-string chord before you know all the 2 or 3 string chords is like “going off the deep end”. At first, concentrate on all the basic chords. Once you’ve learned them and playing them becomes second-nature then you can move onto more complex chords and formations.

2. Using improper finger placement will only make playing guitar chords more difficult. Until I saw the video on the Learn and Master.com site, little did I know that for months before that I was trying to play guitar chords all wrong. I found that using the correct finger placement made playing the chords so much easier than how I tried to do it. It’s the little things that make the difference.

So, before you even try playing guitar chords it’s important that you learn the correct method.

This is not likely to happen unless you have some training from an instructor or other reliable resource. Note that guitar lessons are rather “spendy”. On average, they run $16 for a 30-minute session. Learn and Master Guitar is a great resource that offers guitar chord lessons along with techniques and tricks typically taught by a private instructor. You’ll save a lot of money learning from this site.

It doesn’t matter what form of guitar lessons you take, as long as they’re rock solid. If you prefer to take lesson from a personal instructor despite the higher cost, that’s your decision. If you feel online lessons are not the best way to learn guitar, that’s fine. Just find a lesson you’re comfortable with, learn from it, and practice!

As for practicing on the guitar, half an hour per day is adequate. You may disagree with me and feel that’s not enough time and dedication, but I’ve known some novices who’ve attempted to play more than 30 minutes a day. They just became bored and some of them picked up bad habits.

Simply set aside a 30-minute session each day. Pick a time of day where you’re least likely to be disturbed. Find a quiet room free from background noises and other distractions if possible. Do this during a time of day when you have a lot of energy.

Becoming proficient at playing chords requires as much patience and dedication as it does knowledge and skill. To earn these things you must devote 15 minutes of this time exclusively to learning guitar chords. Begin with practicing the simple and basic chords. In a couple weeks I promise that you’ll play these chords like a pro as well as switching from one to the other without any problem.

All you must do is commit yourself to learning guitar chords. Don’t forget, chords are the fundamental building blocks that every song is made of. Once you master the basic chords you’ll be able to play thousands of popular tunes. But you must start by learning chords, OK? You can do it…I know you can. I just wished I would have learned to play the guitar that way.

One last thing:

Lessons + Practice = You’ll be an awesome guitarist!

Liam Gibson of LearnGuitar-User-Reviews.com, specializes in helping aspiring guitarists get the info that they need to make the right choices. Liam, a stage guitarist himself, leads his team of guitar experts to constantly review new courses and products in the market and make sure you get the best value products that work for you. Check out actual user reviews and feedback of the most popular guitar courses at LearnGuitar-User-Reviews.

The key to for you to remember when you’re trying to learn guitar basics is that some chords are are movable shapes. This means that once you learn to play one of those chords, you’ll be able to move it up and down the fretboard surface and automatically play other chords. This is especially true when learning to play a barre chord. Most players have a little trouble learning the barre chords at first, because it requires that you press more than one string down at a time with only one finger, but with practice, you’ll get the hang of it rather quickly.

The cool thing about beginner guitar chords and barre chords is that these can be used in almost every key that you start to play in. They are also cool when you’re wanting to improvise on certain songs. You simply stay within that key (remember which scale it is in) and then just use your barre chords. As you’re going to learn guitar chords, you’ll find that a lot of popular songs will have G major, A minor, B minor, C major, D major, E minor, or F sharp diminished chords. These are some of the best beginners guitar chords to start off learning how to play, because these are some of the most common ones found in songs

As you’re going through the beginner guitar chords online here, you’ll find that it’s easier than ever to learn. The key to getting proficient is with practice. At first you may find that while you’re practicing your beginner guitar chords that your fingers may slip or that your hand may get tired fast.

That’s ok. As you practice more and more, you’ll find that your fingers and hands get stronger and that they will start to do what you want them to do. With practice, your technique will become easier and easier.

You need to realize that as you’re learning to play beginner guitar chords that at the beginning your fingers may get tired fast and develop callouses. This is perfectly normal. You’ll develop more and more calluses as you practice. But if you’re experiencing strong pain, then take a break and stop. Let your fingers, hand and wrist rest. As you play your beginner guitar chords, there are tiny tendons and muscles inside your hand that are not used to working this hard and need to develop.

One of the easier chord types to learn are power chords. These are usually two strings pressed together. Once you’ve learned how to do this, you’ll find that the “regular” chords or beginner guitar chords are just a variation of power chords with added tones at the end. These can also be thought of as movable shapes, as you will find that many other chords are going to involve the same finger position but on a different location on the fretboard

Many beginning guitarists are anxious to start playing some cool songs, and really don’t want to spend an eternity learning dry music theory or boring exercises. We’ve designed things so that it is easy to learn guitar chords and learn guitar basics in as little as 2 to 3 months. Once you learn guitar scales and chords, you may find that you’ll want to take your guitar playing up a step to jamming with friends or playing in a band. And that’s what it’s all about.

