A Helpful Illustrated Guide: How To Learn Basic Guitar Chords

If you are just getting started with playing guitar or don’t even have a guitar, playing chords can be an intimidating concept.

The following is a step-by-step way of learning chords on the guitar. First, I’m going to show you things you will need to know even before you play a single chord. Then I’ll take you through learning a few chords. Let’s get started!

HOW TO READ

Have you seen a chart like this?

We read this chart as if your guitar where standing up like this:

What do you think the lines that run up and down are?
How about the lines that run left to right?

The lines that go up and down are your strings.

The lines that go left to right are your frets.

THE ALPHABET FOR MUSIC

I’m sure that you know the alphabet, especially if you are actually reading this book. But, do you know the alphabet for music? The alphabet for music goes like this:

STRING NAMES

Alright, now that we know the alphabet for music – let’s assign some of those letter to our strings.

These are our string names:

Remembering your string names can be difficult but it is very important. We will definitely be using them to get around our guitar. Here is a phrase that will help you remember you string names:

Elephants And Deers Grow Big Ears

So, without looking at the string names diagram: What Are Your String Names???

USING YOUR FINGERS

Before we get started with our first chord, let’s learn a couple of things that you will see on the chord chart.

If you see an “X” that means Do Not Play
If you see numbers, those are your fingers

So, if you hold up your left hand toward your face: we are going to number your fingers like this:

OUR FIRST CHORD!

A Chord
The first chord we are going to learn is the A chord – which goes something like this:

If you don’t quite understand how to play this chord, go to the next section called “How To Play This Chord”. It will walk you through it step-by-step. If you picked it up already, go ahead and skip to the next chord.

HOW TO PLAY THIS CHORD

The best way to read chords is from left to right. We will start with the string that is closes to your face.

E-string
Let’s start with the E-string. On this string we have an “X” which means, if you remember: Do Not Play!

A-string
On the next string, the A-string, we have a “0” which means we DO play it. But, we DO NOT put any fingers on it.

D-string
The next string (the D-string) has a “1” on it. Go ahead put your 1st finger on the D-string.

The next step is to know where on the string to put your 1st finger. Notice on the chord chart that the dot is on the second fret. Go ahead and place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret.

A TIP FOR FINGER PLACEMENT

If you place your finger on the metal fret, it will make a muted sound.

If you place your finger too far back in the fret area, it will make a buzzing sound.

The best spot is right behind the fret. This will give you the clearest & cleanest sound.

G-string
While keeping your 1st finger on the string, go ahead and put your 2nd finger on the same fret BUT on the next string: the string G. You will need to move the 1st finger back slightly to make room for both fingers in the 2nd fret.

B-string
Next is your 3rd finger on the B-string. Again, it is in the same fret as the first two fingers. You will need to move your 1st and 2nd fingers back slightly while staying in the 2nd fret.

E-string
And finally on the last string, the E-string, there is an open string. The term open string means there are no fingers on that string.

All that is left to do is to strum the strings with your pick. Remember to start from the second string: the A-string. That is the A chord!

CHECKING YOUR CHORD

To check your chord and see if you are playing it correctly: pluck each string one at a time while pressing down the chord. Make sure that each string makes a good sound by adjust the position on the string and the amount of pressure you are pushing with.

NEXT!

For the next chords, do the same thing for each chord:

Build the chord from left to right
“0” means we DO NOT use any fingers, but we DO play that string
An open string is a string that is played, but does not have a finger on it
Place fingers right behind the metal fret for the best sound
Check your chord by plucking each string one at a time

Am Chord

The small “m” stands for minor. So this is the “A Minor” chord.

E Chord

Em Chord

D Chord
This chord has two x’s!

Dm Chord

C Chord

G Chord

WHAT WE JUST LEARNED

You just learned the basic chords for guitar! This collection of chords is also called Major and Minor chords. Just to review what we learned:

How to read a chord chart
The alphabet for music
String names
How to use your fingers
How to play a chord
Finger placement
Checking your chord
The A, Am, E, Em, D, Dm, C, G chords

WHAT’S NEXT?

Now that you have started with chords, you have two paths you can take.

Learn Songs

You now have a good foundation of chords to start playing songs with. You can play a good amount of songs that only use these chords. The only drawback to these chords is that they are somewhat hard to change between them when first starting out. There is another set of chords that I figured out that are easier to play songs with and are a stepping stone to learning songs with these basic chords. So, I would learn songs with those first and then use these basic chords to really open up the number of songs you can play.

Learn More Chords

Another path would be just to keep learning chords. You will learn a lot about music and the difference in how they sound from each other. I have written a book about chords that will take you through pretty much all of the chords you will ever use on the guitar. It’s an easy to hard format and will give tons of tips along the way.

My recommendation is to do both! You can also alternate between the two paths, of course, and make some progress in each as you keep learning guitar.

Posted by Gregg Gascon

musician, singer/songwriter, & teacher