Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar
Edited by Thor, Leomar Umpad, Eng, Crystal
Method 1: (A) Chords
Hello and welcome to VisiHow. Welcome to a series of videos on how to play guitar for the absolute beginner.
Contents
- 1 Steps
- 2 Video: Learn Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar A Chords
- 3 Steps
- 4 Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (B) Chords
- 5 Steps
- 6 Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (C) Chords
- 7 Steps
- 8 Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (D) Chords
- 9 Steps
- 10 Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (E) Chords
- 11 Steps
- 12 Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (F) Chords
- 13 Steps
- 14 Video: Learn Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar G Chords
- 15 Comments
- 16 User Reviews
Steps
- 1In this video, we are going to show you some of the most common A chords.
Advertisement - 2Now that we have learned about the guitar, about the strings and about everything, we are moving to chords now.
Advertisement - 3In this video, we are going to show you three of the most common A chords.
- 4I can show you three of the most common A chords. We can see here on the G string.
- 5As we have talked before about how to find out the exact note of each individual frets.
- 6We can say this is the G string, so the open string is the G.
- 7And then off to G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
- 8We go back to A. There is one gap between G and A.
- 9That means this fret here, the second fret on the G string is an A note.
- 10So the first A chord we are going to look at is A major. Keep that middle finger on the second of the G string.
- 11Then with this finger here, place the index finger on the second fret of the D string.
- 12Then with the ring finger, placed that on the second fret of the B string.
- 13So we got three fingers all on the seconds frets. So it's a bit of a squeeze. You want to try and get them in there as much as possible and give each string a pluck and see how it rings.
- 14If it sounds like this.
- 15You know that does not sound right.
- 16So you put more pressure so that the ring is clear and true.
- 17If it is difficult you can do it in different way. You can put the index finger on the second fret of the G string.
- 18The middle finger on the second fret of the D string.
- 19The ring finger on the second fret of the B string.
- 20You see this is a different pattern. This gives us a bit of groove.
- 21First of all, you want to try and do the other way - the first way I have shown you because that is the way most common way. It allows you easy access to the other chords.
- 22So try and get those fingers in as much as possible behind the fret.
- 23We are going to strum every string - all 6 strings.
- 24So that is the first A that we have, the A major.
- 25Next is the A minor - staying in the same area. We are going to put the index finger on the first fret of the B string.
- 26The middle finger on the second fret of the D string.
- 27And the ring finger on the second fret of the G string.
- 28Okay so give them a pluck.
- 29See how they sound.
- 30Once again, we are going to strum all the 6 strings.
- 31With this chord is a smooth variation. If you take your first finger off, the first fret of the B string, you'll get a different sound there that you can play around with.
- 32You can also move the index finger off and place the little finger on the third fret of the B string. So instead of the first fret to B string, place the finger on the third fret.
- 33I'm just giving you some other variation to play with. Once you are learning this new chord, then you could just play around a bit. Get some intimate sound and be creative in your practices.
- 34The next thing we are going to do is play A7 chord. This is more of a bluesy sound.
- 35It is the same position as the A minor - same thing to the position as you see here. Then, for the little pinky, place that on the third fret of the lower A string.
- 36Do you hear that? That gives more of a bluesy sound.
- 37Now, a different element. You can hear the difference in sound there. The other alternative A7 seven is to place the middle finger on the second fret of the D string and the ring finger on the second fret of the B string.
- 38Just the two fingers there. You can hear that bluesy twang.
- 39That is another popular A chord that you can try and practice.
- 40So to recount we have the A major chord, which is the three fingers on the second frets of the D, G, and B strings.
- 41The A minor, which is to move the index finger to the first fret of the B string. With some alterations and some minor adjustments, take off the index finger.
- 42And we have the A7 which is the A minor with the little finger on the third fret of the E string.
- 43Give that a practice try those different chords out and try to use them with the E chords that we have learned already. So you can have an A minor.
- 44We have an E minor try and just moving the same position. Finger positions moving up one string. You can try and play with them.
- 45Throwing that little finger in the end there gives it a bluesy feel.
- 46So you have been watching a video on the A chords for the guitar. If you have any questions or suggestions you can leave them in the section below, where you will also find a list of the links to the other videos in this series of videos. You have been watching VisiHow, goodbye!
Video: Learn Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar A Chords
Method 2: (B) Chords
Hello and welcome to VisiHow. Welcome to our series of videos on how to learn guitar for the complete beginner. In this video, we are going to show you a couple of B chords. So, no further ado, let's show you.
Steps
- 1The first chord we have is the B major.
Advertisement - 2This is going to be very difficult, considering the other chords we have learned, but give me the go and let's see what happens.
