Acoustic Guitar Chords – From A to G

No matter what type of guitar you are playing – electric, acoustic, steel, or acoustic electric – chords remain relatively the same. However, since chords are the heart of acoustic guitar playing, there is still a great deal to learn. This article will discuss chord basics, chord progression, and chord chart basics, as well as how a chord chart works.

First, think of any song played by any acoustic guitar artist you can think of. Now, think of the part played near the beginning of the song that sounds like multiple notes strummed in one stroke. What is that part of the song that sticks in your head? Usually, it is known as an acoustic guitar chord. Below is an illustration of what a chord looks like on a guitar tab (a guitar tab is music written where the lines represent the strings and the numbers represent the frets):

This chord tablature is an excerpt from the acoustic guitar player Jack Johnson’s song, “Do You Remember” (located on ultimate-guitar.com). As you can see, the chords are listed above the tab, starting with a G major chord and a D major chord. Tabs will not always list the chords at the top, but the tab is a keeper if it does. If you need any help reading tablature, see the article on guitar tabs for beginners (Click here to go to the Guitar Tabs article).

Now that you understand chord basics, you might be asking yourself, what is chord progression? Chord progression is simply a series of chords played in a particular order. Another term closely related to chord progression is chord change; this is how the artist switches from one chord to another chord. The guitar tab shown above is one example of chord progression. Jack Johnson plays a few notes before leading into a chord.

A different way of writing chords is in a chord chart. An example of a chord chart follows (a full chord chart would not fit here because there are too many chords to be posted, but this gives you the general idea):

The chord chart posted on the left is only a handful of the “A” chords. There are at least another 30 “A” guitar chords, and there are just as many chords for each note, A – G. It is astounding how many guitar chords are possible with a single guitar.

Chord charts are simple to read. From left to right, the vertical lines represent the strings (low e to high E); the horizontal lines represent the frets, and directly transpose over to the fretboard. Think of the chord chart as though it were laid out on the fret board; it matches perfectly, and was designed to be that simple! If chords still look like an alien or foreign language, see the article, available on this site, packed to the brim with information about how to read guitar chords (Click here to go to the Guitar Chords article).

As far as chords are concerned, acoustic guitar chords are nothing new to guitar, but they are the basis for acoustic guitar playing. Popular players like Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Damien Rice, and Oasis play their songs based around chords. All of the listed artists and bands focus on mellow music, and the chord playing represents their lyrics perfectly. To become a master guitar player, it is essential that you, too, understand chords.