THE BASICS OF GUITAR PLAYING:

OPEN-POSITION CHORDS

Now that you know how to begin playing the guitar, we're going to start actually playing the guitar in this section. Yay! The most basic thing about playing are the open-position guitar chords. For musical beginners in general, a chord in musical terms is a group of particular notes that are played together, or at the same time, to produce a certain harmonized sound. Chords are also used on the piano as we know it. But why are these guitar chords that we're learning called open-position chords? Well, it because these chords are played using only the first 3 frets of the guitar, and have at least one open string played, meaning that at least one string is played without pressing on a fret.

First, you must be able to read chord diagrams. Here's the A Major chord that I'll be using to demonstrate how to read chord diagrams. It's a fairly easy open-positioned chord that you can play.

So first is first, this chord here is an A Major chord since the letter above the chord diagram is well, an A. If the chord is a Major chord, it is just written with its letter/key. If the chord is a minor, it is written with whatever key/letter it is and a lower case "m" next to it.

Next, the grid below the chord key (the letter) is a diagram the of the fretboard. Again, since we're only learing how to play open-position chords, the frets on the diagram always range from fret 1 to fret 4. Also keep in mind that the 6 vertical lines on the grid are the 6 guitar strings on the guitar; the 6th string on the left and the 1st string on the right. In addition, the nut is at the up edge of the diagram, and it is always represented as a thicker, or double line than those representing the frets.

The dots on the fretboard diagram show you which areas your fingers of your left hand should to be, while the numbers tell you which specific fingers are supposed to press behind these frets. Your index finger is #1, middle finger is #2, ring finger is #3, pinkie is #4, and the thumb is supposed to be holding up the guitar behind the guitar neck. In this case, to play the open-position A major chord, you would place your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers all on the second fret, with the 1st finger on the 4th string, the 2nd finger on the 3rd string, and the 3rd finger on the 2nd string.

High Five! :)

Then, there are those x's and o's above the fretboard (grid). These tell you which strings to strum. The "x" means "Don't play this string when strumming the chord", while the "o" means "Yes! Strum that string with all the other strings to make the chord sound pretty!" It's obvious that you have to strum the strings where your fingers are pressing on, so those "tic-tac-toe" marks are only up on the strings that don't have your fingers being pressed on. It's usually the low E string in which you don't play in chords that have an "x" on the spot, like the A Major chord.

X= don't play

O= play

Open-Position Chords

On some chord diagrams, they have additional things to them. Here, take a look at this chord diagram for the chord G Major:

R 5

See the "R" and the "5" on the diagram? Some chord diagrams have these symbols on to further specifiy how to play the chord. The "R" represents the "root" of the chord, which is the basis of the chord and carries the chord letter's name, for chord groups such as G Major, G minor, and G7. The "R" is labeled right below the string that is the chord's root (obviously), and in some cases, like the G Major chord shown above, the root of the chord is not on the G string, but rather on the low E string. Why? It's because the finger pressing the 3rd fret of the E string creates a G note and that is the basis of the chord!

And now you know how to read basis chord diagrams, meaning that you can start learning how to play some chords! YAY! Here are some recordings of 15 of some easy, open-position guitar chords. Have fun! ***\(^_^)/ ***