Guitar Chords

"What's a Guitar Chord?"

Guitar Chords are created from individual notes from the fret board that are pieced together to form a colorful sounding multi note called a chord. Each chord has its own individual fingering pattern depending on the position on the fret board. You can play the same guitar chord in many different places along the fret board. A big misconception is that every note within the guitar chord would have the same name as the chord itself (ex. a G chord would be created from all G notes, not true). A chord is created from various notes in the scale of that chord. For Example, C Chord is created from the C major scale. Pretty much everything in music revolves around scales and keys, but we'll get to that later.

! "X" - Don't play string, "0" - play note open !

Major Chords sound happy, Play a C major.... it sounds like a happy sound

Minor Chords are sad, Play an A minor(Am).... it sounds sad or dark compared to a A major (A). 

7th Chords (A7, B7, etc.) are blues chords. They are the foundation for the blues.

Diminished Chords are suspenseful chords.. they leave you in suspense...

Suspended chords (sus) are variations usually of the major chord. The give the chord flavor, and usually require adding or removing a finger from or to the chord. 

Other Guitar Chord Shapes

"Great! What do I do now?"

There's almost an endless supply of guitar chords out there and the ones you should be concerned with right off the bat are the major and minor chords (all the ones listed above). Learn all the major and minor chords that you can and practice them for about 30 minutes a day for about a month and you should get them down.