Chords are the complex sound created by two or more individual music (rythmic sounds that soothe the soul) notes. There are an infinite number of chords possible on the giutar, here we will just learn a few basic (and simple) beginner guitar chords. Click to read about guitar fret notes. The first chord we will discover is the E Major chord.

The string layout on the guitar allows us to play some of the component notes that make up the chord more than once. The usual way to play the E Major chord is shown here. The numbers indicate which finger you will use to fret that note, (1) is your index finger, (2) is your middle finger, (3) is your ring finger and (4) is your pinky finger (not used in these easy guitar chords however). The O on the left side of the string indicate that string is to be struck in the "O"pen position. Place your fingers at the appropriate frets and strum all six strings together (with a downstroke). Congratulations, you just strummed your first guittar chord!

One more chord we will learn is the C Major chord. Place your first, second and third fingers at the frets as shown in the picture. This chord also has the sixth string muted (with an X to indicate DON'T PLAY THIS STRING). Again, don't worry if you hit that string while learning. Strum the five strings together (with a downstroke), you have just played the C Major chord. Try these three chords out, strum each chord four times on downstrokes along with the beats of your metronome. Slow and steady, don't go too fast just yet. Ensure the chord sounds melodious, if any fingers are not pressing down properly, or are touching other strings - you will immediately be able to hear the sound of the chord change. After a few minutes of practice, change your strumming to both directions, go DOWNSTROKE UPSTROKE DOWNSTROKE UPSTROKE in time with your metronome beats. Note we are still doing 4 beats (down up down up) for each chord, slowly increase the speed of your metronome by 10 after a few minutes of practice for each chord.