- 3The first thing we do is to make a bar with our index finger. So we are going to bar the second fret - right behind that piece of metal.
- 4The first five strings - not the top E strings. Make a bar - like this. Push down a little pressure. With your thumb at the back, you are going to create a clamp.
- 5Put your thumb at the back flat.
- 6We are going to try and create a clamp so that your index finger is really clamped down on those five strings.
- 7Then with the middle finger. We are going to place that in the third strings. The third fret of the B string.
- 8We are going to place the ring finger on the fourth fret of the D string.
- 9And also, the pinky of the fourth fret of the G string.
- 10We are trying to make this kind of pattern. As you can see here, this kind of pattern. Try to keep your finger straight in the straight line so you do not bend it. This is a very hard one
- 11Then, we could strum it.
- 12So that we can here what is wrong.
- 13This is a hard chord play. This guitar requires a lot of practice.
- 14Get your fingers loosen up. Stretch into those sessions. Apply enough power to hold down the strings so they are not bending, fracturing around and not loose.
- 15The next chord we have for you is the B7. As I said, it is a bluesy kinda chord and to make that we are going to place our index finger on the first fret of the D string.
- 16The middle finger goes on the second fret of the A string.
- 17The ring finger goes on the second fret of the G string.
- 18And the pinky goes on the second fret of the E string, right at the bottom.
- 19I'll be playing this all together. Hear that bluesy twang.
- 20There you go. There is two B chords for you to practice. They are both quite difficult but try to practice them. Try integrate and incorporate them into you practices and your jamming and try and use them with the other chords.
- 21So we have the B - the B major.
- 22Then, the B7 - it's always nice with the A major.
- 23So this has been a video on the B chord for your guitar - your electric or acoustic guitar. If you have anymore questions or suggestion about this video, please leave them in the section below. You will also find the links to the other videos in this series so check them out and see what's happening with them. You have been watching VisiHow, goodbye!
Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (B) Chords
Method 3: (C) Chords
Hello and welcome to VisiHow. Welcome to our series of videos on how to play the guitar for the complete beginner.
Steps
- 1As you have seen on the previous videos, we are now working with some guitar chords. We've looked at A and E. In this video, we are going to look at the C chords. We can find the root of the C chord is so cool because of the C note.
2
We can find the A string which is the fifth string - so this is an open A.
3
And we are going to find B - so B is one step after. We already talk about this process in previous videos on how to discover the note from each fret. B is here, and there is no gap between B and C - no breaks.
4
This is the C root - third fret of the A string.
5
This is the C note and from this note we can make the C chord. C chord is very popular on a lot of popular music.
6
To make the C chord we are going to put the ring finger on the third fret of the A string.
7
Then with the middle finger, we are going to place that on the second fret of the D string.
8
Then the index, we are going to place on the first fret of the B string.
9
So just like all the other chord we have practice try and keep your fingers as close to the fret as possible - just behind the fret. With this chord, we do not strum the top string. The E string - we don't strum this. So, we are going to give each string a strum, but not the top E string. There it goes. It's a very popular chord.
10
We can get some variation with this code by taking our index finger off the string.
11
That is just the way to get a little bit variation while we are learning about chords and practicing. Another form of variation is that we can put the pinky finger on the third fret of the B string. Give that a sound. Give that a strum.
12
You can see these three different ways you can play this. This is the C chord -the first one I showed you.
13
And the other two is taking off the index finger or put the pinky finger on the third fret of the B string.
14
That is just the variation. You can just play around with and see what sounds good. You can add just a bit of variety while you are new to the guitar.
15
If we want, we can also add variations while using this C major which is the first one that I showed you - the C major. With the index finger on the first fret on the string.
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The middle finger on the second fret of the D string.
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And the ring finger on the third fret of the A string.
18
You can also put the pinky the little finger on the third fret of the E string.
19
So there you go. Add a different element.
20
That is the C chord, C major and C major with some variations. Try moving the index finger around. Keep this two fingers in that position.
21
Try moving these two fingers around to create some variation sound.
22
The other option we have is to create a C7 chord, which is the bluesy strum. To do that that we make the C major again. Then with the pinky, place that on the first fret of G string.
23
You hear it's sound. It's very twangy. It sounds like different. Try not to play the top E strings as well - do not play that.
24
That is the other chord I am showing you today - the C7.
25
So, this has been a video on how to play the C major chord and the C7 chord, with some variations formed in there to make it a bit more exciting. Practice this and see what you can create. Try and use this with the other chords that we have already shown you and see what you can create and experiment. Just have fun and enjoy and see what materializes.
