The great thing about learning to play guitar is that you are not limited to any one style of playing. You can learn how to play an acoustic, electrical, or bass guitar. And you can learn to play any style of music, from classical to jazz, metal to rock and country, and everything in between.

I’ll admit that I never had much ambition to join a band. Oh, I’ve thought about it. And it may be something I do someday in the future. So if I didn’t want to join a band, then why did I want to learn to play guitar?

For one thing, it’s fun to do. Even if all I am doing is playing for family or with friends, playing the guitar is fun. You can do sing-a-longs, play with a group at church, even learn to play some of your favorite songs. Music can be a lot of fun.

So why do you want to learn how to play guitar? Do you want to one day be in a band? Or are you just looking for something fun to do with the family? Whatever your goal, I hope the resources here can help you to learn to play the guitar.

Throughout this site, you will be able to find tips that can help you learn how to play guitar. You can also find resources that can help you learn. Some of the topics you will find here include:

How to properly hold a guitar so that you can play the notes
What type of strings you should use on your guitar to get the best sound
How to read music sheets in a way that will let you play almost any song
Where you can find music to play to share with your family and friends
What chords can be found in the majority of songs and what they look like so you can use them
How to tune your guitar to keep it sounding great
How to string your guitar when you need to replace a string

In this site, you will also find reviews of some great places where you can learn how to play guitar. You can also find advice on how to pick a guitar that is right for you and how to accessorize it.

Whether you are new to playing the guitar, picking it up after not having played for a while, or if you have a little experience, I would hope that this site has some great information for you. Learning how to play guitar is fun, no matter if your goal is to play in a band in front of millions or just to lead the family song night.

Peter Patton

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The key to strumming the guitar is to learn the strumming patterns that occur in most songs. In other words, you

want to learn the motions to repeat as you play through a song. The pattern you want to play will often vary from song to song, and once you feel more comfortable with playing a song, you can even vary up the pattern within a song.

The Strokes

Strumming the guitar is made up of two strokes. The main stroke is the down stroke. With the down stroke, you start playing with the root note of the chord. This is almost always the letter of the chord. The exception to this is when you add the bass string of another note. For example, the A chord usually begins on the A string, unless you are playing a chord that adds the bass E. The second stroke, then, is the upstroke. In the upstroke, you start playing at the bottom string and play upwards.

Basic Pattern

The most basic pattern for a song depends on what the time signature is. Most often, you will be working with 4/4 or 3/4 time. Remember that the bottom 4 indicates that the quarter note gets the beat and the top number tells you how many beats in a measure.

The simplest pattern in strumming the guitar, then, would be for 4/4 time. That would be a straight Down, up , down, up. Now, you can do this with a down stroke for beats one and 3 and up stroke for beats 2 and 4. However, an easier way to think of this particular pattern would be down for the first half a beat and up for the second half. Think ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and, with the stroke down on the beat and the stroke up on the and.

The simplest pattern to strumming the guitar in a 3/4 would be a down stroke on one and upstrokes on beats 2 and 3. An easy way to remember this is that waltzes are often done in 3/4 time and you make the biggest move in a waltz on the 1 beat with two minor moves in between. However, you can also do this one in the ONE and TWO and THREE and method like above simply by placing more of an emphasis on the down stroke of the first beat.

Easy Variations

An easy variation off of either of the two above patterns in the “ONE and” versions is to leave of an “and”. In a 4/4 time signature, this might give you a Down up down space down up down space. In a 3/4, you might see down up down up down space. That space will help emphasize the next down stroke.

Another common variation in strumming the guitar would be down down up up down. This is a pattern that can often be used in a 4/4 time signature. I use this particular pattern a lot in a variety of situations, so this would definitely be a good one to remember.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to strumming the guitar is to do what ever feels natural. Certain songs will have you using one of these basic patterns, but have part in the chorus somewhere that it makes sense to vary that pattern. Maybe you’ve heard others play it that way or for some reason it feels natural. If so, go with that. Strumming is one part that is up to the person playing, though if you are playing with a group of strumming guitarist, it does help if you are all strumming the same pattern. Some songs may have a suggested pattern. If so, especially until you get used to feeling one out for yourself, go with that pattern. Otherwise, try one of these and see if the song works for you.

