Playing Guitar for Beginners: The Open Chords

Last week, we talked about the parts of the guitar. By knowing this, you will be able to know the position of the hand when doing a chord or set of chords for a song.

So in this article, we will talk about chords. Guitar chords are the ones that give life to the sound of your guitar.

For beginner, you have to know that in music, the first seven letter of the alphabet are being used as names for major chords that we are going to talk about today.


As you can see in the chart, there are seven Major chords with names A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

These are the first things you need to know in playing the guitar and even if you became a professional, you will still be using these chords.

5 of these chords can be played with open chords (A, C, D, E, G) and two are played with bar chords (B, F).

There are also ways to play B and F without using a bar but we will talk about that in future articles.

THE OPEN CHORDS

In this article, I want to talk about the open chords first. Why? Because these chords are the easiest chords in guitar playing and you can master these within just a few hours.

1. THE A CHORD

A MAJOR

You can execute this by using you middle finger (1), ring finger (2), and pinky (3).

A MINOR

This is played by putting you index finger (1), middle finger (2) and ring finger (3).

2. THE C CHORD

C MAJOR

Here, you have to use your index finger (1), middle finger (2), and your ring finger (3) to execute this chord.

(The C minor is a bar chord so I will not show it here.)

3. THE D CHORD

D MAJOR

One of the most used chord in guitar playing, the D chord can be played by placing you index finger (1), middle finger (2) and the ring finger (3). You only have to strum the first four strings of the guitar.

D MINOR

This is done by putting your index finger (1), middle finger (2) and ring finger (3).

4. THE E CHORD

E MAJOR

The E chords is played bu using your index finger (1), middle finger (2), and ring finger (3). You must strum all six strings of the guitar.

E MINOR

Probably the easiest chord for beginners to know, using only two of your fingers to execute this chord. The E minor chords is played using only your middle finger (2) and ring finger (3). Just like the E major chord, you have to play all the strings.

5. THE G CHORD

G MAJOR

The G Major chord is also one of the most commonly used chords. The G Major chord is played by using your index finger (1), your middle finger (2) and your ring finger (3).

(The G minor chord uses a bar so it will not be tackles in this article.)

In the next article I will show you some of the songs that uses only open chords.

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