A brief beginners guide to guitar, diving straight into learning open chords, in my own teaching style.

Welcome!

I love learning how things work, so chord theory is not only an invaluable tool, but it's also pretty interesting. I also understand some people just want to learn songs, which is equally cool so if you're not so bothered about the theory, just skip that part. There is a separate guide for CHORD THEORY on our site if you want to check it out. Although I admit it is all a bit daunting to start with so is probably easier to digest that after learning a few chords to start with. So here goes.

Beginner's Guide to Chords:

Chords can be pretty simple or pretty complex, all depending on what you want to do. If you asked someone how many chord shapes are there then immediately they'd think loads (unless they were musical and knew the truth!). Actually there're only about 5 chord shapes you need to learn - and the masses of chords then comes from moving these shapes about the neck and applying a few rules to them to change them to fancy chords. I go into that in the chord theory section in more depth.

Anyway, you came here to learn how to play chords and that's what I will show you how to do!

Box Shapes and Fingering

Before you can learn a shape, you need to be familiar with the notation used to describe the chords. I use pictures called 'BOX SHAPES' to illustrate this. Here's an example:

At the top we see that this is an E MAJOR CHORD. The vertical lines represent the strings of your guitar (see my HOW TO TUNE YOUR GUITAR tutorial for a description of tuning and the names of the strings) in the order from left to right: E A D G B E. The horizontal lines represent the metal frets on your guitar (when saying frets, we usually refer to the spaces in between the metal, whereas technically the metal is actually the fret). The dots represent where your fingers should go (i.e. the notes of the chord). The number on the left of the box tell you what fret you're on and the numbers on dots represent you fingers. Your finger numbers will be T for thumb, 1 for your index, 2 for you middle, 3 for your ring and 4 for your little finger (see diagram). You aren't forced to abide by these fingering, they're just the conventional way to play the chord. If you find a way that's easier more comfortable and efficient to use then don't hesitate to use that way.

Now that you can understand 'box shapes' I can throw some chords for you to practise strumming:

To strum the chords simply drag your PLECTRUM across the required strings (Crosses at the top of the box mean don't play that string). Hopefully you've found those quite easy to do. If so well done! If not, keep practising! The key to learning guitar is practise, practise, practise.

Congratulations, you've just learnt the 5 'master' chord shapes. These are the 5 shapes I talked about. Now you know them you can move them up and down the neck (as BARRE CHORDS) or apply 'The Rules' to them in order to get other chords.

If you found this particularly useful, then you may now have a thirst for more knowledge!

If you want to learn more, here at Sound Affects we offer excellent music tuition to those of all abilities. Whether you are a beginner or have been playing for a while, we'd love to teach you. We have plenty of great tutors who'll accommodate your desire to play and will listen to you as you dictate what you want to learn. If you want to find out more you can use our CONTACT US info to get in touch, drop in to our store and talk to us - or go to our MUSIC TUITION page on our website. Hope to hear from you soon!