Welcome to my short tutorial on how to play guitar chords. Learning how to play guitar can be broken down into three categories. These categories are the three basic elements of music:
- Chords
- Scales
- Rhythm
An effective practice routine will include each of these three elements for daily practice. For this article, you will learn how to play a few popular chords in this tutorial. After the tutorial, you might want to consider our premium content which balances chords, scales, and rhythm into a highly efficient practice routine.
To get you started I would like to share with you the six most popular guitar chords. I have included five easy chords and one difficult chord to challenge you. If you feel like your progress is too slow learning these basic chords it could have something to do with your technique. Here are some basic technical tips to move you along.
LEARN HOW TO HOLD THE GUITAR CORRECTLY
Our premium content covers this topic in depth in Level 001. Good posture and proper neck angle can shave months off your goal to play these chords effectively. Don’t waste time developing poor habits that could make an easy task difficult.
LEARN HOW TO ALIGN YOUR FRETTING HAND WITH THE FRET BOARD
Our premium content covers this important topic in Level 005 and Level 006. Proper alignment will allow the tendons in your left hand to work the way nature intended. This is rarely covered in the rock/blues world. I have a classical guitar background and know how important physiology is to developing solid technique. Learning how to keep your wrist straight will make playing chords easy and protect you from injury. Once again, you will shave months off your goal of learning how to play the guitar.
LEARN HOW TO PLAY USING YOUR FINGERTIPS
This is also covered in Level 006. This means curving your fingers. By doing so you will be able to push harder with less work. Playing on the fingertips also helps you to avoid blocking strings. I tell my students that if I can see their fingernails, they need to curve their fingers more so that I have a hard time seeing them from where I am sitting. You really have to curve those fingers to do that.
PLAY CLOSE TO THE FRETS
This is physics in action. The closer you are to the fret, the easier the note is to push. Sometimes you have to play halfway between the frets but the closer you are to the frets (towards the body) the better.
B-Minor is very tough chord to learn if you have not developed proper technique. I’ve included this chord due to its popularity. I have a step by step process which will make this chord much easier to practice in Level 093. You do not have to have incredible strength to play chords like this. If you play smart, you can overcome physical challenges like the B-Minor chord.
Once you have learned how to play a few chords you can begin learning how to strum basic rhythm patterns. We cover this and so much more at Levels for Guitar in a step by step process.
POPULAR GUITAR CHORDS DIAGRAMS
HOW TO PLAY A-MINOR GUITAR CHORD
HOW TO PLAY B-MINOR GUITAR CHORD
HOW TO PLAY C-MAJOR GUITAR CHORD
HOW TO PLAY D-MAJOR GUITAR CHORD
HOW TO PLAY E-MINOR GUITAR CHORD
HOW TO PLAY G-MAJOR GUITAR CHORD
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