Open Chords

Guitar chords form the backbone and harmony for a piece of music. If you are totally new to playing guitar, one of the first things to get you acquainted to the guitar is to learn the open  chords. By learning to play these basic chords, you would be able to learn some easy songs. For a beginner guitar player, this is very important as it not only motivates you to work harder but also gives you a sense of achievement in playing the guitar.

First things first. I strongly encourage you to download a copy of GuitarPro5. This is one of the best guitar software ever to be created. It makes learning the guitar so much easier. Beginner guitar players would find this software very useful when starting out. Guitar Pro 5 has an embedded function to allow you to visualise and create advanced chords easily. Be sure to check it out.

Basic Chords Diagram

In order to learn chords, we must first understand how to read chord diagrams. There are many variations and styles for denoting guitar chords diagrams. I am going to highlight some of the common features that would be seen in chord diagrams.

Chord diagrams are typically represented in a grid format and the name of the chord is form at the top of the diagram.

In the above chord diagram for A minor, the index finger is placed at the 1st fret of the second string, the middle finger is placed at the 2nd fret of the 4th string and the ring finger is placed at the 2nd fret of the 3rd string. When the chord is played, only the first 5 strings are played. 

Basic Open Chords

Open chords are basically chords that contain at least one note in the open strings. (Play the string without fingering them). They are the basic chords in playing the guitar. However, this does not mean that learning to play these guitar chords for the first time is easy. Here is a list of major open chords that is also commonly referred to as the CAGED system. I had purposely wrote this chords in a different style that is commonly found on the net. Do you notice that there is some slight difference from that of the previous chord diagram? Basically, the main difference is that the numbering of the fingers is now at the bottom of the chord diagram instead of inside the black dots.

Here is a short list of the most important open minor chords:

For this lesson, I want you to concentrate on learning the fingerings for the chords. Don’t worry about the timing or strumming rhythms as I will cover them in the next lesson. For now, I don't want you to worry about strumming or rhythm.

The most important thing is to achieve a clean sound for each open chord when you are practicing. After you had placed all your fingers on the fretboard, play through each of the strings of the chords. Make sure that the strings that are supposed to ring all not muffled or muted. If the notes are not ringing out properly, find out why. Chances are that you are not pressing hard enough or parts of your fingers are touching that string which prevents it from sounding out clearly. Are any unused fingers touching strings?

The next thing I want your to do is to get your fingers used to changing chords. You would have difficulty coordinating your fingers while changing chords if you are new to playing the guitar. That’s normal. It takes some time to get used to the fingerings. One important thing to take note is that when you are changing chords, make sure that the chords are still played clean and clear. Preserver and overtime, playing open chords would be of 2nd nature to you.

To recap, you have learnt the simplest yet crucial chords to start playing the guitar. Congratulations on taking your very first baby steps towards playing the guitar. Give yourself a pat on the back to have come this far. If you are interested to find out how chords are formed and also learn more advanced chords, you can find them at the  guitar chords section. I will write a lesson on using open chords to form progressions and some basic strumming patterns in future. See you then.