This material is taken from Lesson 4 of the Free Guitar Course called “4 Skills for New Guitar Players” available here.
If you’ve ever wanted to get started playing the guitar, this post is for you. Here I show you how to play your first chords. The guitar has 6 strings, but we’re going to play on just 4 strings for now. For people just starting out on the guitar 4 string chords are easier to finger than versions that use all 6 strings.
With these chords you will be able to start strumming along with simple songs almost right away. I’ve included two playalong songs to get you started. They will play right in your browser, and the chords are indicated above the notes. You can slow them down so you can keep up with them. The idea is that you will just strum the chords where they are indicated.
What is a “Key”?
We begin by playing in the key of G. Songs are played in a specific “key”. When beginners (and sometimes experienced players too) ask what a “key” is, the simplest answer is that a key is based on a scale.
A scale is a sequence of notes starting at a certain note (the “root”) and moving note by note up to the same note as the root, only an octave higher. You’re probably familiar with “Do-Re-Mi”. When you play an instrument you don’t talk about “Do-Re-Mi”. You talk about notes. For example, G Major begins at the note G and moves through the notes – G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G.
This is what is called a “Major Scale” because of the tonal gaps between the notes. I won’t go any deeper into this right now. The important thing is to remember that the key of G is based on the G Major Scale, and the root of that scale – it’s starting point or home note – is G.
A Bit about Chords
A “chord” is a combination of notes that sound good together. On the guitar you usually strum chords. This means you run your thumb or a finger (or a “pick”) over more than one string in a continuous motion (a “strum”). As you will soon discover there are different strumming patterns, but for now we just want to play what is called a down strum.
Also, you should begin by playing on the beat. You’ll find that most songs use what’s called 4 beats per bar (or “measure”). You’ve probably heard musicians start out songs by saying “1-2-3-4” and then start playing. That means they are playing 4 beats to the bar. Begin by strumming on each beat: “Strum-strum-strum-strum”.
Chords and Keys
One of the most important things every beginning guitar player will learn is this:
When you play a song in a certain key you usually need just 3 or 4 chords.
The chords you need are called the 1, 4 and 5 chords where this number is the position of the chord’s root note in the scale. This is much simpler than it might first sound. The 1 chord of G is G Major, the 4 chord is C Major (G-A-B-C) and the 5 chord is D Major (G-A-B-C-D).
These are the three chords I talk about in the accompanying video right here:
And here are two songs you can play along with to practice these chords:
