Electric Guitar Lesson 06 - Chord Charts

With any new hobby, there are a handful of skills you need to know before you can start to learn about that hobby. In instruments that skill may be reading music or fingering charts so you know what fingers to use to play what notes. On the guitar, you must know how to read chord and scale charts. These charts tell you where to put your fingers and what strings to play in order to play a chord or scale. The two charts look different, so you will need to know how to read both. Let's look at chord charts first.

Chord Charts

Instead of writing out “index finger, first fret, 6th string; ring finger, 3rd fret, 5th string” we can just throw up a chart and say a paragraph of words in a shortchart. Look at a chart first and then read the explanation.

 

This is the chart for G major. This is the typical GLI chord chart. Starting at the top it says “Gmaj.” This is just the name of the chord. It can say Cmaj, Cm, Dmaj7 or any other combination of chord names. Next there are a few circles. These mean that the strings they represent are played open instead of fretted. If the string was not played, there would be an X instead. Under the circles, there is a line that goes all the way across the chart from left to right, this stands for the nut of the guitar, meaning that the chord is played on the first few frets and not on the 5th or 7th fret. There is also a number one to the left of the chart to state the same.

Now for the grid: there are 6 vertical lines to represent each of the 6 strings. From left to right, the lines stand for E, A, D, G, B, E. There are also horizontal lines to represent the frets. The very top line of the grid is not used. In this case, it represents the nut of the guitar. In between the lines is the area between the frets, where you put your fingers to play a note. There are a total of 5 frets on this chart, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th frets. The black circles show where to put your fingers on the fretboard. The numbers inside the circle show what finger is recommended: 1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = pinky, and sometimes a T may be used for the thumb.

The first black circle shows to put your middle finger on the low E string, 3rd fret.

The second black circle signals the index finger on the A string, 2nd fret.

Likewise the ring finger is on the high E string, 3rd fret.

Since there are circles above the 3rd, 4th, and 5th vertical lines, you will play the D, G,, and B strings open, unfretted. Remember, if there is an X above the lines, it means do not play the strings at all. Let's look at some more simple chords. These are the first few chords that any beginner learns.

Examples

This is a Cmaj chord. Notice the large X above the E string; you could play the E string open since E is in the chord of Cmaj, but it is recommended that you don’t play the low E string open. Also note the numbers in the black circles and how they have changed compared to the Gmaj chord. This will give the Cmaj chord a different shape. 

 

Dmaj is another popular chord for anyone. Notice below the charts that there are note names. These tell us what individual notes are being played on the respective strings to create the Dmaj chord.