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A7 Chord

The first of the major 7 chords is A7.  Start by putting your fingers into the A chord.  For the A chord, that is a finger on the second fret of the D, G, and B strings.  Now, to make the A7 chord, lift up the finger in the middle off the G string, keeping the other two strings pressed.  This is the A7 chord.  Though a bit less common, you can do an Am7 (A minor 7) in exactly the same way.

E7 Chord

Next on the major 7 chords is E7.  If you remember the E chord is with the second fret on the A and D strings and the first fret of the G string.  To make E7, again, lift the middle finger.  On this chord, that would be the one on the D string.  This is the E7 chord.

G7 Chord

As we continue with the major 7 chords, we will learn the G7 chord. The G chord, as you may remember, is with the third fret of the two E strings and the second fret of the A string.  To make this a G7, all we need to do is change the higher pitched E string to the first fret.  You can think of the G7 chord as a wide C chord position.  The fingers are in the same frets, just further apart.

C7 Chord

The next to last of the major 7 chords is the C7 chord.  Now, the C7 chord is exactly like the C chord.  All the same frets that are hit in the C chord are also hit in the C7 chord.  But, instead of the G string being left open, it is played on the 3rd fret.  So, you have the 3rd fret of the A and G strings, the second fret of the D string, and the first fret of the B string, with the E strings open.

D7 Chord

The last of the major 7 chords in this list is the D7 chord.  The interesting thing about the D7 chord, when you look at it on a chord chart, is that it looks just like the D chord, but “inverted”.  The D chord and the D7 chord both have the second fret on the G and higher pitched E strings pressed.  But the difference is in the B string.  Instead of playing the 3rd fret, you want to play the first fret of the B string

These are the most common major 7 chords. Although there are many more, I’ve shown you the ones most seen.  If you know the 15 chords shown here on this site, you have a good chance of playing the vast majority of music out there.  Notice I made no mention of the B chords, outside of the B major.  While you will find some B chords, you won’t see them as often as the other chords I have listed.

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E Minor (Em) Chord

The first of the common minor chords for guitar is the E Minor chord.  Of all the minor chords, I think I’ve seen this one more often in the things that I have played.  The E minor chord is almost identical to the E chord, but an open G string.  So both E strings, the G, and the B strings are all open and the A and D strings are played on the second fret.

A Minor (Am) Chord

If you can play an E chord, you can already play the next of the common minor chords for guitar.  The A Minor finger positioning is identical to the E chord, but with all the fingers moved over one string towards the higher pitched E string.  To play the A minor chord, play both E string, and the A string open, the first fret on the B string, and the second fret on the D and G strings.

D Minor (Dm) Chord

Next on the common minor chords for guitar is the D Minor chord.  In D Minor, play the higher pithced E string on the first fret, otherwise, the fingering is just like for the D chord, with the D string open, the second fret on the G string, and the third fret on the B string.  The A and E strings are not played in this chord variation.

B Minor (Bm) Chord

I hesitated on whether to add this to the common minor chords for guitar list, but it does appear often enough and, if you understand how to do this chord, you can do many similar ones.  The basic chord would be to play the higher pitched E string on the second fret, the B string on the third fret, and the G and D strings on the fourth fret.  This can be done easily.  If you want, though, you can make this a full 6 string chord by using the index finger to bar across all the strings instead of just focusing on the E string.

Remember, this is not all the minor chords you might see, but it is the most common ones and the easiest way to finger them.  If you understand how to make these chords, you will be able to make the other ones with only some slight modifications in most cases.

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The music for a guitar can be written on a staff. When reading guitar notes this way, you can tell what notes to play, where to play them, how long to play them, and even what the melody of the music is. But to read guitar notes from a staff can be more difficult than other tabs. When used in combination with the tabs or a chord chart, reading guitar notes becomes much easier.

