Fingerstyle Guitar Chords for Beginners
Most Simple Chords on Guitar
A few years ago, one of my beginner students asked me when I would teach him some advanced chords. I thought about it, then I asked him, “When you say advanced, do you mean different chords?” He kind of looked relieved “Oh yeah, different chords!”
The difference between Advanced and “Different” chords is pretty simple. Advanced chords are usually difficult to learn, “different” chords can be as simple as basic chords, but they sound more interesting.
In this lesson, I will show you how you can easily create different sounding fingerstyle guitar chords that are actually easier than some of the basic chords you already know.
The concept is simple: Find two notes that work for each chord. When we change a chord, the only thing that actually changes is the bass note.
This way of playing fingerstyle guitar chords is compelling because it’ll open up many different chords that are easy to learn and play. Beginners love it because it feels like playing something different that is not too challenging and demoralizing.
As always, take things to step by step. It will take time to become familiar with this concept.
Once you are ready, make sure you expand the concept in other keys and different rhythmic ideas.
I hope you get inspired.
Good luck!
The Video
Guitar Chords that don’t Move!
So how can we play two notes that sound good on each chord?
It is safe to say that sometimes, music works just like math.
After experimenting for a while, I came up with a formula that works all the time, and if you use it, it will work for you.
The Perfect Formula for Easy Chords
If you are playing in a major key, let’s say D major, select the root note (D) and perfect 5th (A) and place it on two strings.
The root note on the second string frets 3 and the A on the first string fret 5.
Check the diagram below.
The chord progression is D | A | Bm | G, but rather than playing the basic chords, we will apply this simple concept.
The chord inside the red square remains the same. The bass note inside the yellow square represents the root note of each chord.
As you can see, the chords are pretty simple to play.
This concept can be extended to any chord progression. It is also possible to make it more articulated with more challenging chords, but we will focus on guitar chords for beginners for this lesson.
Good luck, guys.