26
If you have any questions or suggestions about this video, then please leave them in the section below where you can also find the links to the other videos in this beginners series. You have bee, watching VisiHow, goodbye!
Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (C) Chords
Method 4: (D) Chords
Hello and welcome to VisiHow. Welcome to our series on how to play guitar for the complete beginner.
Steps
- 1In this video, we are going to show you some D chords. So the D chord and the D major can be found at the bottom of the strings.
- 2We are going to find the D root - the D root with the B string.
- 3B string is here.
- 4And we have B and C. We already talk about this on other videos about how to find the note in each fret so check out those videos.
- 5Talking about frets and so we have B. Then, we go straight from B to C there is no gap.
- 6This is C and there is gap between C and D.
- 7The third fret of the B string is the D root
- 8We can play the D major chord by putting the index finger on the second fret of the G string.
- 9The middle finger is on the second fret of the lower E string.
- 10We are going to place the ring finger on the D root. D root is the third fret of the B string.
- 11So it should look something like this. That is clear.
- 12So here...
- 13...here,
- 14...and here
- 15Now, we can strum it so make sure we press it down correctly. Get those fingers as close to the fret as possible.
- 16That sound pretty good. With this chord, we do not play the top two strings - the E and A (we don't play these). We are just going to strum from the third string down.
- 17There are variations we can make with this D major chord. For example, we can take off our middle finger and place the little finger on the third fret of the E string.
- 18You can hear what it is like when I alternate between them. Also, we can take both of these fingers off and just have these two fingers here.
- 19That's some variation. Also, we can do this variation which is just to the have the index finger on the second fret of the G string.
- 20And the middle finger on the second fret of the E string.
- 21So those are the different variations we can do with D major.
- 22Next, we have the D7. To make the D seven we are gong to put the index finger on the first fret of the B string - here.
- 23We can put the middle finger on the second fret of the G string here.
- 24The ring finger on the second fret of the lower E string.
- 25We give that a pluck.
- 26Like all 7's, it is a bit of bluesy chord.
- 27That is alternating between D major and D7.
- 28Now, we can look at the D minor. We are going to place our index finger on the first fret of the E string - the bottom here
- 29The middle finger on the second fret of the G string.
- 30The ring finger on the third fret of the B string. Spread out like this. This is a mournful chord. You can hear the mourn from this.
- 31When you are playing this chord a little trick to variation is to leave off the index finger. You can hear the pulsating mourn.
- 32That's some variations on the different D chords that you can try and experiment with. Practice them. Move them right.
- 33To recap them once more, we have the D major here, the second fret of the G string, second fret of the E string and the third fret of the B string. We have different variations of that.
- 34We have the D7 which is first fret of the B string, second fret of the G string and second fret of the E string.
- 35Finally, we have the D minor chord - the first fret of B string, second fret of G string and the third fret of the E string.
- 36So play with it. Experiment and see what you can discover. Try and prove. Also, try and combine them with other chords that we have talked about in other videos.
- 37D.
- 38D major...
- 39...to the A minor.
- 40C major.
- 41Experiment again and see what you can create and enjoy yourself. You have been watching a video on the D major chord, D minor chord, and D7 chord. If you have any more questions and suggestions please leave them in the section below where you can also find the links to the other videos in these series - check them out. I hope you can carry on progressing and evolving your guitar mastery. You have been watching VisiHow, goodbye!
Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (D) Chords
Method 5: (E) Chords
Hello, welcome to VisiHow. In this series of videos, we are showing you how to play the acoustic guitar for a complete beginner. In this video, we're going to focus on the E chord and different variations of the E chord.
Steps
- 1To play the E chord, put the index finger on the second fret of the fifth (A) string.
- 2Put the middle finger on the second fret of the fourth (D) string. That's the E major chord.
- 3If you want to play the E minor chord, we're just going to place the index finger on the first fret of the third (G) string, the middle finger on the second fret of the fifth (A) string, and place the ring finger on the second fret of the fourth (D) string. Strum all of the strings. That is the E minor.
- 4If we take off the index finger, we have the E major again. Those are the two most common E chords.
- 5We can play an E7. While in the position of E minor, put the pinky on the third fret of the second string (B). This has a nice bluesy sound.
- 6You can also play an E7 by putting the middle finger on the second fret of the fifth (A) string and place the index finger on the third fret of the third (G) string. It's just those two.
- 7These are three of the most common E chords. E major, E minor and E7. Play around with them and get your fingers comfortable with that. You can check out the other videos in this guitar series to learn more. If you have and comments or questions, leave them in the comment section below.
Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (E) Chords
Method 6: (F) Chords
Hello and welcome to VisiHow. Welcome to our series of videos on how to learn guitar for the complete beginner.
Steps
- 1In this video, we are going to show you how to play a couple of F chords. F chords are very difficult. After learning the A chords and the C chords that were showed on the other videos, you will always come across an F. As you start learning songs and when they start that F fret, it becomes so much harder than the other chords.
- 2It is a power chords - this version of F, the F major. You have to bar all of the strings on the first fret. So as if your finger was a piece of metal like a capo, you want to stick on there and squeeze it tight.
- 3Use your thumb here to really squeeze that tight.
- 4All the strings should ring clear when you strum them. It is a very hard chord to play.
- 5One is going to require a lot of practice. So that is the first stage, you should bar all the first frets.
- 6The middle finger goes on the second fret of the G string.
- 7The ring finger goes on the third fret of the A string.
- 8And the little finger goes on the third fret of the D string.
- 9So, that is the F major chord.
- 10To play an F7 chord, we are just going to take off the little finger.
- 11If we want to play an F minor chord we can just take off the middle finger.
- 12That is the F chord - F major, F minor and F7 chord. There is an alternative way to play the F chord. Simply what the people use when they are learning to play the guitar and they just starting off like you are- that is to bar with this index finger.
- 13Only bar the bottom two strings E and B.
- 14Bar them with your index finger. Then, place the middle finger on the second fret on the G string.
- 15The third finger - the ring finger is placed on the third fret of the D string.
- 16We are just going to strum the bottom 4 strings: D, G, B, and E. Just strum the bottom 4.
- 17Pluck each one of them to see how well they ring.
- 18That is an alternative way to play the F chord - the F major chord.
- 19Give them a practice. See how they feel and see. Don't worry about not being able to get this chord straight away. You are going to want to practice more of the C chords and A chords and move on to F chord as you get better - your fingers gets stronger and more agile.
- 20If you have any questions or suggestions about this video, then please leave them in the section below. Where you also find the links to the other videos in this series. So go and have a look at and see how they can help you. You have been watching VisiHow, goodbye!
Video: Learn the Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar (F) Chords
Method 7: (G) Chords
Hello! Welcome to VisiHow. Welcome to our series on how to play guitar for the complete beginner. In this video, we are going to be focusing on the G chord and the G7 chord.
Steps
- 1To find the root of the G chord, we are going to look at the top E string. Moreover, we can find E chord because after E come F. So this is E opening. After E comes F. There's no space between E and F. We've talked about this process before in other videos, so check them out if you are not quite sure what I am talking about. You can find links with them in the section below this video.
- 2There's only one space between E and F and also B and C., So we go from E straight to F, it is at the first fret of the E string.
- 3There's one space between F and G., So we are going to jump one space to G.
- 4This fret here is the G root. This is where we are going to base our chords around. To make a G chord, also one of the most common chords used in popular music. We can put the index finger on the second fret of the A string.
- 5Moreover, we can place the middle finger on the third fret of the E string right at the top. Get an excellent blues bend in there.
- 6So then with the ring finger, we are going to place that on the third fret of the lower E string. Right at the bottom, on the third fret.
- 7So now this is our position, and this is the G chord, G major. So we are going to strum each string individually just make short sounds okay. Sounds all right. So this is the G chord. We can strum a bit.
- 8One form of variation we can add is to take off the ring finger. So place it one fret higher or one string higher on the third fret of the B string. So then place the little finger on the third fret of the E string, the lower E string.
- 9So now we got all four fingers on the strings in the positions I've told you, and we are going to strum this. Also, then I am going to go back the G major.
- 10That is the G major with the variation.
- 11Next we can also make a G7 chord.
- 12To do that, we are going to place our index finger on the first fret of the lower E string under the bottom. Then our second fret, our middle finger on the second fret of the A string. Here. So then ring finger right at the top on the third fret of the E string. So this, the G7 also gives us a little bluesy sound. We can listen to the difference between standard G major chord.
- 13I am going to put my pinky here on the third fret of the E string. You can alternate between them as a form of practice.
- 14This has been a video on how to play the G major chord. Also, variation by moving your fingers between the E and B strings and also how to play an E7. So experiment with them. Play some stuff, use some other chords we've learned from other videos and try some variations. See how it sounds, try some different strumming patterns, explore, experiment and enjoy and see what you can create, or you can discover. You've been watching a video on the G, G major and G7 chords. If you have any questions or suggestions then please leave them in the section below. You can also find the links to the other videos in this series. So please have a gander with them. You've been watching VisiHow.
Video: Learn Basic Chords on an Acoustic Guitar G Chords
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