Music Tutorials: Guitar Chords

Guitar Chords

a) G chord   b) Em chord (E minor)   c) C chord   d) D chord 

G chord





Em chord

  

C chord

D chord

When playing the chords, it is important to:

* position your fingers more to the front of the neck of the guitar 

because it helps to give your fingers more clearance away from 

other strings that you will not want to touch.

 * press down on the notes at a steeper angle so as to avoid 

accidentally touching other strings.

* angle your fingers on the strings so as to press more on the left side 

of the tips of your fingers with your palm facing up. Doing this enables 

the fingers to keep closer to the fret bars without spreading them apart from each other.

Inspite of these, you may still encounter some 

problems like:

• The chord doesn't sound clean.  Some strings make a buzzing  sound and some strings don't give any sound at all.
• 
  Possible solutions:
  • Your finger might be too far away from the fret or too close to it.
  • If a string doesn't sound you might be touching it with the flesh of an adjacent finger. Keep the finger nails of your left hand short.  Your fingers should be almost 90 degrees against the fret board and long finger nails prevent you from doing this.
  • Try to apply more pressure
• The transition between the chords is very slow
• That's normal for a beginner.  Keep on practicing!
  When learning songs, take out the chord changes you have trouble with and practice them a while on their own without bothering about the other chords.
• Your fingers hurt
• that's normal too.  Keep on going till your finger tops produce a layer of corn. Give yourself some time. Your hands need to adjust to the new task they've just been given.

What about the right hand?

A good question, as there's no avail in learning chords

without producing any sound. There are two things you can 

do with your right hand (in terms of playing chords):

strumming and finger picking.

Basic guitar chords namely, E minor, C major, G major, D major, A minor, E major and A major are the foundations for all kinds of songs.