Playing The Basic Guitar Chords

As you begin to learn guitar chords you need to remember that any feelings of boredom or physical discomfort are temporary. As you come to know more songs, chords and scales you will feel your easiness with musical theory and notation rising even if you didn't exactly learn a great deal of theory. You acquire musical knowledge by faithful practice and the enthusiasm you carry to your guitar playing.

 Learning how to play guitar chords is among the first items on the agenda of a newbie guitar player. But playing guitar is a new skill with a whole new system of muscle movements to learn, not to mention learning the theory behind guitar chords and how to use them in your guitar playing. If you have a teacher he will show you how you should be holding your guitar and correct any mistakes you are making about fingering chords or strumming the strings with your right hand. If you do not have a teacher who can help you with the physical part of learning to play guitar chords, you will need to be very careful how you treat your back, shoulders, arms and hands.

The chords we mostly use to play popular music are derived from the keys A G C and D. As you progress in your guitar playing you will learn how to play these basic chords all over the guitar fretboard. Guitar students usually begin to learn how to play chords by first learning to finger simple “open” chords. They are called open chords because at least one of the notes in any of these chords is sounded by playing an open string. After the muscles in your hands get used to fingering chords and pressing down on the guitar strings, you will move onto “barre” or “bar” chords that are played with the first finger held down across some or all of the strings.

How To Play Guitar Chords - The Newbie Guide

Each chord is identified by a letter. If the letter is followed by the word, minor, it's a minor chord. If it is just the letter alone, it's a major chord.

In learning the chords for the guitar you will not only require to know where to put your fingers, but also how to change from one chord to another. The procedure of level transition between chords is a learning course which is never actually perfect. Each time we learn something new on the guitar, that's another cycle of small exercises our body learns, and these sets of actions must be executed smoothly through relaxed, calm rehearsal.

Notes in the Major chord:

Root note

a major third above the Root

a fifth above the Root.

Minor chords, which have a more emotional sound, are the same but they contain a minor third instead of a major third.

A critical rule of thumb for understanding major and minor chords is for a major chord play the (1) (3) and (5) of the major scale, and for a minor chord play the (1) (3) and (5) of the minor scale.

A crafty thing to know once you start playing barre chords is that if you learn the major chord shape, you only need to lift one left-hand finger to play the minor chord.

The central chords come from the keys of A G C and D. The chords themselves can be played at all positions on the fret board, but beginners start with open chords at the first position. This means that a minimum of one note is played on an open string.

We group the basic keys into families:

The A family contains the chords A, D and E.

The D family contains the chords D, E minor, G and A.

The G family contains the chords G, A minor, C, D and E minor.

The C family contains the chords C, D minor, E minor, F and G.

Holding chords with your left hand is a new ability. It uses groups of muscles we do not naturally use, so it takes time to learn the chord shapes.

Another natural conversion that has to be made when you learn your basic guitar chords is the left-hand fingers should be toughened up. Callouses form on the tips of the fingers after a few weeks playing, but until they do you need to endure the pain.