15 guitar chords you must know as a beginner
15 guitar chords you must know as a beginner
Learning chords as a beginner can be quite overwhelming. At first, you’ve got to deal with all of the different chord names, there are and how you’ve got to remember them. But just knowing them isn’t enough.
That guitar isn’t going to play itself. You’ve also got to put in the hours to get comfortable with these chord shapes. So I’ve come up with this clear and straightforward method of learning new chords as a beginner.
The 5 most basic guitar shapes are C, A, G, E, and D. So it’s important to master those 5 chords as soon as you can. However, most people find these chords to be way too difficult in the beginning, therefore, I am going to show you 2 related versions of all of these chords to get you started.
So don’t get discouraged with the first chord each time! If you find the original chord hard to play, you can try the one below with only two fingers, and if that one is still too hard to play, you can try the one with only one finger.
And even if you consider yourself a little bit more than a beginner, I suggest you read on, because you might learn a thing or two about music theory along the way.
Anyway, with all of that out of the way: Enjoy practicing!
C major (C)
The C major chord is often considered a difficult beginner chord. As you can see in this picture, I have to use three fingers and stretch them over all three first frets. And on top of that, we also have two open strings (G and E), that we cannot touch with our fingers.
You don’t have to know a lot about music theory in order to be able to play these chords, but it is useful to know a few basic things. And one of the most important things to know is the root note. The root note is the lowest bass note in the chord, and it is often what the chord is named after.
So in this case, our root note is on the third fret of the A string, and you’ve guessed it: it’s called C. By the way, this is also the reason why we skip the low E string (marked X) because we want our lowest note to be just C, and we’ve got to make sure there are no lower notes below that one.
For more info about music theory, check out my music theory 101 article.
How to skip the low E string:
You can lightly touch the low E string with your ring finger from the side while still pressing the A string. A second way of doing it is by muting the string with your thumb. Both techniques can be quite challenging, but a lot of guitarists use them.
C major 7 (CΔ7)
So let’s remove our index finger, shall we? We now have a C major 7th chord. What’s interesting is that by removing one finger, we have less to worry about with our grip, but meanwhile the chord itself has become more complicated (in a music theory sense).
major 7 chords
Major 7th chords have a nice dreamy quality, but why exactly is that? Since we’ve removed our index finger, we now have an open B string, and that is the major seventh of this chord. For more info about theory, check out my music theory 101 article.
C major 9 (CΔ9)
If the major 7th was still a little bit too difficult for you, I have a one-finger option for you to practice this chord. We are removing the second fret on the D string this time. So what’s only left is the root note on the 3rd fret of the A string.
So again, when removing a finger, the chord becomes easier to play but the theory behind it actually becomes a bit more complicated. This time, we are adding the 9th to the chord (the open D string), hence the name C major 9. We still have the 7th in it, but we don’t have to put it in the name of the chord anymore.
Some people might find this confusing, but it is just something you’ve got to get used to when learning music theory. Anyway: this is the easiest version of a C-type chord that you can find out there, but still it is quite a challenge to skip the low E string and don’t accidentally mute the D string.
A major (A)
So now we’re moving on to our next three related chords: A, Asus2, and Em/A. All of these three chords have the open A string in common with the low E string marked with an X. With this chord, we have our index finger on the D string, our middle finger on the G string, and our ring finger on the B string.
Once again, the plain version of A is the hardest to play (three fingers). This time, our index, middle, and ring finger are all in the same fret on different strings. Make sure that you aren’t accidentally muting the high E string with your ring finger, and that you are not playing the low E string.
A suspended 2 (Asus2)
Once again we can make this chord way easier to play by removing a finger, but it will change the chord name to Asus2. The sus stands for suspended.
With the normal A, our ring finger was the C# note, and it was the major third of the chord. But now it’s gone, we have an open B string left, and we’ve removed the third from the chord. When this happens we call it a sus chord, and since we now have te 2 in the chord (B), we call it a sus2 chord (in other cases you can also have a sus4 chord instead of the sus2).
And again a reminder for not accidentally muting strings: this time we’ve got to teach our middle finger not to touch the B string.
E minor over A (Em/A)
Kind of a complicated name for such a simple chord. You could also call it an A7sus2 chord, but I’ll name it Em/A in this article so you can get familiar with slash chords.
Slash chords
With slash chords, the chord that stands before the slash is the main harmony, and the note that comes right after is the slash is the bass note that lies underneath it. The Em/A chord (E minor with an A bass note) is probably the easiest to play in the A-type chords.
Since the name is misleading - because of the Em part before the slash - you could say it isn’t part of the A-type chords, but as I said: you could also call it an A7sus2 chord.
G major (G)
The good news is that we’re finally allowed to strum all of the 6 strings this time. The bad news is that this chord is really challenging because of the large stretch that we’ve got to make with two fingers.
different ways of playing g:
With your middle finger on the low E string, your index finger on the A string, and your ring finger on the high E string.
