Learning Guitar - Lesson One

Part 8: Playing Basic Chords Although practicing the previous chromatic scale will certainly provide you with great benefits (like limbering up your fingers), it is admittedly not a whole lot of fun. Most people love to play "chords" on the guitar. Playing a chord involves using your pick to strike at least two notes (often more) on the guitar simultaneously. The following are three of the most common, and easy to play chords on the guitar. Playing a G major chord
Related Content Index of Guitar Lessons This diagram illustrates the first Buying Your First Guitar chord we are going to play, a G How to Read Guitar Tab major chord (often simply called a Easy to Play Songs Guitar Chord Library "G chord"). Take your second finger, and put it on the third fret Get Help Here! of the sixth string. Next, take your first finger, and put it on the Confused? Having trouble with any part of this guitar lesson? second fret of the fifth string. Log on to the guitar forum to Lastly, put your third finger on the third fret of the first string. get help with the material from Make sure all of your fingers are curled, and are not touching any guitar lesson one. strings they're not supposed to. Now, using your pick, strike all six Click for guitar lesson one help strings in one fluid motion. Notes should ring all together, not one at a time (this could take some practice). Voila! Your first chord. Now, check to see how you did. While still holding down the chord with your fretting hand, play each string (starting with the sixth) one at a time, listening to be sure each note rings out clearly. If not, study your hand to determine why it doesn't. Are you pressing hard enough? Is one of your other fingers touching that string, which is preventing it from sounding properly? These are the most common reasons why a note does not sound. If you're have trouble, read this feature on getting your chords to ring clearly. Playing a C major chord More of this Feature Part Part Part Part Part Part Part Part Part 1: overview 2: guitar parts 3: guitar neck 4: holding a guitar 5: holding a pick 6: tuning 7: scales 9: learning songs 10: practice schedule

The second chord we'll learn, the C major chord (often called a "C chord"), is no more difficult than the first G major chord. Place your third finger on the third fret of the fifth string. Now, put your second finger on the second fret of the fourth string. Finally, put your first finger on the first fret of the second string. Here's where you have to be slightly careful. When playing a C major chord, you do NOT want to strum the sixth string. Watch your pick to make sure you only strum the bottom five strings when you are first learning the C major chord. Test this chord as you did with the G major chord, to make sure all notes are ringing clearly. Playing a D major chord Some beginners have slightly more difficulty playing a D major chord (often called a "D chord"), since your fingers have to cram into a fairly small area. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, however, if you can comfortably play the

other two chords. Place your first finger on the second fret of the third string. Then, put your third finger on the third fret of the second string. Lastly, place your second finger on the second fret of the first string. Strum only the bottom 4 strings when playing a D major chord. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with these three chords... you will use them for the rest of your guitar-playing career. Make sure you can play each of the chords without looking at the diagrams. Know what the name of each chord is, where each finger goes, and which strings you strum or do not strum.

If youre a beginning guitar player, basic guitar chord charts are an indispensible tool for learning chords. Chords form the backbone of most rock and pop music. You can play thousands of songs with just a dozen or so fairly easy chords! You should practice these basic chords repeatedly until you know them cold, and can transition from one to the next quickly.

What are basic guitar chords?

When you are first learning to play guitar, concentrate on learning basic chords to build a solid foundation. There are three basic groups of chords: major, minor, and dominant seventh (7th) . These three groups of chords make up much of the world's music. The Basic Guitar Chord Chart below shows you how to play 15 chords. These are open chords played with one or more open strings and with all fingering near the end of the fretboard near the nut. Open chords are the easiest type to learn and play, and are the best place to start. After you have mastered these fairly easy chords, you can always go on to Barre Chords, and other more complex chords later. Master the basics first! A good way to make practicing these basic chords more interesting is to play them in groups known as Chord Families. This will allow you to pretty quickly play some great chord progressions and songs.

The Basic Guitar Chord Chart

The Basic Guitar Chord Chart below shows a good variety of some easy-to-play open chords. The chords are represented in the form of a guitar chord diagram or box that is much easier to read than standard musical notation. If you want more detailed info on how to read Guitar Chord Diagrams, click here.

Tip!
In learning the basic chords, the best approach is a systematic one. If possible, take in-person guitar lessons to ensure a solid foundation of skills. A great alternative is online guitar lessons, that allow you to learn at your own pace, at your convenience, and at reasonable cost.

