A Beginning Guitar Tutorial

The Guitar articles on this site use standard graphical chord diagrams. You may already know how to read chord diagrams like this, but just in case you don’t, here’s a quick course in how to read them:

How To Read The Chord Diagram Grid

The grid in the diagram represents part of the guitar neck. A number next to the top left corner indicates the position of the first fret in the diagram. In all of these diagrams, the number is 1, so the first fret shown in the diagram represents the first fret on the guitar.

The vertical lines in the grid represent the guitar strings, from low E (the thickest string) on the left to high E (the thinnest string) on the right. The horizontal lines represent the frets. Black dots represent places where you put your fingers. Above the diagram, an X indicates a string that you don’t play, and an O represents a string that you play “open” or without fretting.

Which Fingers To Use

These diagrams don’t show which fingers to use to fret the strings. It’s usually pretty easy to figure it out, though. Start from the first fret. For any notes fretted at the first fret, use your first available finger to fret the note on the lowest (thickest) string, then use the next available finger to fret the note on the next highest (thinner) string, ans so on until you’ve fretted all the notes that need to be fretted at the first fret. Move to the second fret, and again, fret the note on the lowest (thickest string) with your next available finger, and so on.

An Example

For example, look at the C7 chord (at left). You want to fret one string (the second, or B string) at the first fret, so you use your first finger. One string (the fourth, or D string) needs to be fretted at the second fret, so you use your next available, or second finger. Two strings need to be fretted at the third fret, so you use your third finger for the lower note (the fifth, or A string) and your fourth finger for the higher note (the third, or G string). You don’t play the sixth string at all, and you play the first string open.

This sytem for figuring out which fingers to use is just a rule of thumb (no pun intended); it won’t work for every chord you ever encounter, but it’s a good place to start. An additional rule of thumb that will work in many, but not all instances, is that if there are no notes fretted at the first fret, don’t use the first finger — fret the lowest second fret string with the second finger, and go from there just as with the first rule.

STOP! Before you go any further, make sure that you understand how to read the chord diagrams. Read the previous section again if you need to, and make sure you understand it.