With your ring finger on the low E string, your middle finger on the A string, and your pinky on the high E string.
With your middle finger on the low E string, your index finger on the A string, your pinky on the high E string, and adding your ring finger on the third fret of the B string.
You can try all 3 different options to find the one that suits you best. If you are desperate for an easier way of playing G, I suggest you scroll on.
G major 6 (G6)
Yes, once again we are just removing one red dot, and we’ve got ourselves a fancier sounding chord: G6. No, not from the terrible song Like a G6. Let’s keep that song buried really deep in the 2010s.
Since we are now playing a high open E string, we are adding the 6th to the chord, and when that happens, we simply put a 6 behind the chord.
The scale of G:
G (root)
A
B (major third)
C
D (fifth)
E (the sixth note makes the G chord a G6 chord)
F#
G6 (easier version)
So if you’re still having trouble with not muting any strings, you can of course deliberately mute one, for the sake of just giving yourself a break. Muting the A string still leaves our G6 chord intact theory-wise.
breakdown of the chord (theory)
In the previous part where I explained the scale of G, you can see that the notes G, B, D, and E make up a G6 chord.
We’ve got our G note twice: We’re pressing the third fret on the E string (this is a G note), and we’ve got an open G string. We’ve also got an open B, D, and E string. We were previously doubling a B by also pressing the second fret on the A string (which is also a B), but since we are actually fine with just one B, we can perfectly mute this one.
E major (E)
The E chord is in my opinion one of the most satisfying chords to play since it uses the low open E string, and there are no other strings that we have to mute. There is also one way how you can play it: and that is with your index finger on the G string, the ring finger on the D string, and the middle finger on the A string.
Easy right? Still, it can be quite hard to not accidentally mute the G string, so let’s move on to the next chord.
E minor (Em or E-)
When you let your index finger go, you now have an open G string, and this makes the chord minor. Now you also have a choice, you can either play the chord with your middle finger and ring finger, but it’s also possible to use your index finger and your middle finger. Heck, you could also use your pinky and ring finger if you think that somehow makes it easier for you (in most cases that last suggestion is probably the hardest way to play it).
Em or E-?
You’ve probably noticed that I wrote down the chord in two different ways. They can be used both, and they mean the same thing (minor). When writing with your hand, a simple “-” is faster to write than m.
major & minor
If you can both play the E and the E minor chord, you can compare the sound of them with each other. Most people learn it like this: “major sounds a bit more “happy” or “upbeat”, and minor tends to be a bit more somber. Of course, this isn’t an exact science or whatever, but it is a great way of remembering the difference.
Also: when we have just “E”, it is a major chord, even though the word major isn’t behind it. So for major chords, we don’t add anything, and for minor chords, we use the “m” or “-”.
For more info on the difference between major and minor chords and the theory behind it: check out my music theory 101 blogpost.
E minor 7 (Em7 or E-7)
This time, with only leaving one last finger on the fretboard, we find ourselves left with an E minor 7th chord. The open G string made the chord MINOR, and the open D string added to it makes it a 7th chord. It’s completely fine if you don’t understand all of these theory bits in the beginning.
They are not your main focus. Some things you’ve just got to hear and see over and over again until it sips into your brain. For now, just try to get the shapes of the chords right.
D major (D)
After the C and G, the D major chord is one of the trickiest chords to play for the beginner guitarist, and the bad news is that this chord is very common in pop music.
What’s very important is the fingering of this chord: your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the E string, your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the B string, and your index finger on the second fret of the G string.
Now there is still more bad news because this chord has to X’s both on the E and A string. This means we’ve got to mute those strings if possible. The reason for this is that we want the D string to be the lowest sounding note in this chord in order for it to be a D.
D suspended 2 (Dsus2)
So a little bit easier is the Dsus2 chord, and the good news is that this one can be quite common aswell. It is also often used as a variation to the normal D in popsongs.
The only tricky thing now is that you have to be careful not to accidentally mute the high E string.
D major 6 add 9 (D6add9)
And finally, already the 15th chord on this list: the D6add9 chord. Again, the chord’s name has become more difficult to remember, but the shape is only one finger so that’s nice. The same principles count for this one as well: be careful not to mute the B string and be sure to do mute the E and A string.
Conclusion:
So there are 5 basic chords: C, A, G, E, D. See how they all spell the word “caged” when you put them right behind each other? I’ll write another blog later on what CAGED can mean for your playing, and why it is important.
If you find the CAGED chords difficult, you can still practice the shapes by playing easier chords with fewer fingers that build up to the real deal. So that makes a total of 15 chords that you now know in a structured manner.
Of course, there are many different ways to structure chords. But for this blog, I wanted to focus on just learning the shapes more. If you want to know more stuff, be sure to check out these blog posts if you’re still hungry for more.
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