How to Play Guitar Chords
Hi Folks, welcome back to my Beginner Guitar Lessons blog. A few days ago I posted some basic guitar chords chart and I hope that your fingers are doing OK and adapted to the new fretting job. Today we will talk about how to play guitar chords with the help of that chart.
OK, let’s see C major chord as an example:
‘O’ on the top are indicating that the strings should be picked / strummed at open position. Why? Because the first string is already tuned to E and the third string is G-tuned. Remember the 1 – 3 – 5 rule for Major chords: 1 = C, 3 = E and 5 = G. The last string is not supposed to sound unless you want to play C chord with different bass note, i.e. G bass. In this case you have to press it at the third fret to form C/G (read C major bass G).
Sometimes you find ‘X’ sign on top of the strings or somewhere on the fretboard. It means you have to mute those particular strings, with the help of your left or right hand fingers.
The numbers at the bottom explain your fingers position. The first C is pressed using your index finger (1), the E is pressed using your mid finger (2) and the other C on the bass string is pressed with your ring finger (3).
How to play guitar chords in ‘F’ shape?
This ‘F’ shape is very popular because you can shift it to form any other chords. Shift it by 1 fret (1 semitone) to make F# chord. Shift again 1 more fret to make G chord. If you look at the fingering numbers on the bottom you notice that the index finger is used to press 3 strings. Place your index finger flatly barred on the first fret, pressing all the six strings together and put your mid (2), ring (3) and pinkie (4) fingers accordingly. Now the hardest part is to produce a clean sound because it normally takes time for beginners to master them. Don’t worry, you will overcome this. Never give up!
Try also another bar chord example: Use your 2, 3 and 4 fingers to form A major chord on the second fret. Shift them to the fifth fret and bar your first finger on the third fret. Congratulations! You have just found another form of C major chord ……
If you feel that you can’t do barre chords no matter how hard you’ve tried you probably didn’t do it correctly. Click here to learn how you can fix the problem.
How to play guitar chords if your fingers are considered ‘short’ and ‘fat’? My answer is practice makes difference, not your fatty shorty fingers. Ask Django if you don’t buy it …..
To Your Guitar Success,
-TJ-
Beginner Guitar Lessons Admin
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