The first thing to know about guitar chords is, even with the most basic ones, there are some that are really simple and some that are really hard.
We’re going to start with easy guitar chords, and work our way up to harder and harder ones.
What makes guitar chords hard or easy basically depends on what kind of shape you have to put your hand into.
If you’ve picked up and played your guitar at all now, you probably know that your hands and fingertips start to hurt very quickly when you play.
Which is fine. They’ll start to feel better over time, the more you do it. You will build up that finger strength and you’ll get calluses on your fingertips which make playing really easy eventually.
But to begin with, so you can start playing something easy and simple right away, I’m going to show you the two easiest guitar chords out there.
The first one is the easiest. This is called E minor (Em). It looks like this:
And if you’re familiar with tablature (don’t worry if you’re not, that’s another lesson for another day!), it looks like this:
---0------0---
---0---
---2---
---2---
---0---
To play the Em chord, put your middle finger on the 5th string behind the 2nd fret. Then put your ring finger on the 4th string behind the 2nd fret. Strum all six strings. And there you have the Em chord.
Keep playing and strumming the chord for a little while. Try playing at different speeds and different rhythms.
When you’re ready and you feel like you’ve practiced the Em chord enough, here’s the second easy guitar chord for you. It’s called A minor (Am), and it looks like this:
In tablature form, the Am chord looks like this:
---0---
---1---
---2---
---2---
---0---
---x---
To play this chord, put your middle finger on the 4th string behind the 2nd fret. Then put your ring finger on the 3rd string behind the 2nd fret. Finally, put your index finger on the 2nd string behind the 1st fret.
You’ll notice that this chord is a lot like the Em chord. It’s just moved over 1 string, and you’re now using your index finger to hold down a string too.
Practice playing and strumming this chord for awhile. Strum at different speeds and at different rhythms.
When you’re comfortable playing the Am chord too, now it’s time to try playing both of them back to back.
Start with the Em chord, playing it 4 times. Now form the Am chord and play this 4 times too. Although it sounds like a sad song, it sounds pretty good together doesn’t it? This is called a chord progression.
Practice switching back and forth between these chords over and over again. And take your time with it. When you’re first getting started, it will probably take you several seconds to switch between chords because your fingers aren’t used to making these shapes. That’s just fine. At the start the goal is to play with accuracy and precision. Not speed. Speed will come with practice, but for right now don’t worry about speed at all.
Practice playing these chords over and over again. Play them for several days in a row. Although your mind might start getting bored with this, it’s good work for your body. As you do this day after day, your fingers will become more and more used to forming these shapes and switching between the different chords faster and faster. Remember, patience is a big key here.
But just because you need patience doesn't mean you have to settle for mediocre results from your guitar playing. I would love to put together a comprehensive resource for beginning guitar players like yourself, but quite frankly, I don't have the time and money for that right now. However, I've found a great guitar-learning resource at a very reasonable price. It's called Jamorama, and I highly recommend that you take a look at it. You can find it here.
In the meantime, keep practicing your Em and Am chords, and be sure to check back here for more easy guitar chords.