When you are reading guitar notes from a staff, you have to know how a staff is arranged. A music staff has five lines, each representing a note. The lines on a staff depend on what clef sign is in front. For most guitarist, this will be the treble clef, that looks something like a cross between a G and an S. In fact, when only one staff of music is shown, it is usually the treble clef, so this is the one you are probably most familiar with. The lines on the treble clef, starting from the bottom, are E, G, B, D, and F. An easy way to remember this is (E)very (G)ood (B)oy (D)eserves (F)udge. The spaces, from bottom to top, spell FACE. Sometimes you will see lines above or below the staff. Just follow the pattern up or down to figure out what note it is. One note to be particularly familiar with is the first line below the staff in treble clef. This note is known as Middle C. On a standard tuned, acoustic (folk or classical) or electric guitar, this note is the 3rd fret on the A string.

Next to the clef on a staff when you are reading guitar notes is the time signature. A time signature tell you how long to play individual notes that you might see. The bottom number tells you what note gets the beat. Most often, this number will be four. We will look at the different notes in a minute, but this indicates that the quarter note will get the beat. The most common variation on this is 2, which would indicate the half note. The top number will indicate how many notes are in a measure. A measure is just a way to divide the notes so that each note has equal value, and gives a common reference to the piece. The most common is again 4, meaning that there are 4 beats to a measure. So, if the time signature has a top number of 4 and a bottom number of 4, that means the piece has 4 beats to a measure and the quarter note gets the beat. This is the most common time signature, followed closely by 3/4, which is three beats per measure with the quarter note getting the beat.

Next to the time signature when reading guitar notes, you may see a sign that looks like a # or like an italic b. These indicate the key that the piece is to be played in. When you see a note on the line that has the #, you will play in the note a half step up when you see a note on the line or space with a italic b, you play the note a half step down. Sometimes, you will see the b or the # next to the note. you will still play at a half step down for the b or a half step up for the #, but just for that one note, and any others that appear in the same measure. One other symbol you might see looks like a box with a stems pointing up on the upper left corner and down on the lower right corner. This is the natural sign, and you would play any note it appears by without a sharp or flat.

One last common mark you will see when reading guitar notes is two thick bars across all the lines with two dots on either side of the middle line. When the two dots are on the left, that means to go back and repeat what you just played. If you have the two dots on the left of the bars, this is where you would start to repeat from. Otherwise, you repeat from the beginning of the piece. Sometimes you will see a line with a number over it where you have the repeat mark. This means that the first time you go through that section, you play part 1, the second time, you play section 2, and so on. One last repeat thing you might see is DS al Coda (or al Fine). For coda, you play to the coda and for al Fine, you play to the end of the piece.

The list here is by no means an exhaustive list of everything you might find reading guitar notes. But you will find most of the things you will see in the vast majority pieces of music.

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A guitar tab looks similar to a musical staff, but instead of having 5 lines common to a musical staff, it has 6 lines.  Each line represents a string on the guitar.  The lower line represents the E string that is the thickest.  The next line up is the A string.  The third line from the bottom is the D string.  The third line from the top is the G string.  The second line from the top is the B string.  The top line is the thinner E string.

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Now that you know what the lines are, to understand how to read a guitar tab, you need to know what the symbols that you might find on a guitar tab mean.  The most common thing you will see on a guitar tab is a number on a particular line.  This means that you are to play that string on the specified fret.  So if the line has a 3, you play that string on the 3rd fret.  When a line has a 0 on it, that line is played open, with no finger pressing it.  When you have a string of numbers in a vertical line, all of those strings are played at the same time.  A string that is not supposed to be played will be indicated by an x.  This is how a chord is marked on tabulature.

