Understanding How To Read a Chord Diagram
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The Chord diagram below shows a bar chord. You can tell it is a bar chord because there is a number 5 located to the left of the diagram at the first fret. This number five is letting you know you must begin placing your fingers at the 5th fret of the guitar. |
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In the chord diagram in the above left the 1st string is the smallest string on the guitar and is located on the bottom of the guitar when you are holding the guitar in your lap. The 6th string is the largest string and is the string closest to you when looking down at your guitar. The first parallel line located at the top of the diagram represents the Nut of the guitar the remaining five lines represent the frets on the neck of the guitar. The nut is the place where the strings sit in the grooves directly before the frets on the neck. The numbers inside the red dots signify the fingers of your left hand. The X above the 6th string (E) means you do not play that string in this chord. The O above the 1st string (E) means you strum or pick this this string. The six vertical lines represent the six strings of the guitar and are labeled at the top of the chord diagram. The chord diagram above represents the chord A minor and is considered an open chord. This is considered an open chord because the first and fifth string are not being fretted (held down by any fingers) and are played when strumming or finger picking this chord. Learning how to read these diagrams will help you learn the chords to the songs you love and want to learn on your guitar.
Tips for playing Open Chords
Some things to remember when playing open chords is to be sure the notes held down with your left hand fingers are not touching other strings. Pressing the fretted notes with just the left had fingertips will also help ensure the notes will sound out cleanly. Be very careful not to strum or pick a string that has an X in the diagram, these notes are not played. When first learning how to play a chord, make sure you pick each note starting at the chords root note and strum or pick through the chord to make sure all notes sounds out clearly. If a note does not sound out clearly, look at your fingers and reposition them until each note of the chord sounds out clearly. Over time your fingers will develop calluses and the chords will become easy for you to play. Don't get discouraged!
