Diagram of an Electric Guitar

Hey everyone else! These days we’re gonna have a look at 5 standard open-string chords regarding the guitar which you can use to play a large number of popular and simple guitar songs. I’ll demonstrate tips review electric guitar chord grids, and provide you with great tips on memorizing and playing these important 5 guitar chord forms. We’ll also take a look at a chord-change exercise that may help you get your chord playing chops up to speed in no time.

We. Chord-Grid Notation Explained
Alongside guitar tablature (or ‘tabs’), chord grids are an essential shorthand method of notating guitar songs. Although it is essential for many guitar students to eventually learn to review songs notation, tablature and chord grids are an improved selection for newbies who simply want to learn simple stone, pop music or folk songs rapidly (with no hassles of spending half a year just mastering the notation). Keep in mind, the notation is simply a means to a finish, and just another way to understand anything you’ll play on your guitar.

With chord-grids, you are looking for a straightforward drawing, or snapshot, of this guitar throat. A guitar is oriented so the headstock is pointing up, horizontal outlines represent the fret-wires that separate the frets (rooms), plus the vertical outlines tend to be strings.

Dots within the diagram represent left-hand fingers, that are placed on the sequence in the indicated fret. For ‘A’ chord pictured here, all three fingers sit within the 2nd fret. Set your fourth (pinky) little finger on 2nd sequence, your third (ring) little finger from the third string, as well as your 2nd (center) little finger in the 4th string.

Usually the left-hand flash will remain anchored above the neck to deaden the 6th sequence. This might be known as a flesh mute and enables the guitarist to strum all six strings so only five strings tend to be heard.

II. The 5 important Open-String Guitar Chords (memorize these!)

III. Methods for Memorizing and Playing Chords
Once you understand the notation, the next phase is to get the chords down by memory. In many cases, the chords may be remembered quickly by researching them to geometric forms. If you link the dots inside each grid, you’ll see that the ‘A’ is a straight line, the ‘C’ is a diagonal range, the ‘D’ is an equilateral triangle, and also the ‘G’ chord kinds an isosceles triangle.

After you have the chords memorized, it’s time for you check each chord string-by-string to make sure all the records tend to be sounding. Choose through each sequence going downward through the bass strings toward treble strings. Tune in closely to verify each note. If a string is muted, decide to try resetting the hands so they really sit higher from the fingertips. Ensure that the hands do not touch against any open strings, thus dampening them.

IV. Chord Change Drills

Rehearse switching between any two chords applying this quick drill. Enjoy each chord on beats 1 & 3, lift the fingers completely on beats 2 & 4, and repeat. Ensure that you set and remove most of the hands collectively (simultaneously). This way for a few minutes every day, you will learn doing quickly and clean chord changes in the left-hand, the key to playing chord tracks really.

V. 20 Common Guitar Songs Only Using A, C, D, Em, and G
Now that you’ve learned these crucial chords, you'll move on to learning a great deal of tracks. Here’s a summary of 20 simple electric guitar tracks which use just these chords:

1. Bad Moon Increasing (Credence Clearwater Revival)

2. Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles)

3. Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)

4. Catch the Wind (Donovan)

5. Clementine (trad.)

6. Nice Residence Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

7. Softly line (trad.)

8. Amazing Grace (trad.)

9. Time of Your Lifetime (Green Day)

10. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Celebrity (trad.)

11. Heart of Silver (Neil Teenage)

12. Old MacDonald (trad.)

13. Tale of My Entire Life (Personal Distortion)

14. Louie, Louie (The Kingsmen)

15. The Thing I Got (Sublime)

16. No-cost Fallin’ (Tom Petty)

17. Something, Any Such Thing (Dramarama)

18. Rockin’ in complimentary World (Neil Young)

19. Mary Had just a little Lamb (trad.)

20. Viva la Vida (Coldplay)

Kevin B. is a bass electric guitar and acoustic guitar instructor based in Los Angeles Crescenta, CA. He's got been a guitar player for 26 years, and is a specialist generally in most electric guitar and electric bass designs, including stone (alternative, classic, rockabilly and material), blues, people, traditional and country designs.