Everyone wants to get playing straight away. They all want to be able to play their favourite songs. Firstly though, we need to have a look at a few basics chords to get you going.
Now, with youngsters, I prefer to get them playing some simple melodies to start off with before getting stuck into chords. Adults, however, can pretty much get started on some basic chords straight away.
OK, so the first chords to have a look at are 3 main chords that work well together. These three chords are A Major, D Major and E major.
To show these chords,we use ‘chord diagram boxes’ – these show you a type of map of the guitar neck and shows you where to put your fingers. The black circle is placed on the line that represents each string and what fret to play. The number inside the black circle shows you which finger to use. So, here are the three chords:
Learning chords of by heart is a must in order to improve your playing. The best way of doing this is to learn the shapes that they remind you of. People see different shapes, for example, I see the D Major chord as a triangle and the A Major chord as a square. That may seem odd to you, but it makes sense to me personally and helps me to remember them! It is perfectly find for you to have a different method.
OK, so these three chords are great start for you. Feel free to practice these and get used to how they sound. Try strumming them gently and evenly and soon enough, you will get used to not only their sound but how it feels to hold them down.
Nest, you may want to try strumming them into each other. So maybe something like this:
A
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |
Each ‘ / ‘ is showing a downstroke. A downstroke is strumming the guitar with the pick gently pushing through the strings towards the floor.
Each ‘bar’ is strummed four times in a regular beat. Why not try it on D Major and E Major?
That is it for this lesson – before moving on, it is best to learn these off by heart before moving on. Chords are such an important foundation for all songs that learning them is really important before you delve into songs.
These three chords can actually be used in a 12 bar blues. I will write a lesson on this very soon.
