How to Play Guitar Chords

Three Parts:Sample Chord Chart and Guitar HelpUnderstanding ChordsLearning More Chords

Learning to play guitar is loads of fun, though playing chords may seem a little
intimidating at first. Fear not, it is not much different than playing single notes: you're
just playing them all at once! This article will walk you through the process of working
out the fingering, and show you how to play some common chords. Pull out your axe,
and rock on!
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Sample Chord Chart and Guitar Help

Sample Guitar Chord Chart

Sample Guitar Strumming Patterns

 Sample Star Spangled Banner Tabs and Chords

Part 1 of 2: Understanding Chords

1.

1
Learn the strings. The best way to start is by becoming familiar with the strings on your
guitar and how they relate to your fingers. To make this easier, we're going to number
them both. The strings on your guitar are numbered like this:

 Vertically, the strings are numbered 1 through 6, from highest pitch to lowest.
 Horizontally, the numbering is based on the fret positions.
 Note that when the directions say "put your first finger on the 3rd fret," that means you
actually place your finger between the 2nd and 3rd fret. It's the string itself that needs to
be in contact with the 3rd fret.

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2.

2
Number your fingers. Take a look at your left hand, and imagine you have numbers
stamped on your fingers. Your index is 1, your middle finger is 2, your ring finger is 3,
and your pinky finger is 4. Your thumb we will call "T," but you will not be using it for
chords in this article.
3.

3
Learn the C chord. The first chord we will cover is a C chord—one of the most basic
chords in music. Before we do, let's break down just what that means. A proper chord,
whether played on a piano, a guitar, or sung by well-trained mice, is simply three or
more notes sounded together. (Two notes is called a "diad," and while musically useful,
is not a chord.) Chords can also contain far more than three notes, but that's well
beyond the scope of this article. This is what a C chord looks like on the guitar:

 The lowest note is the 3rd fret of the A string: C

 The next note up is played on the 2nd fret of the D string: E
 Note there is no finger on the G string. This string remains "open" when strumming a C.
 The highest note is played on the 1st fret of the B string: C
 The highest and lowest strings on the guitar are not played for the basic C major chord.
4.

4
Try it out the notes. Play each note note in the chord, from low to high, one at a time.
Take your time and be deliberate: press down firmly on the fret, and pluck the string. Let
the note ring for as long as you can, then move to the next note:

 Press your 3rd finger onto the 3rd fret of the A string, as indicated above, pluck, and let
it ring until it fades out. You just played a C note.
 Press your 2nd finger onto the 2nd fret of the D string, then do the pluck-and-ring to play
an E.
 Break time! Simply pluck the open, un-fingered G string.
 Press your 1st finger on the 1st fret of the B string, and let that C note sound loud!
 Play the notes, one at a time, for a few times. When you're ready, sweep your pick or
fingers across all four middle strings quickly. You've just played a C chord!
 It may sting a little the first few times you do it, but as you develop calluses, the pain
goes away.

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Part 2 of 2: Learning More Chords

1.

1
Expand your musical vocabulary. Playing a C chord is nice, and it's definitely a
gateway chord that will lead you into more interesting musical territory, but there's much
more to music than that! Here are two other chords commonly used when playing in C
Major. F, and G. Play a basic F chord like this:

 The notes in an F chord are F, A, and C. Note that the F and the C are being played by
the same finger: the first finger is placed across the 1st fret of boththe 1st and 2nd
strings.
 Generally, chords are built so that the lowest note is the root of the chord, but in this
case, the F is being sounded on the 1st fret of the 1st string. This is called an
"inversion."
2.

2
Extend the F chord. You can an F in the root by playing the F on the D string: the 3rd
fret up, played with your third finger. You may notice the chord doesn't sound a lot
different, just "fuller."
3.

3
Play a G chord. Like the C and the F, the G chord is one of the Big Three in the C
major scale. There are many ways to play it, and we'll show you two. The first way is
easy: it's the exact same fingering as the extended F chord, only moved up two frets:
4.

4
Play the G chord the easy way. Here's a way to play the G chord with only one finger:

5.

5
 Put it all together. Now that you know the three basic chords in the key of C, put them
together, and perhaps you'll recognize about a zillion popular songs. Strum C four
times, followed by F, two times, then G, two times, then back to C.

 Note that after each chord is a Roman numeral. These indicate what position the root
note of the chord is on the scale—regardless of fingering. Once you know the basic
chords in all the keys, it's easier to just show a chart than to have the chord spelled out
every time.
 Practice that until your fingers are tired, then take a break, but come back: we'll also
show you the basic chords in E and A!

6.

6
Learn the key of E. There's a lot of rock 'n' roll done in the key of E, and a lot of blues,
too. The three chords to learn here are E Maj (I), A Maj (IV), and B Maj (V). Here's the E
chord:
 This is one of the easier chords to play, once you have your calluses built up. You can
play all the strings at once. Crank up a Marshall stack to 11 with this chord, hit it hard,
and you'll feel the beginnings of being a rock hero!

7.

7
Play the A Major. This is another "big chord," sonically. There are several ways to play
this. You can use one finger across the 2nd fret of the B, G, and D strings (playing C#,
A, and E, respectively), or any other combination of fingers. For this example, we'll use
the 4th finger on the B string, 3rd finger on the G string, and 2nd finger on the D string.

 As you get better at playing, you will understand that moving quickly from one chord to
another sometimes results in odd fingerings that still work. The key is to make the most
efficient use of your fingers, and once you kick off the training wheels, don't be afraid to
experiment.
8.

