Beginner Guitar Chords: 14 Essential Chords

Want to know how to play beginner guitar chords? We’re going to show you 14 essential chords for beginners.

In this free guitar lesson you will learn:

• 14 super-easy beginner guitar chords which will make you sound amazing.
• The no1 secret to learning guitar chords FAST.
• 5 essential tips that will accelerate your guitar progress.
• 3 chord hacks which will help you master chords.

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Sometimes open chords can be difficult to play. The quickest way to accelerate your guitar progress is to learn easy chords first. Let’s go through 14 of the best beginner guitar chords.

Beginner Guitar Chords #1 The E Minor Chord

This chord is essential for any beginner guitarist to learn. Here’s why:

• It comes up in hundreds of songs.
• It’s easy to play as it only uses two fingers.
• It sounds amazing!

To play this chord:

• Place your first finger on the 2nd fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Place your second finger on the 2nd fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Strum all the strings.

Pro Guitar Tip!

It’s important that you use the correct fingers on each string. This makes fretting chords easier.

The numbers within the circle in a chord box, represent your fingers.

For example in the Em chord you have:

• A number ‘1’ on the 2nd fret of the A string. (5th string.) This means that you must use your 1st finger.
• A number ‘2’ on the 2nd fret of the D string. (4th string.) This means that you must use your 2nd finger.

Here’s a diagram for reference:

To learn more about how to read guitar chords, go here: How To Read Guitar Chords: An Essential Guide

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Beginner Guitar Chords #2 The ‘G6’ Chord

This beginner guitar chords is perfect for new guitarists. Here’s why:

• It only uses two fingers.
• It’s the main chord in the key of G. (The key of ‘G’ crops up ALL the time in music.)
• It’s easy and sounds amazing.

To learn more about the key of G, go here: Understanding Chords In The Key Of G

• Place your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret of the low E string. (6th string.)
• Place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Strum all the strings!

Beginner Guitar Chords #3 The ‘C Major 7’ Chord

This chord has a fantastic jazzy sound to it and is perfect if you want to add character to a chord progression.

The C major 7 chord is very popular and pops up frequently in music. You can use this chord instead of a regular C chord.

To learn a C chord, go here: Easy Ways To Play The C Guitar Chord

• Place your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret o the D string. (4th string.)
• Strum from the A string!

It sounds like this:

Bonus Tip!

The C major 7 chord uses the EXACT same shape as the G6 chord. However the C major 7 starts on the A string.

This means that they are perfect for practicing chord changes.

Try this as an exercise:

• In your own time, change between G6 and C major 7.

Once you’ve got this down:

• Play a G6 for 4 beats and then play a C major 7 for 4 beats. Repeat this until you can do it with out thinking.

If you fancy a challenge, try add a strumming pattern into this chord change. Learning how to strum is the secret to sounding musical.

You can learn how to strum here: How To Strum A Guitar

Beginner Guitar Chords #4 The ‘Dsus2’ Chord

This is a really useful beginner guitar chords to learn. This is because, this chord works over a D major and a D minor chord.

If you find those chords difficult, you can use this one instead.

Finding this chord difficult? Go here: 3 Easy Ways To Play The D Chord On Guitar

• Place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the G string. (3rd string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the B string. (2nd string.)
• Strum from the D string. (4th string.)

The hardest part about this chord is strumming for the D string. This is difficult because you have to skip the ‘E’ and ‘A’ string.

Learn how to master this technique here: How To Skip Strings While Strumming

Bonus Tip!

All of the chords in this free guitar lesson are ‘stepping-stone chords’. Stepping-stone chords are easier versions of more complex chords.

Here are some classic examples of stepping-stone chords:

Notice how the stepping-stone versions use less fingers.

Why do I need to know stepping-stone chords? Can’t I just learn the hard ones first?

Learning easier chords first is the quickest way to accelerate your guitar progress.

Think of it like this:

If you were training for a marathon, you wouldn’t start your training by running 26 miles. You would start with 2-3 miles and gradually build up the distance until you reached your goal.

This is the exact same when you’re learning guitar chords. Don’t start with the hard ones. Begin with easy chords, this enhances your dexterity and technique and makes learning the guitar far easier.

To learn more easy chords, go here: 14 Easy Guitar Chords For Beginners