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Basic Chords

By now, you should have a tuned guitar, ready to be played. The first thing you will play on it will be some chords. Chords are three or more notes played together. Below is an image and a description showing how to play a 'C major' chord.

Fret the different strings as shown in the diagram. Now sweep your thumb or pick across the first five strings (we don't play the sixth string), playing all of them, one after the other. You should hear a beautiful sounding chord, the C chord (we can simply say C chord instead of C major chord). There might be some buzzing and muted notes, if your fingers aren't strong enough to fret the strings properly.

Now dislocate your fingers from the C chord, and then find the C chord again and play it. Do this several times, until you can play the chord properly, and find it easily.

Here are some more chords you can play. fret them, play them, dislocate, and fret and play again until you are comfortable with them.

The A Major Chord

Below is an image showing how to grab the A chord. In this chord, we play only the bottom five strings (the sixth string is not played).

The A Minor Chord

Below is an image showing how to grab the A minor chord. In this chord, we again play only the bottom five strings.

The D Major Chord

Shown below is the D chord. This time, play only the bottom four strings.

The D Minor Chord

Now try the D minor chord. Once again, play only the bottom four strings.

The E Major Chord

Below is the E chord. This time, we will play all the six strings.

The E Minor Chord

Following is the E minor chord. Like in the E chord, we play all six strings.

The G Major Chord

Lastly, the G Major chord. Again, we play all the six strings.

Chord Diagrams

Below you will find diagrams for the chords shown above.

A note about the diagrams: The string at the bottom is the sixth string, and the string at the top the first string (The figures are "upside-down". This is a convention with fretboard diagrams that exists because when you are holding the guitar, you see the fretboard upside-down). The numbers before the strings indicate the fingers that will be used to fret the strings on the marked frets (1 indicates the pointer, 2 the middle finger, 3 the ring finger, and 4 the little finger).

There is no need to write 'major' in front of a major chord, 'D chord' means D major chord. Similarly, minor chords are usually followed by 'm' instead of 'minor'. So, 'Am' means 'A minor'.

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Comments

Santosh gurung 2009-06-13 03:58:59
Thanks 4 easy picture

Garry 2009-06-15 22:45:21
thanks very helpfull

Nuel Ukah 2009-06-18 11:05:53
I love this site,it is really helpful for a beginner.Thanks alot

Shravan 2009-06-28 22:24:23
Thanks!!!.....My Fingers are paining a little,....but i feel glad, whenever i hear the string sound[:)]......I'll recommend it many of my friends!

shivam khare 2009-06-30 02:46:11
thnxx a lot dear,,,for dis site ....aacha pzz tell me mera guitar buzz mar rha hai......koi bhi string pluck karo to aisa hi hota hai pzz suggest smthing

maujood 2009-06-30 05:10:41
Thanks for the nice comments, everyone :)

@shivam: man how did you know i'd understand hindi/urdu, or whatever it is? :P well, if your guitar is buzzing, there is probably something wrong with the neck. Take it to a good shop, the guitar-shop guys should be able to tell you if it can be fixed!

shivam khare 2009-07-13 11:43:24
thnx maujood ...well le jaunga kisi shop me but m tensed yaar ........it is of 5000

ima 2009-07-13 16:35:53
thank u sooooooooooo very much.....dis has rili helped nd i learnd nd memorized dem in jst 1 day bcoz of how easy u made it...i can play any chord now with out thinking twice

kapil 2009-07-17 23:02:52
thanx a lot it helped me a lot thanks

Sanket:while playing d chord,hm many time we shud in play up n dawn diiection?i.e chord pattern 2009-07-28 00:41:26
while playing d chord,hm many time we shud play strings in up n dawn diiection?i.e chord pattern

maujood 2009-07-28 04:07:52
@Sanket: do you mean strumming pattern? We'll get to it after a few lessons.

metal-slave. 2009-08-12 13:10:09
Hi buddy,its nice dat u hav provided so much.
bt I vill suggest u dat u betr giv sum picking lessons 2 d bignerz b4 chords.
as u kno,playin chordz need a good grip on fretboard n it can only b devlopd wen u r gud in playin guitr on position 1.
plz so c 2 it.
thank u 4 da valuable work.

D 2009-12-24 02:22:10
Does anyone know how to spell?

SimpleGreyCoat 2010-01-29 17:23:42
Amen to that "D"

mike 2010-05-22 13:06:10
I found your website online. You have a few things that are helpful, but the way you switch the numbering of fingers on chord diagrams is very confusing for beginning players.