The next symbols to learn how to read a guitar tab is h and the p.  An h represents a hammer on and a p represents a pull off.  These techniques are mirror images of each other.  On a tab, you will usually see these with a number on either side, such as 2h3 or 3p2.  Essentially, a hammer on means you pluck the string on the first fret indicated and without plucking the string again, you place another finger on the second fret indicated.  So 2h3 means play the string with your finger on the second fret and quickly place another finger on the third fret.  A pull off is the reverse of a hammer on.  To do a pull off, place fingers on both of the frets indicated, then play the string and pull off the finger that is closer to the body of the guitar.

Another symbol you might seen when you learn how to read a guitar tab is a b, as in 7b9.  This means to bend the string at one fret so that it sounds like it is actually being played at another.  Bending is a different sound from a hammer or even a slide, but have a similar start and finish sound.  Someimtes a bend will have an r with it, as in 7b9r7.  That means after bending the string from the first sound to the second, you bring it back.  A bend is just taking the string and pulling it to make it change the sound.

The next symbol to learn how to read a guitar tab is the slide, indicated by a / for a slide up or a \ for a slide down.  For example, if you see 7/9, play the string with your finger at the seventh fret, then move your finger up to the ninth fret.   If you have 9\7, you start playing on the ninth fret and move your finger down to the seventh fret.  The difference here between a slide and a hammer on/pull off is that you are using one finger to play both notes.  The difference between a bend and a slide is that a bend you stay at the same fret but move the string to make it bend but in a slide you actually move your fingers up and down the neck.

Another symbol to watch for when you learn how to read a guitar tab is the v or a ~ for vibrato.  To play a vibrato, you wiggle the finger back and forth on the fret indicated, similar to a bend, but faster.  The last symbol you might see is <> around a number.  This tells you to play a harmonic.  Harmonic notes are a touchy thing to get used to.  To do the harmonic, put your finger on the string, but don’t press it into the fret, and release the string as you pluck it.

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In the previous page, you learned three of the most common major chords found in most songs that you will come across. These chords are the G, C, and D chords. This is one of the most common chord progressions that you will find. On this page of the guitar chords list, you will learn the other three major chords that are common to most songs, the F, E, and A chords.

E Chord

The E chord is one of the easiest chords on this guitar chords list to learn because all of the fingers are fairly close together. The best way to play this chord is to put your middle and ring fingers on the second fret of the D and A strings and the index finger on the first fret of the G string. All of the other strings are played open. This is the most common way to play the E chord. The E chord is commonly played with the A and D chords in songs.

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A chord

The next chord in the guitar chords list is the A chord. The A chord is also a very easy chord to play. Place the index, middle, and ring fingers on the D, B, and G chords. The other strings are played open. Often, you will hear this one played without the top E string, though the chord will not sound bad if you do play it. This chord will often be found either with E and D, or with F and C.

F chord

Of all the chords in this guitar chords list, this one is by far the most difficult to learn to play. The reason that the F chord is so hard to learn to play is becaues instead of using the tips of your fingers, as you do with all the other chords, this chord is played using the flat, or side, of the index finger. The easiest way to play this chord is to press the B and E strings that are next to each other with the side of the index finger on the first fret. The tip of the middle finger goes on the second fret of the G string and the tip of the ring finger goes on the third fret of the D string. The top two strings are not played in this variation. Be careful when learning to play this chord. The most common problem beginners have with this chord, besides the awkward position, is not pressing the index finger into the strings enough, making one or both of those two strings sound muddy.

Once you have learned how to do this common variation and can play it with the strings sounding good, there is another common varition that uses all the strings. The trick with this variation is to lay the index finger across all the strings. The middle and ring fingers will be in the same position with the pinkey on the same fret as the ring finger, but on the A string.

One of the neat things about the F chord is that, by playing this chord at different intervals on the neck, you can play just about any chord in this guitar chords list. For example, if you play the F chord position but starting with the third fret (with the other fingers in the same relation), you have a G chord, and on the fifth fret, you have an A chord.