In Depth Course Delivers Video Acoustic Guitar Lessons for Beginners Online That Makes It Easy to Learn Guitar Chords for Beginners.

Different Flavors

You’ll learn guitar chords of all kinds, but ultimately there are two basic kinds of chords in music: major and minor. Every possible chord can be lumped into one of these two types. Major chords are built from major scales and have a ‘happy’ sound, while minor chords come from minor scales and tend have a ‘sad’ sound. While some songs use only one kind of chord, most songs and chord progressions mix major and minor chords. Let’s start with major chords.

Major Chords

Major chords are based on major scales and use the first, third, and fifth notes of the scale. We’ll start by focusing on five major chords: C, A, G, E, and D. Learning guitar chords like these will open up a whole world of music for you. Each chord diagram below shows you where each string should be fretted, and with what finger. We’ll start with open chords, which means that one or more open (as in not fretted) strings are included. Open strings are shown with a ’0′ in front of the first fret. Let’s take a look at G major, which contains the notes G, B, and D:

G Major

0 1 2 3 4 5

E|-|—|—|-4-|—|—|

B|-|—|—|-3-|—|—|

G|0|—|—|—|—|—|

D|0|—|—|—|—|—|

A|-|—|-1-|—|—|—|

E|-|—|—|-2-|—|—|

Notice that you need to get your middle finger all the way to the third fret of the bottom string, with the first finger on the second fret of the A string. Be sure to roll your wrist forward and curl your fingers so all the strings can ring clearly. Try picking just the A string: if you can’t hear that B note clearly, curl the middle finger a bit more so it avoids the A string. This will be a constant focus as you learn how to play beginner guitar chords: all the notes need to ring clearly for it to sound good. Strum downwards with your pick, then upwards: you want all the notes to sound as closely together as possible, so strum quickly.

You can also play G major with an open B string:

G Major

0 1 2 3 4 5

E|-|—|—|-3-|—|—|

B|0|—|—|—|—|—|

G|0|—|—|—|—|—|

D|0|—|—|—|—|—|

A|-|—|-1-|—|—|—|

E|-|—|—|-2-|—|—|

This form is more commonly used in folk and country, while the first form is more common in rock music. This has to do with the B, which is the major third: with a distorted tone the third can cause some ugly overtones when played on the higher strings. As you learn guitar chords, be sure to try playing them with a variety of tones and pay attention to what sounds best to you. Also practice getting your fingers to the right places as quickly as possible. Be patient: learning guitar chords takes time and practice. Focus on getting a clean sound from all the notes and you will improve quickly.

Let’s take a look at another very common chord, E major (E, G#, B):

E Major

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

B |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

G |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

D |—|—|-3-|—|—|—|

A |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

E |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

The guitar e chord is pretty easy to fret, and again you’ll notice that all the strings are strummed.

Pay attention to the fingerings: learn the wrong fingerings now and you’ll have bad habits that will hold you back later on. Now let’s look at A major:

A Major

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

B |—|—|-3-|—|—|—|

G |—|—|-1-|—|—|—|

D |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

A |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

E |-x-|—|—|—|—|—|

Notice that ‘x’ on the low E string? That means that string isn’t supposed to be strummed. Even though E is part of the A major chord (A, C#, E), the low E makes the chord sound too muddy and hides the A root note. So, after you’ve twisted your left hand fingers around the chord, pay careful attention to only picking the top five strings. Also, make sure you can hear the high E string. This is actually one of the more difficult beginner guitar chords you’ll learn, simply because your fingers are in such a small area. Stick with it, though, and follow the suggested fingerings.

Once you can play A major, try switching between E major and A major. Take your time: a very slow, clean transition with all the notes sounding clearly will sound much better than a bunch of missed notes and muted strings. Once you can move back and forth, try a simple beginner guitar rhythm: Strum E twice, then A twice, and so on. Start very, very slowly, then try to pick up the speed a bit. You’ll quickly see why the suggested fingerings should be followed: notice that the first finger stays on the same string and just moves one fret up, while the other fingers sort of jump around the first finger.

Now let’s add another chord, and then we’ll try a tricker transition. Here’s C major (C, E, G):

C major

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

B |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

G |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

D |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

A |—|—|—|-3-|—|—|

E |-x-|—|—|—|—|—|

Notice that once again the low E string is not sounded. On this chord you can let the third finger touch the E string a bit; this can help mute any unwanted noise from the string. Be sure to keep a strong pressure on the A string, though.

Now, here’s another beginner guitar rhythm: try strumming G twice, then C twice, and so on. This is a trickier transition because all your fingers have to jump around pretty quickly. Take it slow: as you’re learning guitar chords the focus needs to be on a clean, ringing tone. Keep practicing this rhythm until you can move back and forth between G and C quickly and cleanly.

There’s one more open major chord to learn. Here’s D major (D, F#, A):

D Major

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

B |—|—|—|-3-|—|—|

G |—|—|-1-|—|—|—|

D |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

A |-x-|—|—|—|—|—|

E |-x-|—|—|—|—|—|

There are a couple of variations of this chord worth learning.

