Your first chords.

Now that your guitar is in tune it’s time to play some music.

The first thing will look at are chords. Chords are a selection of notes played together. Guitar chords are often shown by using chord diagrams like the one below.

A Major

This is an A Major chord. To understand how a chord diagram works turn your guitar so the headstock is pointing up in the air and the body is towards the ground. You can probably see straight away that the six vertical lines on the diagram represent the guitar strings and the horizontal lines represent the nut or frets. The dots show where your fingers need to go. So to play an A Major chord you place your first finger on the second fret of the fourth string, your second finger on the second fret of the third string and your third finger on the second fret of the second string. You will notice that the sixth string on the diagram has an X above it and the first and fifth strings have an 0 above them. An X means you don’t play that string and an 0 means you play it open (play the string without pressing it down on any frets). So with your fingers in the correct places strum your plectrum across the strings taking care not to play the sixth string.

Congratulations, you just played your first chord!

To play a tune you need more than one chord so here are some more to try.

E Major

G Major

D Major

To make life a little easier for you I have added number underneath the fretted strings to tell you which fingers to use. Take your time and make sure you can play each chord properly before moving on to the next. Some of them are a little tricky but it’s important to learn them. It will get easier.

When you can play each chord separately try playing them one after another. Play A Major 4 times, switch to E Major and play that 4 times, then G Major four times and D Major 4 times before return to A again.

You’ve just played your first tune.