Ok, you just got your guitar and your sitting there pondering on where to begin, your asking yourself what chords should I learn. Bar chords, what's a 7th chord, what's a major chord and on and on. Well, we will put your mind at ease and help you get started. We have listed the most popular chords played in the first position that all have open strings in them. These chords are a good first start to help build your finger strength, finger memory plus there are thousands of songs you can play using them.
Before we begin we need to learn the basics of reading a chord diagram. The following diagram below explains these details.
Now let's get into the chords. Below you will see 14 chords ranging from major,minor and 7th chords. The green dots are where you fingers go. Use the diagram above for reference if your unsure what string to strum or what string to mute X = (Don't Play) etc... It's important to concentrate on your left hand when your just starting. Make sure you press down hard enough so the string doesn't buzz and you don't have a finger muting a string that needs to ring out. At the same time you don't want to press down to hard to cause the string to sound flat or sharp. The goal is to build finger strength, which comes with time and practice, and finger memory which is simply being able to fret all the notes of the chord at the same time without thinking. Again this all takes practice so please be patient and you will succeed. Good Luck! if you have any questions post them in our forums!
BY: Brian Calloway
