beginner-guitar-chords

In this section I have organized the chords into families or Keys.

A key is a group of related chords or a family of chords

There are basically 7 chords in a key. Each key has 3 major chords and 4 minor chords. There are variations of each chord as well but that is more advanced than what I want to show you right now.

We create songs by choosing certain chords from a key and playing them in a progression with a strumming pattern as we learned in lesson 4.

There are 24 different keys that music can be played in. Most of your modern popular guitar music will most likely be in one of the keys shown here.

Singers will usually have a favorite key that they like to sing in. They will choose a key with chords that match their voice range.

The keys of G and C seem to be comfortable for most voice ranges.

The "1" chord names the key. The chord that names the key could be thought of as the home chord.

At the top of the chart you will see Roman numerals, 1-7.

Each chord is numbered. When you play a progression of chords you can think of the chords as these numbers.

In the key of "A", the "A" is the 1, the D is the 4 and the E is the 5.

The progression of A - D - E can be thought of as a 1 - 4 - 5 progression.
This is a very popular progression used in in Blues music.

When we start a song on the home chord and play the other chords in a progression, 1 - 4 - 5 , for example, and return back to the home chord, we get a resolved sound.

In other words, it has a sound that the song has ended and is now either going somewhere else or is finished.

1 - 4 - 5 and end on 1.      A - D - E - A

You could add a 2 - 5 - 1 or just a, 2 - 1 combination to the end of a progression to give an ending feel to it.

I just wanted to give you a basic idea of the possibilities. There are many more combinations to use to come up with chord progressions.

Try coming up with your own progressions.

Try a 6 - 5 - 2- combination in any key.
Use any strum pattern. Four strums per chord is a good place to start.

If you want to learn more about chord theory, see the resource section.

Open chords are chords that have open notes in them. (Strings that you play without pressing down on a fret).

Power Chords also know as "5" chords(G5 for example) are a big part of rock guitar. They don't have a Major or minor tag on them, so they can fill in for either type of chord.

They are easy and fun to play and give a nice big sound especially on the electric guitar.

I included a few hybrid chords or, suspended chords, to give you an idea of the different sounds that you can get from chords just by adding or taking away a note from a chord.

Of course there are many more but these are a few for you to learn.

And last we have the Bar, or Barre chords.

Bar chords use one finger to press on two or more strings at the same time.

These chords are very hard to play for a beginner but once you get it, they become quite easy.

Start by trying to bar just two strings. Place your first finger over the first and second strings at the first fret. Then try adding the third string. Then go for all six.

Lesson one shows the parts of the guitar. The nut is located behind the first fret. It has grooves in it that the strings rest in.    When we us our first finger to press all the strings together, it is now acting sort of like the nut.

Bar chords are moveable chords. Once you learn one, you just move them up the neck to transpose to different keys.

Power chords are also moveable with the exception of the open E5, A5 or D5.

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Chord Chart