Guitar Chords Lessons

(Scroll down to see the full list of lessons in this section)

A guitar chord is basically a harmonization of notes (3 or more different notes played at the same time). Guitar chords form the basic harmony of music and are hence a very important aspect of playing the guitar.

It is this ability to play chords that gives the guitar flexibility as a solo or an accompaniment instrument as compared to other instruments such as the violin or flute.

Furthermore, anyone can start playing the guitar by learning some simple chords. This is also one of the main reasons why the guitar is such a popular instrument among musicians.

However, in order to gain some mastery in the guitar, it is important to have good foundations and understand how guitar chords are formed.

At GuitarPlayerWorld.com, you’ll not only learn how to play guitar chords but also how to construct your own guitar chords. These guitar lessons will cover essential guitar music theory, practical musical applications and everything you’ll need to know about some of the most fundamental guitar chords. Once you get the hang of basic chords, the later lessons will cover more advanced guitar chords and their applications to more specific genres of music.

If you are learning guitar chords for the first time, you WILL have difficulties in playing chords especially with fingering. Read the guidelines and common mistakes for beginner guitarists to avoid when starting out.

For the rest of you, if you read anything in the lessons that you don’t understand, simply drop a comment in the form below and discuss it with fellow guitarists. Most of the time, you would get a reply from me within 24 hours.

Learn How to Play Guitar Chords | Beginner Guitar Chords Lessons:

1. Major and Minor Guitar Chords - How a Guitar Chord is Formed
   
   A chord is defined as playing 3 or more different notes being played at the same time. Major and minor chords are the most common type of basic guitar chords in music. We will be going through some simple music theory in this lesson in order to understand how basic chords are formed.
2. Seventh Chords on Guitar - Dominant Seventh, Minor Seventh, Major Seventh
   
   The next most common chord types that a guitarist would come across would be the (7th) seventh chords. Basically, seventh chords are comprised of 4 notes and are structured similarly to the major and minor chords.
3. Guitar Power Chords ( Fifth Chords ) - Power Chords Fingering
   
   Power Chords are an important aspect of playing rock/metal guitar and they are probably one the easiest chords to play. These chords are very versatile as they can provide a harmonic texture to most songs and can be played anywhere on the neck of the guitar.
4. Suspended Guitar Chords (Sus Chords)
   
   Suspended chords are commonly denoted as sus2 or sus4. The suspended chord consists of the root note, 5th and the 2nd or 4th. Typically, the 3rd note is substituted by the 2nd or 4th note. Let’s learn how the suspended chords are derived using C major scale.
5. Chord Inversions and Chord Voicings
   
   Basically, guitar chords inversions refer to chords whereby the lowest note (bass note) is NOT the root note of the chord. The most common chord inversions are often referred to as the first inversion, second inversion and third inversion.
6. Major 9th Guitar Chords
   
   The classification of extended chords can be a little tricky and confusing to novice guitarists. The Major 9th guitar chord is no exception.
7. Augmented Chords and Diminished Chords on Guiter
   
   Diminished and augmented chords are often used as passing chords in music. These chords are often followed up by a major or minor chord to resolve their tensive effects and usually used sparingly in music.
8. Learn Compound Chords on Guitar
   
   The idea of a compound chord is easy to grasp - they are simply two chords played together, and will most often be shown in tab or standard notation as a bunch of notes, one on top of the other.
9. Make Guitar Chords Sound Interesting
   
   This article explains how I began to use more complex and harmonious chords, instead of simple major and minor ones. Actually, when I first started doing this, I had no thought on music theory behind most of those chords, nor their names (though, through time I learned them).
10. How to Spice Up Guitar Chords
    
    This is continuation of article explaining how to get to using complex chord through mere practice. In past article, I explained how I look at chord progressions and melody lines. Now, we will look at how to spice up your guitar playing.
11. Making of Chord Extensions
    
    When playing these extra notes, extended chords are formed. They are classed as “extended”, because the second, fourth and sixth notes are normally played in the next octave, thereby creating 9th, 11th and 13th chords.
12. Guitar Chords Lesson: Pop / Rock Chord Progressions
    
    If you know what these Pop / Rock progressions are based on, you will have a much easier time accompanying other musicians, or composing your own songs.
13. Blues Guitar Chord Progressions
    
    Blues chord progressions have a long way of history. This kind of progression began with the Africans in which music was a vital form of expression.
14. Jazz Guitar Chord Progressions
    
    One of the most popular forms of music is jazz. It has roots originating from blues music. But if you want to learn jazz music, it is ideal to know some common jazz chord progressions. There are a bunch of progressions in jazz music.
15. Common Metal Guitar Chord Progressions
    
    If you want to know some common metal chord progressions, then you are on the right place. In this article, you will know several chord progressions commonly used in metal music.
16. Dropped-D Rhythm Guitar Patterns
    
    These examples are all in Dropped-D tuning. For those of you unfamiliar with this tuning, it is similar to normal tuning, except that the low E-string (6th string - the fattest one) is tuned to D (one whole step down).
17. Free Guitar Chord Charts
    
    This article will show you how to make the best use of free guitar chord charts that you can find online.
18. Dominant 7th Guitar Chords
    
    Seventh chords are formed by adding a seventh note to one of the basic triads. Seventh chords are used frequently in Jazz and Blues, as well as modern Rock.
19. Arpeggios: The Art of Broken Chords
    
    Arpeggio’s are, as the title insinuates, chords that are broken. But don’t take the concept literally; you don’t exactly take a chord and smash it to bits on a table to create an arpeggio.

Learn How to Play Chords on the Guitar | Easy Acoustic Guitar Chords Chart