When we start to learn guitar the thing on our minds is almost always chords. We want to learn to play songs that we know and we know that learning to play chords is what will get us there.

Today I’m going share with you some beginner guitar chords you can learn quickly. All three of these chords are three string chords, meaning they only require you to strum 3 strings and that’s it. So lets get going.

C Chord

E — 0 —
B — 1 —
G — 0 —
D — X —
A — X —
E — X —

A quick note about what the guitar tab means above. The X’s mean you do not strum that string, the 0′s mean to play that string open and a number refers to a particular fret that you press when strumming the 3 strings.

For this three string C chord you are pressing down on the first fret on the B string and playing the G and E strings open.

G Chord

E — 3 —
B — 0 —
G — 0 —
D — X —
A — X —
E — X —

To play the three string G chord you play the G and B strings open and the 3rd fret on the high E string.

D7 Chord

You will find the D7 chord a bit more challenging then the G and C chords we covered first. Why? Because you have to press on a fret on the three bottom strings at once.

E — 1 —
B — 2 —
G — 1 —
D — X —
A — X —
E — X —

For the D7 chord you must place your second finger on the 1st fret of the E string, your third finger on the 2nd fret of the B string and your first finger on the 1st fret of the G string.

This will feel uncomfortable at first but focus on using the tips of your fingers and keeping your thumb on the back of the neck. I give more explanation in the video below.

After watching the video below grab your guitar and give these three chords a try. Don’t get discouraged if at first you find it difficult, also don’t try to immediately switch between them while strumming. Before you trying strumming them and switching between chords ensure you can easily make the shape and strum the chord on it’s own.

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As a beginner learning to play the open major chords is a very big accomplishment. It opens a door to learning to play some popular songs and even write some of your own. When you want to stretch your legs a little further you need to enter the realm of barre chords.

Learning the same major chords at different positions can be a little more difficult. After all there are a lot of frets and a lot of note combination’s to choose from.

In this post I want to introduce you to a unique system that is sure to help you find, play and memorize several versions of all seven major chords on the guitar.

The CAGED guitar system is a method of finding 5 different versions of all 7 major chords using familiar chord shapes from the open position. As the name might have given away those shapes are from the C-A-G-E-D major chords.

A quick example: If you barre the 5th fret and play an E chord shape you have an A Major chord.

The system works like this. Using those 5 chord shapes you can find five versions of each major chord at different locations on the neck. You do still need to find those variations and if you want memorize them, but this system makes it a lot easier to locate them.

I’ve created a brief video below that explains the CAGED guitar system and also provides a complete example of finding four different variations of the E chord using the D, C, A and G chord shapes as barre chords. Take a few minutes to watch this video and then grab your own guitar to give it a try.

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