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4 Beginner Guitar Chords You Needs to Master This Weekend

To start playing songs on your guitar you’ll want to first learn some of the easy guitar chords available to you. Later on you’ll have a chance to add to your repertoire but for now we’re going to stick with the 4 simplest chords available to you.

The holy grail for the beginner guitarist is being able to get their fingers to go to the right place, apply the right amount of pressure and not accidentally touch adjacent strings. No easy task. On top of that learning how to change from one chord to another and in time with the music is usually enough to send guitars flying. Follow these instructions carefully and you will bypass these obstacles.

I don’t think any guitar lesson is complete without applying the theory to a real world example and a practice routine you can use by yourself. We will cover a simple song using just three of the four chords you are about to learn and I will provide a routine for you to add to your daily, or weekly practice schedule that will help solidify this knowledge.

EMaj Open Chord

The open chord E Major uses all of the strings on your guitar, strum from the top down to the bottom E strings. Place your 1st finger at the 1st fret on the G String, your 2nd finger at the 2nd fret on the A String and your 3rd finger at the 2nd fret on the D String. The Root Note is E which is played as the Open Low E String.

GMaj Open Chord

Place your 1st finger on the 2nd string from the top, 2nd fret. Your 2nd finger on the top string 3rd fret, and your 3rd finger on the bottom string on the 3rd fret.

CMaj Open Chord

The CMaj Open Chord uses the notes C, G and E. The Low E String is not played at all, we start with the A String fretted by your 3rd finger at the 3rd fret to give you the Root Note C, the D String is fretted by your 2nd finger at the 2nd fret to give you an E note, the G String is left open, the B String is fretted by your 1st finger at the 1st fret to give another C. The final High E string is left open.

DMaj Open Chord

Coming down one more string we only play the bottom 4 strings for this chord. Place your 1st finger 4th string down 2nd fret, your 2nd finger on the bottom string 2nd fret and your 3rd finger 5th string down 3rd fret.

Now let’s learn a simple chord progression that you can play as an endless loop for good practice. We’ll be using the I-V-IV turn around progression as seen in Knocking on Heavens Door by Guns N Roses. Start with the GMaj for a count of two beats, move to the DMaj for a count of 2 beats, then the CMaj for a count of 4 beats and finally resolve back to the GMaj and start again.

Now to master your finger positions and changing between the guitar chords. I have simple exercise for you to do over the next 3-4 weeks, depending on your skill level and time commitments. I want you to find a metronome, a backing track or just tap your foot to the count of 4. On each count I want you to strum the E Major Chord, after 4 start back at 1 and change to the G Major Chord, repeat this process with the D and C Major chords until you are doing a full loop back to the E Major.

The key to this practice routine is to change the order of the guitar chords each time you practice it. You might do the same loop for 15 minutes one day, but the next time you come to it try the chords in a different order.

By doing this practice routine consistently you will be increasing your finger strength and flexibility by changing to chords in a different order each day and by spending 10 minutes on this you will increase your muscle memory. Results will appear like magic.

Master the easy guitar chords for beginners under the watchful eye of Adam Summers. Once you’ve completed this lesson, check out the b chord guitar guitar lesson to understand more about this controversial chord.