For lesson 2, we’ll be looking at chords. Chords are one of the biggest parts of being a guitar player. Some of them may be a little tricky at first, but keep practicing, and eventually it’ll come to you without even thinking about it.

Let’s take a look:

Click Here to hear it.

This is a G major chord.  The dots are where you put your fingers. On this chart, I’ve put the finger number on each of the dots for clarity. Generally, chord charts won’t have this.

Here’s what it looks like in reality:

Go ahead, try it. On this chord, you will strum all 6 strings. You should be able to hear all 6 strings clearly. If you don’t, don’t panic, but play each string one at a time to find where the problem is.

If a string sounds dead (this is known as muting), there are a few possible reasons. The most likely one is that you’re touching it with another finger unintentionally. Otherwise, it may be that you’re not pressing the string down hard enough (more likely on an acoustic than an electric) or you’re not close enough to the fret.

Once you have it sounding great, remove all of your fingers from the fretboard and shake out your hand. Now, find it again! Repetition will create muscle memory, which will eventually allow you to go to these chords instantly without even trying.

How are you doing so far? Is it getting any easier? Let’s try some more chords.

If the chord is indicated by a capitol letter (for instance, “A”), then it is a major chord (for instance, A major). If it is indicated by a capitol letter followed by a lower case “m”, then it is a minor chord (Am = A minor). That leaves us with 7ths, indicated with a 7 (A7). Go through the chart and mentally determine the names for each of the chords on the chart.

Take your time and learn each chord until you can do them all, without looking. In our next lesson we’ll be putting them to use!