Beginner Guitar Lessons-Basic Chords (Part 2)

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The basic guitar chords are very important for the aspiring guitar player. That’s because without the basic guitar chords actually playing your favorite songs would be impossible and making music with someone else wouldn’t be that easy either. So, the basic guitar chords are where you should start if you want to play music, especially your favorite songs. Did you know that the majority of rock and pop songs can be played by only knowing the basic guitar chords? That means you could learn the basics and still play some of the most popular songs!

Chords are not notes; instead they are combined of notes. A chord has at least three notes that are played together and sometimes more. A guitar can only have six notes in a chord because there are only six strings. The way to play a chord on the guitar is to strum three of the strings at the same time. The resulting sound is a chord. All chords can fit into one of three groups depending on what notes make up the chord. The groups include Major, Minor, and Seventh. The Major chords are the richest sounding chords while the minor chords are a little more solemn. Seventh chords do not provide a rich sound like the Major chords and actually sound like they may be missing something although these chords work well for certain types of music.

The problem with learning the basic guitar chords is that there is not an agreed upon list of what those chords are. There is, however, a list that includes up to 18 basic guitar chords that most everyone agrees upon. So, you should make it a goal to learn all 18 of these basic guitar chords. Doing so will ensure that you are able to play all the songs, almost, that you ever dreamed of and you will have more fun playing.

The approved “basic guitar chords” come from keys A, G, C, and D. These chords are played by pressing down on one string while strumming the others. These are easier to play than other chords that are complex. Some of the basic chords are A, Am (A minor), C, D, Dm, E, Em, F, and G. You can learn the chords anyway you want, but the recommended way is to learn them by the keys, or chord families, so that you can start playing a bit as you learn. The chord families include the keys of A, D, G, and C. A is made up of A, D, E; D is made up of D, Em, G, A; G is made up of G, Am, C, D, Em; and C is made up of C, Dm, Em, F, G.

Learning the basic guitar chords is not hard if you are dedicated to doing so. There are a couple of tricks, however, that might help you learn faster and start playing the songs you love. For instance, use a guitar chord chart as you are learning. This ensures you will learn proper finger placement from the start. Another tip is to master one chord family or key before moving on to the next. When you are an expert at one chord you can start “playing” already and learning the others will be a lot of fun! There are a lot of tips to learn to play the guitar, just follow the ones that seem most helpful to you and have fun!