You can add the open A string for a bit more depth, and you can also add an F# on the low E string:

D Major with low F#

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

B |—|—|—|-3-|—|—|

G |—|—|-1-|—|—|—|

D |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

A |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

E |—|—|-T-|—|—|—|

The ‘T’ means that you need to curl your thumb around the neck and fret the F#. It’s almost impossible on a lot of acoustics, but if you’re playing an electric, and especially if you want to play any sort of hard rock genre, it’s a valuable form to know. If you can’t get it now, don’t worry: it’s not usually taught when you’re learning how to play beginner guitar chords; think of it as an optional extra challenge.

Get Those Fingers Dancing

Now that you know a few major chords, try moving back and forth between them. You might notice that some of the chords sound better together than others: for example, G, C, and D sound great in a pattern together, as do E, A, and D, whereas G and E might sound a bit awkward played one after the other. Experiment and listen carefully; you now know enough cords to start creating your own songs, so practice, practice, practice! Here’s an easy beginner guitar rhythm to make practicing more interesting: start on any chord and strum it four times. Switch to another chord and strum four more times. Now switch to a third chord, strum it two times, move back to the second chord two times, and then go back to the original chord and strum it four times as well. Using G, C, and D, it would look like this: G, G, G, G, C, C, C, C, D, D, C, C, G, G, G, G. See? Even if you don’t know how to read guitar notes yet, you can still make music!

Minor Chords

The difference between major and minor chords lies in the second note of the chords (the third scale tone). In minor chords the third is a half-step lower than in major chords. So, for example, E major contains the notes E, G#, and B, while E minor contains E, G, and B. Here’s the fingering for E minor:

E minor

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

B |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

G |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

D |—|—|-3-|—|—|—|

A |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

E |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

Notice what a huge difference changing that one note makes to the sound of the chord! As you learn guitar chords, be sure to always compare the major and minor forms, paying attention to the sound of the chords and the fingerings. Here’s A minor:

A minor

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

B |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

G |—|—|-3-|—|—|—|

D |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

A |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

E |-x-|—|—|—|—|—|

Notice that your second and third fingers ‘jump’ up one string from E minor. Try strumming back and forth between those two chords: it’s an easier transition that sounds great. Now let’s look at D minor:

D minor

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

B |—|—|—|-3-|—|—|

G |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

D |-0-|—|—|—|—|—|

A |-x-|—|—|—|—|—|

E |-x-|—|—|—|—|—|

Notice that the fingering is quite a bit different from D major. That’s fine, because it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll move between those two chords in a song. As always when practicing how to play beginner guitar chords, focus on clean sound and avoiding strings that shouldn’t sound.

The Barre Chord

You’ve learned all the basic open chords, and practiced until you can move between them smoothly and even begin to learn easy guitar songs. Now it’s time to take on one of the more challenging beginner guitar chords: the barre chord.

This is a chord form that can be played on any fret of the guitar because it doesn’t use any open strings. Instead, your index finger forms a bar across the fretboard, playing three notes at once. To make this work you need to rotate your wrist way forward, get that finger as flat as possible, and really dig into the fretboard. Here’s what it looks like on the first fret, which gives you the F major chord:

F major barre

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

B |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

G |—|—|-2-|—|—|—|

D |—|—|—|-4-|—|—|

A |—|—|—|-3-|—|—|

E |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

In terms of learning guitar chords, this is the rite of passage: master the barre chord and you’ve officially learned how to play beginner guitar chords. It isn’t easy, but don’t give up! Pick each string one at a time and make sure you can hear each note ring clearly. If the notes on the first finger aren’t clear, make sure the finger is flat and pressed tigh against the strings. This is not a natural position, so don’t be discourage if it’s not perfect at first. This will strengthen your fingers, improve your coordination, and make it easier to learn guitar chords that are more advanced and require larger stretches.

Once you’ve mastered the major barre chord, it’s easy to play the minor chord form: just lift up your middle finger, like so:

F minor barre

0 1 2 3 4 5

E |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

B |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

G |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

D |—|—|—|-4-|—|—|

A |—|—|—|-3-|—|—|

E |—|-1-|—|—|—|—|

Now you can move either of these forms up the neck to play any chord you need; the name of the chord is simply the note your index finger is playing on the two E strings.

That’s it for this lesson: you’re a master of beginner guitar chords, have learned a beginner guitar rhythm, and know the barre chord, which opens up lots of possibilities. The next lesson will continue with more chords, more rhythms, and a song to liven things up. See you there!

Note: Actually, there’re so many ways to play each guitar chord. So, you won’t find all of them here, just a few of the more common ways to play each chord.

Reading Guitar Chord Names

Barre Guitar Chords Charts

Ready made chord charts featuring barre chords, freatboard notes and numbers. An easy to play chord chart for beginners.

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