8
Play the B Major. You can play this one easy, or play this one hard. The easy way is
shown with the black numbers. You can add the additional note, show by the gray
number.

9.

9
 Try it out. Here's another short strumming pattern to try out in the key of E:

 Try varying your strumming pattern, too: don't just stick to the lines on the paper.

10.

10
Learn the key of A. You're already two thirds of the way there! The key of A consists of
A in the first position (I), D in the fourth position (IV), and our old powerhouse friend E in
the dominant fifth position (V). Here's how to play the D chord:

 Note the first finger across the first three strings: this is the beginning of a "barre" chord.
A full barre chord uses one finger across all strings, and is often based on the basic
forms shown in this article.
11.

11
Learn an alternate version of the A chord. This is useful when played along with the
D and the E chords:

12.

12
Try it out. Here's another Little Ditty to try out your new chords on:
 Now, think of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, Down on the Corner, and try it
again![1][2]
13. G
14. I dont even like you,
15. F# G D
16. Whyd you want to go and make me feel this way?
17. G
18. I dont understand whats happened,
19. F# G D
20. I keep saying things I never said.
21.
22. Bm F#m
23. I can feel you watching even when youre nowhere to be seen,
24. Bm F#m
25. I can feel you touching even when youre far away from me.
26.
27. [Chorus:]
28. A D
29. Tell me where youre hiding your voodoo doll.
30. G
31. cause I cant control myself,
32. A D G
33. I dont understand another way but Im trapped under your spell.
34. Bm
35. And it hurts in my head and my heart and my chest,
36. F# E
37. And Im having trouble catching my breath.
38. G
39. Ooh
40. D
41. Ooh
42. F# Gm D
43. Wont you please stop loving me to death
44.
45. G
46. I dont even see my friends no more
47. F# G D
48. Cause I keep hanging out with you
49. G
50. I dont know how you kept me up all night
51. F# G D
52. Or how I got this tattoo
53. [ Tab from: http://www.guitaretab.com/numeric/5-seconds-of-summer/363077.html ]
54. Bm F#m
55. I can feel you watching even when youre nowhere to be seen,
56. Bm F#m
57. I can feel you touching even when youre far away from me.
58.
59.
60.
61. [Chorus:]
62. A D
63. Tell me where youre hiding your voodoo doll.
64. G
65. cause I cant control myself,
66. A D G
67. I dont understand another way but Im trapped under your spell.
68. Bm
69. And it hurts in my head and my heart and my chest,
70. F# E
71. And Im having trouble catching my breath.
 72. G
73. Ooh
74. D
75. Ooh
76. F# Gm D
77. Wont you please stop loving me to death
78.
79. Bm F#m
80. I can feel you watching even when youre nowhere to be seen,
81. Bm F#m
82. I can feel you touching even when youre far away from me.
83.
84. Bm
85. Every time I see you,
86. F#m
87. I don't know why my heart begins to race,
88. G
89. Every time I leave,
90. F#m
91. I don’t know why my heart begins to break
92.
93. [Chorus:]
94. A D
95. Tell me where youre hiding your voodoo doll.
96. G
97. cause I cant control myself,
98. A D G
99. I dont understand another way but Im trapped under your spell.
100. Bm
101. And it hurts in my head and my heart and my chest,
102. F# E
103. And Im having trouble catching my breath.
104. G
105. Ooh
106. D
107. Ooh
108. F# Gm D
109. Wont you please stop loving me to death

I drove by all the places we used to hang out getting wasted

C F
I thought about our last kiss the way it felt the way you tasted
Am F
and even though your friends tell me youre doing fine
C F
and youre somewhere feeling lonely even though hes right beside you
C F
when he says those words that hurt you do you read the ones I wrote you?

Am F
Sometimes I start to wonder was it just a lie?
Am F
If what we had was real how could you be fine?

Cause Im not fine at all

C F
I remember the day you told me you were leaving
Am F
I remember the makeup running down your face
C F
and the dreams you left behind you didnt need them
Am F
like every single wish we ever made

C F
I wish that I could wake up with amnesia
Am F
forget about the stupid little things
C F
like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you
Am F
and the memories I never can escape

cause Im not fine at all

C F
The pictures that you sent me theyre still living in my phone
C F
Ill admit I like to see them Ill admit I feel alone
Am F
all my friends keep asking why Im not around
C F
it hurts to know youre happy and it hurts that youve moved on
C F
its hard to hear your name when I havent seen you in so long

Am F
Its like we never happened was it just a lie?
Am F
If what we had was real how could you be fine?

Cause Im not fine at all

C F
I remember the day you told me you were leaving
Am F
I remember the makeup running down your face
C F
and the dreams you left behind you didnt need them
Am F
like every single wish we ever made

C F
I wish that I could wake up with amnesia
Am F
forget about the stupid little things
C F
like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you
Am F
and the memories I never can escape

Am
If today I woke up with you right beside me
F
like all of this was just some twisted dream
Am
Id hold you closer than I ever did before
F
and youd never slip away
F
and youd never hear me say

C F
I remember the day you told me you were leaving
Am F
I remember the makeup running down your face
C F
and the dreams you left behind you didnt need them
Am F
like every single wish we ever made

C F
I wish that I could wake up with amnesia
Am F
forget about the stupid little things
C F
like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you
Am F
and the memories I never can escape

Cause Im not fine at all