When you first start playing guitar, chords can be complicated. We must remember where each finger goes, try not to mute anything, push down hard enough to make sounds, and coordinate with our right hand to play the correct strings. Unfortunately, playing chords takes some practice. Fortunately, we’ve got a few tricks to make the jump into chord playing a little easier.
4 Most Common Guitar Chords
The four most common guitar chords are G major, D major, E minor, and C major. When we play these chords in the above order, we get a pretty sweet I–V–vi–IV chord progression. You might wonder: what the heck is an I–V–vi–IV chord progression? These roman numerals represent the order of the chords in scales where the lowercase letters represent minor chords, and the uppercase letters represent major chords. In our major scale, that’s I-ii-iii-IV-V-vi-vii° (the dot above the 7th chord means diminished, but for now you can just think of it as a minor).
You can apply this scale to any major key but for now, we’ll stick with G major. In the key of G major, the chords in order are Gmaj, Amin, Bmin, Cmaj, Dmaj, Emin, and F#dim(or F#min).
Chord Progression
You can play any of the chords in any order and you’ll be rockin’ right away, but there are chord progressions to help guide you toward the best sounds. Chord progressions tell a story through music and they help us to write songs. For example, the I-V-vi-IV progression in G major is used in the song “When I come around” by Green Day.
If you’ve never played a chord before, these 4 chords are excellent to start with. Let’s begin with G major. On the chord chart below, you’ll see the image of a guitar neck with 6 strings. The string farthest to the left is the low E string or the 6th string. The 6th string is the one closest to your face while playing. Going in order, the 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings are next. These strings are also called the A string, D string, G string, B string, and high E string.
You’ll also notice on the chord chart some numbers. These numbers represent your fingers.
1- Pointer Finger
2- Middle Finger
3- Ring Finger
4- Pinky
It’s important to use the correct finger as it will make the chords easier to play. You’ll also notice there are some X’s and O’s on the chord chart. The X indicates that the string is NOT played in the chord, while the O indicates that the string IS played in the chord.
Starting with the G major chord, our ring finger is on the 3rd fret 6th string, our middle finger is on the 2nd fret 5th string, and our pinky is on the 3rd fret 1st string. In this chord, you can strum through all the strings. It’s important to remember that playing chords takes practice. Focus on each individual string until you can hear each note. Make sure your fingers create a “claw” shape and the string rests below your fingernail. If your hand lays too flat, you’ll likely mute the other strings. The tops of your fingers need to be perpendicular to the string. If you find that any string isn’t making a sound, look closely at where your other fingers might be muting that string. Keep trying until every string plays a note.
Beginner Guitar Chords
Do not forget about your thumb! Your thumb provides support and allows your other fingers to push down on the strings without pushing the guitar toward you. Thumbs come in all shapes and sizes and the best thumb positioning is up to you! If you’re playing open chords, like the ones we have gone over here, I recommend keeping your thumb at the top of the back of the neck. Keeping your thumb mostly vertical will give you the support you need to push down on the frets. See the picture below as an example. If you find your thumb is too big or too small, try moving it lower or higher. Guitar playing is not one size fits all and you will need to find the best thumb position for you.
You can apply this same technique to all the chords in the chart below. To start, focus on the chords we discussed here: G major, D major, E minor, and C major. Once you can play each chord, you can practice switching from one chord to another. With some practice, you’ll be playing the I-V-vi-IV chord progression in no time.
G-Major | D-Major | E-minor
C-Majords
