There are a group of chords that every guitarist must become familiar with. These are the cornerstone Major, Minor and Dominant 7th chord shapes that are used in all styles of music. This lesson demonstrates and discusses the guitar’s open position chords. It will also provide a clear path to properly developing them…
Q: What are the Basic Chords on Guitar?
Hi Andrew, I’m a beginner, and I keep hearing about how beginners need to learn the basic chords. What are the basic chords, and how can I learn them well enough to play a few songs?
~ Garry
A: The term, “basic chords,” is somewhat of a guitar slang term referring to about 18 or 20 chords that are found in the first position on the guitar fret-board. They make up three types of qualities that are very important to music.
Those qualities are; major, minor, and dominant seventh. Basically the idea behind them is that with those three chord qualities, you can pretty much play just about any song out there.
For some songs you may have to actually change the key that the song was originally written in to be able to use those 18 or 20 chords. But, luckily there are a lot of song books out there on the market which already have those songs transposed into keys that will work well with the basic chords.
In other cases, guitarists will sometimes use a “capo” to change key (fingerboard position) of a piece of music for the easy application of this collection of “open position” chord types.
DOWNLOAD THE HANDOUT:
To get started, I have included a link to view and download my chord booklet. This four page booklet contains the most popular basic chords. There are 21 chords total in the booklet, and I would highly suggest you learn every single one of them.
It’s not easy to get a good quality of sound in the very beginning. Later on, after you do have good sound quality, there is another level of difficulty in switching from one chord to another. So learning to apply these chords is not a quick road to success for most people, which is why it is very important that you remain patient with yourself while developing your skills with these chords.
STRING SETS:
One of the most important things that I would suggest you start with is developing an awareness of which string-sets are involved in creating the various chords.
In the booklet, there are chords which use all six guitar strings, chords which use five guitar strings, and chords which use four guitar strings. This is very important information, (especially for the strumming-hand). If you do not already know the numbers for each string on the guitar, the guitar strings are numbered from one to six, going from the thinnest string, (string #1), to the thickest string, (string #6).
GETTING STARTED:
One of the easiest chords to begin learning out of this entire set is the “D major chord.” One helpful tip that I can give you for learning this popular chord is to begin with the notes found on third guitar strings second fret, and first guitar strings second fret.
Place your index finger and your middle finger, (in order), on those notes first. Then add in your third finger at the third fret of second string. With this fretting approach, you will have better luck with developing the clarity of each note in the chord when you go to strum it.
One of the things that takes the most time in learning how to play these chords is developing the clarity of each note in the chord. Three pointers that I could give to help in this department would be to…
#1). Always use the tips of the fingers.
#2). Arch up the knuckle right behind your fingernail.
#3). Move your wrist around in different ways until you get each note of the chord clear.
FURTHER PRACTICE:
In the sense of overall tips I could give you…
#1). Keep working at developing the chord shapes so that the sound of the chord’s notes are perfect and clear. Allow the technique of developing the chord shapes to happen over a period of time. This is necessary to develop the muscle memory of each chords shape.
#2). As soon as the chords begin to sound good, begin practicing the technique of switching one chord to another. Groups of chords will then begin to become easier and easier when switching one to the next.
#3). Familiarize yourself with the chord families of I, IV and V. In the any key be at major or minor, a good sounding set of chords can be played next to one another by using this theory principle. For example; if we establish the key center of G major, the G major chord would be considered our I chord, the C major chord would be considered our IV chord, and the D major chord would be considered our V chord.
The “I-IV-V” theory will group chords so that they are all part of the same key center and this will in-effect help make all of the chords in the group sound good when they’re played next to one another. This is often called the “Primary Chord” or the “Three Chord” theory and it will work in any major or minor key.
This theory will also work with dominant 7th chords. However, when using dominant seventh chords, you will notice that the sound of the progression will take on more of a blues style.
CONCLUSION:
In summary, I like to say that it is important to take your time learning the basic chords. Some of them are quite difficult, so be patient. Learning these chords can take quite a lot of study. However, with practice you will be able to play them.
It will also be important that you put these chords to use as soon as possible. If you do not already own a few songbooks, it would be a very good idea to pick up a couple. By practicing the chords as they occur in songs, you will often times become quite motivated to perfect certain chords because they appear in one of your favorite songs.
It is also very important to also work on the chords with a metronome or a drum machine. Having the click track of the metronome or a drum-beat playing in behind you, giving you 100% accurate time, is one of the best ways to develop any technical skill on the guitar with any new technique.
- Click the button below to download the Basic Chords handout
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