Chord Charts

In music, a chord is a collection of notes usually sounded together, composed of notes played on adjacent or separate strings or all the strings together. The guitar is a very popular instrumental for playing chords because of its versatility, which means that if you are a beginner guitar chords are something you will encounter early and are very important to your growth as a musician.

Guitars chords take advantage of intervals between the strings, which in the event of standard E-A-D-G-B-E tuning are perfect fourths excluding the interval between the B (second string) and G (third string).

In other words, if you really want to dive into music theory you can learn how to properly fret guitar chords based on their intervals, but if you would prefer skipping a lot of jargon several useful resources are available like chord charts.

Chord Charts

There are an almost unlimited amount of chord options making your attempt to learn them all just about impossible. Thankfully, you do not need to learn a ton of guitar chords because there are several that are used repeatedly throughout popular music by a number of different artists.

Regardless, learning where to fret C Major on the neck as opposed to A Minor will take some time, which is why chord charts come in handy.

Basic chord charts simply list popular guitar chords with diagrams which tell you what strings to play and where to fret. The more advanced chord charts might present additional information, including a MIDI so you can hear the chords as well as see them.

Chord charts are available in print format (they make great décor for a musician’s space), but by far the most resourceful chord charts exist on the Web. Here you can quickly find the chord you are looking to play and maybe even hear it too.

Proper Chord Posture

The most important aspect to learning guitar chords is the proper finger placement. Chord charts will tell you what strings to play (whether fretted or open) as well as where to fret the string on the neck. Good chord charts will take it a step further by also telling you what finger (index, middle, ring, and pinkie) goes on what string.

While some guitarists will find an alternate finger positioning for a specific chord (because it just seems easier) it is important to follow the advice given in the guitar lesson or chord chart as much as possible. After some practice, if you discover another hand position that makes sense please feel free to deviate.

CAGED Major Chords

CAGED is an acronym for the five easiest major chords to play. You’ll encounter these chords very early in your lessons so make sure you pay attention. The CAGED Major chords are:

• C Major
• A Major
• G Major
• E Major
• D Major

Major chords contain a root note, a major third, and a perfect fifth. In other words, they are all major triads, primary reference chords, which are extremely popular in music for a variety of reasons.

Once you lay down the foundation with the major chords its time to explore minor, augmented, diminished and power chords.

Minor Guitar Chords

Music is an incredible medium for expression with a distinct ability of being able to create emotion sonically. While major scales and the chords that come from those scales are generally upbeat and happy, minor chords are sad and moody.

A lot of songwriters actually prefer minor chords over major chords because of their tonal quality so they are equally important.

Unlike major chords, minor chords have a flat, or minor 3^rd in its formula (root, minor 3^rd, perfect 5^th) which is what distinguishes the sound from what major chords produce.

Popular Minor Chords include: Cm, Dm, Gm, and Bm

Other Types of Guitar Chords

In time you will learn alternate guitar chords like augmented and diminished chords as well as the ever useful power chords (common in modern rock and metal). You will learn their value and place in music in your intermediate guitar lessons.