The basic guitar chords you'll learn on this page form the foundation of today's guitar playing. I call them beginner guitar chords, but they are used everyday by beginners as well as advanced players and in all styles of music. Beginners should practice these chords until they have memorized them and are able to switch between them fluidly. One thing that helped me a lot is learning some guitar music theory. Theory simplifies memorizing guitar chords a lot and it gives you the feeling you know what you are doing, instead of just learning some diagrams from guitar chord charts. If you're not really sure how to read guitar chords, I suggest you read this tutorial: how to read guitar chord charts Open chords (some call them folk chords) are usually the first thing a beginning guitar player learns. This doesn't mean that these beginner guitar chords are very easy: learning to get those left hand fingers work together and producing a clean sound is hard work, but with regular practice you'll soon get the hang of it. Open chords are called this way because they contain at least one open string (strings that you play without fingering them). These basic guitar chords are used a lot in music, especially on acoustic guitar. They also work on electric guitar, but opens strings sound better on an acoustic guitar in my opinion. Folk music, singer-songwriter music and country music use a lot of open chords. The best way to learn how to play the basic guitar chords is by learning songs. On the next page are some guitar song chords that are playable with only the basic chords you'll learn on this page. There's also a free printable guitar chord chart sheet that you can keep as a reference. Here follows a list of basic guitar chords that every guitarist needs to know. To make it easy for you to see the guitar chord fingering, I put the guitar chord pictures next to the charts. Finger the chords with the top of your fingers and look out you don't touch adjacent strings. A little bit about guitar chord names:

chords are named according to letters going from A to G an 'm' after a letter means that the chord is a minor chord a '7' after the letter means that the chord is a dominant chord a letter without 'm' or '7' means that the chord is a major chord

To find out what the difference is between major, minor and dominant you should read the guitar music theory tutorial. Here's the list of basic guitar chords:

The F chord is a bit of a special case: the top 2 notes are fretted with one finger (the index finger). This is one of the hardest chords to play for the beginner, but you'll soon get the hang of it (if you practice enough).

After you played these basic guitar chords some times I suggest you do the following: 1. Print out this free printable guitar chord chart. That page also explains the difficulties you might encounter and what to do with your right hand. 2. Go to the next page and start practicing some guitar songs that only make use of the beginner guitar chords learned on this page.

G3 C3 Nenjukkul peidhidum maa mazhai Em D Neerukul moozhgidum thaamarai Bm D Sattendru maarudhu vaanilai G D Penne un mel pizhai G3 C3 Nillamal veesidum peralai Em D Nenjukkul neenthidum tharagai

Bm D Pon vannam soodiya kaarigai G D Penne nee kaanchanai <C G D >4x Oh shaanti shaanti oh shaanti Yen uyirai uyirai neeyenth Yen sendrai sendrai yennai thaandi Ini neethan yenthan andhathi Nenjukkul peidhidum maa mazhai Neerukul moozhgidum thaamarai Sattendru maarudhu vaanilai Penne un mel pizhai Charanam 1 G3 c3g3>4x Yedho ondru ennai eerka Mookin nuni marmam serka Kalla-thanam yedhum illa Punnagaiyo boganvilla G3 d5th D>2x Nee nindra idam endral Vilai yeri pogadho Nee sellum vazhi ellam panikatti aahadho D C G>2x Yennodu vaa veedu varaikkum Yen veetai paar yennai pidikkum Ival Ival Idhu Ival yaaro yaaro theriyadhey pinnal nenje pogadhey poyyo meyyo theriyadhey pinnal nenje pogadhey

Nenjukkul peidhidum maa mazhai Neerukul moozhgidum thaamarai Sattendru maarudhu vaanilai Penne un mel pizhai.. oh.o. Nillamal veesidum peralai Nenjukkul neenthidum tharagai Pon vannam soodiya kaarigai Penne nee kaanchanai Charanam 2 Thookangalai thooki sendrai Yekkangalai thoovi sendrai Unnai thaandi pogum podhu Veesum kaatrin veechu veru Nil endru nee sonnal en kaalam nagaradhey Nee soodum poovellam oru podhum udhiradhey Kadhal enai ketka villa Ketkathadhu kadhal illa Yen jeevan jeevan neethaney Yena thondrum neram idhuthane

Nee illai illai yendrale Yen nenjam nenjam thaangadhey female harmony: Nenjukkul peidhidum maa mazhai Neerukul moozhgidum thaamarai Sattendru maarudhu vaanilai Penne un mel pizhai.. oh.o. female & male harmony: Nillamal veesidum peralai Nenjukkul neenthidum tharagai Pon vannam soodiya kaarigai Penne nee kaanchanai m: Oh shaanti shaanti oh shaanti Yen uyirai uyirai neeyenthi Yen sendrai sendrai yennai thaandi Ini neethan yenthan andhathi.............. g3 means g in third position c3 c in third position d5 d in fifth position sounds ok with normal position though changing position is more effective I havnt followed the entire progression but hope evry one knows it repeats in later parts and remaining enjoy the song..its easy to sing along too not a hard one