Final Guitar Chords List Notes

The one major chord I do not have in this guitar chords list is the B chord. I chose not to show this one because it is not as common as the other six. Most song books that this chord is in will show you how to play it. I also have not shown the flat/sharp chords. Most of these are a variation off of what I’ve shown you, but a fret lower or with other minor changes. Again, most books will show you these chords if they have them.

When showing the chords in this guitar chords list, I tried to show the one or two most common forms that I have seen or used myself when playing these chords. One neat thing, though, is that there are many variations even of these common chords, and depending on the song you are playing, where you are playing on the neck, and the sound you are after, one of these might be what you are looking for. The variations I listed here are the basic versions for this brief course.

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G Chord

One of the most common guitar chords that I see used is the G chord. I think I’ve seen this chord in the vast majority of pieces that I have played. The easiest way to do the G chord, in a way that feels comfortable once you get used to it and allows you to switch to another position easily is to put your index finger on the second fret of the A string, the middle finger on the third fret of the upper (thicker) E string, and the pinky finger on the lower (thinner) E string. All the other strings are played, but not pressed. It is possible to substitute the ring finger for the pinky, but there may be times when you might want to add a finger to the third fret on the B string to the G chord, which is much easier to do from the position I described.

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Another variation is to have the middle finger on the second fret A string, the ring finger on the third fret upper E string, with the pinky in the standard G chord position. The advantage to this position is two-fold: a faster transition to the C chord and an easier, faster transition to G7, which is just like the G chord in the variation, but with the index finger on the first fret lower E string.

C chord

The next common guitar chords on the list is the C chord. The C chord can be played by putting the index finger on the first fret of the B string, the middle finger on the second fret D string and the ring finger on the third fret A string. All other strings are played open. A common variation of this chord is to play the pinky on the third fret upper E string with the other fingers in the same position. From here, you can switch to many different chords with very small movements.

D chord

The third common guitar chords on my list is the D chord. The D chord is played with the index finger on the second fret G string, the middle finger on the second fret lower E string, and the ring finger on the third fret. The D string is played, but the upper E string and the A string are not played.

The G-C-D triad is a combination that can be used in many songs. It’s one of the most common that I’ve found.

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What does a guitar chord chart look like?  Most guitar chord charts will have vertical 6 lines, representing each of the six strings on the guitar.  You will also see four horizontal lines.  These represent the frets of the guitar.  The lines at the top are closer to the head of the guitar while the lower lines are closer to the body of the guitar.  A dark line at the top of the chart is top of the neck and the first thin line below that would be the first fret.

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Between the fret lines and on the string lines, you will see dots.  The dots show you where to place your fingers.  Some guitar chord charts will have numbers in the dots.  The numbers on these charts tell you which finger to put on the string.  One is the index finger and four is the pinky finger on these charts.  Other guitar chord charts will show numbers above the chart.  Numbers on these charts tell you which fret to play the note on.

Most guitar chord charts will have markings to show if a string is played or not. If a string has a dot on it, then that string is understood to be played.  But what if that string does not have dot on it?  How do you know if you are supposed to play that string or not?  For strings that you play that do not have a finger on them, you will usually see a 0 just above that striung.  That means that you play that string, but do not put any fingers on it.  However, if a line has an X on it, the corresponding string would not be played.

I mentioned that some guitar chord charts have numbers on the dots showing you where to put your fingers.  But what if the chord chart does not have the numbers on it.  How do you know which finger to put where?  Much of this is practice.  Generally, you want the position that feels most comfortable.  For most chords, the index finger would be on the lower, thinner strings and the pinkey on the upper, thicker strings.  Some chords, such as the G chord, do not feel comfortable in this position, so you would not follow this guideline for it.  Also, some guitar chord charts have multiple strings held by a single finger.  These are usually done with the flat part of the index finger with the other fingers postioned as I described above.  This can be tricky to learn how to hold the string and get a clear tone, but keep practicing and you can figure out how to do it.

Many songbooks written for guitar will have guitar chord charts for the chords in the book.  But you can also find posters and other places where you can find all sorts of chords that you may come across.  These can be helpful if the book you are using does not show the chord charts.

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