GUITAR lessons for beginners

5 Basic Guitar Chords For Beginners

In this guitar lesson you’re going to learn 7 of the most basic guitar chords for beginners. These beginning guitar chords are the first ones every guitar player should learn. They are sometimes referred to as open position chords, because they are played in the first few frets of the guitar and all contain at least one open string. If you are looking for easy guitar chords for beginners, these are the ones to start with.

1-Basic Em Guitar Chord (E Minor Chord)

Em is the first beginning guitar chord you should learn. It’s one of the most basic guitar chords not only because it’s easy, but because it’s used all the time in a lot of different songs. The small m after the E means minor. Think of minor as a flavor of sound.

     

2-Basic C Guitar Chord (C Major Chord)

The 2nd basic beginner guitar chord you should learn is C, or C major. You don’t have to say “major” in the name of the chord. If you just say C chord it’s assumed that it’s a major chord. You only want to strum the top 5 strings (that means the highest sounding 5 strings, not their relationship to the floor) The X in the guitar chord chart means not to play that string, or to mute it.

     

Practicing Beginning Guitar Chords

There are 2 things you should practice as you learn these new basic guitar chords.

1. Play the notes of the chord individually making sure that all of the notes are sounding.

2. Practice switching between different chords keeping a steady beat. Try not to stop, the goal is to learn to switch between the chords getting the best sound possible (without stopping). Fix any problems as you are strumming.

Basic Guitar Chord Progressions

The best way to practice these beginner guitar chords at first is with some basic chord progressions. A chord progression is just a common combination of chords.

With all of the basic guitar chord progressions in this guitar lesson, do the following.

1. Strum only on beat 1 of each measure. This gives you plenty of time to get to the next chord.

2. Next try strumming only on beats 1 and 3.

3. Finally strum on all 4 beats.

3-Basic G Guitar Chord (G Major Chord)

Next up is a basic G chord.  For the G major guitar chord there are two fingerings listed. The one in black is the fingering I recommend.

The one in black may seem more awkward at first only because you are using your 4th finger, which is your weakest finger. But that fingering makes the smoothest transition with C, which happens all the time in different songs.

     

4-Basic D Guitar Chord (D Major Chord)

Next is a basic D chord. With the addition of a D major guitar chord, you can play the chords to literally thousands of songs. Write yourself some catchy lyrics and you too could make millions of dollars. The biggest problem encountered with this basic guitar chord is getting the first string to sound. Make sure  your third finger is not touching the first string. Get right on the tip of your 3rd finger.

     

5-Basic Am Guitar Chord (Am Minor Chord)

An A minor guitar chord has two fingers in common with the C chord. To switch from C to Am just lift up your third finger and move it to the 3rd string, 2nd fret. You will have to scoot your 2nd finger back a little in the fret to make room for your 3rd finger.