Learning to Play Guitar Chords: The Basics and Tips

In order to learn the basic guitar chords, you must have a basic knowledge of what a chord is and how it is made.

A chord is a set of notes that produces a melody. The chords are made up of different notes each played on one string, it doesn't matter if you are strumming or playing each note individually. Chords are always played with multiple notes. Some are two notes most are three or more.

In general there are only two kinds of chords - Major and Minor. The primary chords of the guitar are C, A, G, E, D. This forms what is known as the caged chords or the CAGED System. If you are new to the guitar, learning the CAGED system should be one of the first things you should do. Most artists who mastered these basic chords have confessed that it paved the way for the easy learning of other difficult chords.

Reading a Diagram

The most basic thing you will need to know when learning guitar chords is how to read a chord chart or chord diagram. Without these you are lost.

Basically, a chord diagram is a picture or illustration of how to play a specific chord. This picture will show each string of the guitar and a certain number of frets with numbers to tell you which finger to use on each fret.

Following the CAGED pattern

The guitar is composed of six strings attached to a fret board. These are what make it possible to produce chords and melodies on the guitar. If you are going to learn to play the guitar and focus in on the most basic chords, then you might as well memorize the different chords in each position right? There are five chords basic chords that follow a repeating pattern up the neck that make it into a cohesive whole. Learning these 5 chords in each position will allow you to easily manipulate more advanced chords.

Tips

1) Cut those long fingernails. They will make it difficult for you to press the strings correctly.

2) Don't let your fingers lie down while playing, this will tend to mute some strings. This is the most common mistake made by newbies.

3)Be sure that your fingertips are the ones that are in contact with the strings and not the place where fingerprints are taken. Maintain the arch. Aside from the fact that this is exhausting, this is also painful and difficult but will pay off as soon as calluses are produced.

4) Remember that you should press the notes altogether.

5) Practice. Memorize each chord pattern.

6) Don't rush yourself. If you do, it'll just frustrate you if you don't get it. Choose songs that are easy to play.

7) The absolute most important thing you can do to insure that you are learning guitar chords well is to follow a proven program of instruction. Make sure that any program you follow is organized, easy and step by step.

This is what I mean by the best way to learn guitar chords.

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