How To Play Chords On Guitar
Easy chords for beginners and intermediate stuff
Now here on our first stop of the journey we will visit the Great Chord Dictionary! There are so many
chords out there as
you notice, some in open position
and
easy to
play, others real finger stretchers that will push your pinky to the
breaking point.
As a beginner you want to stick to the basic chords of G, C, F, Am, D, E, A, Em, Dm, and many of the simple major and minor chords. You will find certain chords like Bb to be a bit tricky ay first, or the F bar chord is often very difficult for the first time player.
The key is to understand that it takes time to form these chords and you need to train your muscle memory. Muscle memory is just like regular memory in that it needs practice, rest, and time. Practice is very important and needs to be done regularly but you also need to learn to give yourself a day's rest a couple times a week so your fingers can heal.
Sometimes chords can seem nearly impossible to play, but if you stick with them you will get it. I have given lessons to those with fat fingers, stubby fingers, long fingers, and even very short fingers, over time those who stick with it always learn their chords.
Almost every chord has a variation so there are a number of ways to "cheat" if you are having trouble learning. That is why it is so important to always study your chord dictionary. Here we have also a guitar chords software tool that will help you memorize the shapes. For those times when you may not have a chord dictionary it is wise to master bar chords. A bar chord can be moved up the frets to easily find the chord you are looking for, if you move an Fm Bar chord up two frets, you have a Gm chord! It is as simple as that!
Once you have learned some basic chords, it's time to have fun and try to play some songs. Check out this big list with 50 Easy Guitar Songs | One chord at time
Power Chords
The Power Chord is a common element in rock and blues, however it is not technically a chord. As mentioned earlier a basic major chord consists of the root note, the 3rd, and the 5th, so a G chord would be made up of the notes G-B-D.
A power chord is only made up of the first and the fifth, so a G power chord would be the notes G and D. Power chords are often played on the 3 low bass strings of the guitar, most often ignoring the treble strings. While this method has existed for many years, it was a very common style of playing throughout the 90's.
It is sometimes considered a way of cheating when it comes to guitar playing. After all you are not dealing with full chords and you often only need to learn to play 3 strings at a time when you play a song heavy in power chords. However, this method gives a very distinct sound for a lot of metal and rock music and as the name says, it can give a song a lot of "power".
Often power chords are used with Drop D tuning, the method of lowering the E bass string one note down to D. That way in open position strumming all 3 bass strings will give you a D5 (D A D). And of course playing the 2nd fret on all 3 strings will give you an E5 chord. Power chords are often structured asroot, fifth, root, which can give a song a very loud and driven sound.
Some of the more popular songs using power chords are The Kinks "You Really Got Me and Deep Purple’s "Smoke On The Water." Notice these songs have a real driving force to them.
So while power chords may seem overly simple never underestimate the powerful and rocking sound of the root and fifth played on the bass strings of the guitar! Remember some of the most memorable rockin’ guitar songs in history were honestly nothing complicated.
Download for free this blank guitar chord sheet and create your own guitar chord book. This blank chord chart is a PDF file in A4 paper size, ready to print out at home.
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Guitar Chords Symbols Notation
Here's a quick reference with all guitar chords symbols and the musical degrees composing them. Major chords, minor, augmented, seventh, ninth, dominant, and more.
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About the author
Hi there! I'm Gianca, a guitar teacher and a software engineer from Italy.
I originally created this site to be a tool for my students, and now it's available, for free, to anyone looking to get better at guitar.
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