| This article will show you how to make the best use | | | | the three note chords called triads. The three notes |
| of free guitar chord charts that you can find online. | | | | in a triad are the basic notes of your chord, so by |
| As the internet changes, sites go down and new | | | | learning triads you will begin to see how the guitar |
| ones come up, so I won't risk this resource going out | | | | chords are structured. Also you can move your triads |
| of date by discussing where to find your free guitar | | | | up and down the fret board to make new chords. |
| chord charts, just how to use them to kick start | | | | Here's an example: |
| your guitar playing. | | | | The chord of A Major is made up of the notes A C# |
| You can easily get together a nice collection of chord | | | | and E shown in tab form as: |
| charts and lyrics to your favorite songs to help you | | | | E----------------------------------------- |
| learn to play the guitar. If you feel that you should | | | | B--------------2-------------------------- |
| be learning a whole bunch of musical theory and how | | | | G--------------2-------------------------- |
| to read musical notation, but somehow feel it's just | | | | D--------------2-------------------------- |
| not you, then that's okay - start with what you feel | | | | A----------------------------------------- |
| most enthusiastic about. Once you have started to | | | | E----------------------------------------- |
| learn using guitar chord charts you have bought or | | | | Move that shape one semitone (one fret) up the |
| downloaded for free, you might see as you go along | | | | neck and you get A# or Bb. |
| that you will need to know a little bit about musical | | | | E----------------------------------------- |
| theory to see how chords and scales fit together. If, | | | | B--------------3-------------------------- |
| however, you are comfortable learning chords to | | | | G--------------3-------------------------- |
| your favorite songs, then keep at it. | | | | D--------------3-------------------------- |
| So let's start with the basic baby steps and work up | | | | A----------------------------------------- |
| to some really useful knowledge about guitar chords | | | | E----------------------------------------- |
| and how the dots on the charts relate to musical | | | | One fret higher is B Major. |
| sounds. You know the frets on your guitar's neck | | | | E----------------------------------------- |
| somehow show you where the notes are, so let's | | | | B--------------4-------------------------- |
| get a little more technical. You will see when you use | | | | G--------------4-------------------------- |
| scale charts to learn to play guitar tunes that in a | | | | D--------------4-------------------------- |
| given position on the fret board, you will sometimes | | | | A----------------------------------------- |
| need to move up or down one fret or two frets. If | | | | E----------------------------------------- |
| you play the note at the first fret, and then move | | | | This shape played anywhere on the neck will give |
| up to the second fret, you have moved up a | | | | you a major chord. The fret it is played at tells you |
| semitone. If you have moved up two frets, it is | | | | the key it is in. |
| called a tone. The distance between the notes E and | | | | Here are the notes for the triads of the basic chords: |
| F or B and C is a tone. The distance between the | | | | C Major - C E G |
| notes C and D is a tone. So as you learn songs in | | | | D Major - D F# A |
| different keys you will start to see that what you | | | | E Major - B E G# |
| are playing when you play scales is different patterns | | | | F Major - C F A |
| of tones or semi tones on the guitar neck. | | | | G Major - G B D |
| If you have watched guitarists play you will have | | | | A Major - A C# E |
| noticed that sometimes they place their index finger | | | | B Major - B D# F# |
| across all six strings. This is called a barre. When you | | | | Now the minor chords: |
| begin to learn songs you will be making use of chords | | | | C Minor - C Eb G |
| played in the FIRST position on the fret board. These | | | | D Minor - D F A |
| are mostly open chords, that is chords that do not | | | | E Minor - B E G |
| make use of the barre. You can try to play barre | | | | F Minor - C F Ab |
| chords any time, but it's a bit ambitious to expect to | | | | G Minor - G Bb D |
| be able to use them until after your hands have done | | | | A Minor - A C E |
| some practice with open chords. | | | | B Minor - B D F# |
| When you are learning chords to accompany songs, | | | | Naturally, there will be some points you need to |
| you will probably make use of your chord charts | | | | make a little clearer, so you will find more descriptions |
| showing you chords that use all the guitar's strings. | | | | and illustrations available for free on the internet. |
| But if you want to get into playing solos start with | | | | |
