Barre Chords (Part 1 – Forming and Playing)
Learn how to play barre chords by taking them one step at a time. David Hodge walks you through playing your first barre chord making them as easy as possible.
Learn About Guitar Chords
Learning about guitar chords, how they are made, what notes they contain and why you should learn the notes is an important step for beginners. As you move beyond the beginner level you’ll want to improve at changing chords smoothly and start making barre chords without too much fuss. Check out our handy guitar chord dictionary for help with the most common guitar chords.
Diatonic Chords
Diatonic Chords are chords formed using only the notes in a single major scale. Knowing the diatonic chords of whatever key in which you’re playing a song can help you in more ways than you might dream possible!
“SUS” (suspended) Chords
Suspended chords, or “sus chords” for short, such as Dsus4, Asus2 or just Gsus, can be a guitarist’s best friend. These easy-to-play chords can make your strumming a lot more interesting.
Tip: Harmonizing a Melody
Putting chords to a melody is one of the most rewarding aspects of making music. Even if you can’t play chords on your guitar, you still can play arpeggios.
Tip: A Helpful Chart
If you’re more comfortable thinking with fret numbers than note names, the chart in this tip will help. Use it the next time you learn a tune’s chords from sheet music.
Tip: Learning Root Movements in a Chord Progression
When you learn a chord progression, try doing so in a way that helps you understand and apply it effectively, and helps you understand better how music works. That way involves learning the root movements between the chords.
Tip on Inversions
How do some guitarists seem to barely move their hand when they change chords? The answer is inversions. Learning how they work can give you a “slowhand.”
Tip: Inversions
In this lesson we’ll see that going up is sometimes the same as going down on the fretboard. We’ll need this knowledge of inversions when we start deciphering chord charts.
