How do guitar chords work?

One of the coolest things about being a guitar player is that we have the ability to play single-line melodies and chords – sometimes at the same time!

However knowing how to build, use, and find chords across the fretboard can be challenging during the initial stages.

This article will help you learn more about how chords work on guitar, and how to start making your own!

What makes a guitar chord?

This first question may seem basic, but we need to have a solid understanding of what a chord is before we try to build one ourselves.

In its most basic form, a chord can be defined as the sound created when three or more notes are played together at the same time.

• Chords are a great way to support a melody sung by a vocalist or played by another instrument.
• The guitar is a fantastic instrument to discover and create chords on, and so many exciting options are available on the fretboard.

Building your first chord

Chords are built like a sandwich – you need at least three layers 🥪

• The root note is our first piece of bread – it gives the foundation for everything else to go on top.
• The 3rd gives our sandwich some flavor — it decides if the chord is major or minor.
• The 5th is the top slide of bread – it’s an important layer for structure, but doesn’t really change the taste.

Memorizing this ‘triad’ (three-note) chord structure is essential for understanding more complex chords.

Finding chords across the fretboard

Every hero has their nemesis and unfortunately, the guitar is no different.

Although we play the coolest of all instruments, there are a few logistical issues that make it more difficult to find chords and notes.

Here are some of the main obstacles when finding chords on the guitar fretboard:

• All the frets look exactly the same.
• There is symmetry on the neck, but it takes a while to learn/visualize it.
• It’s hard to see across all the strings unless you crane your neck.
• It feels like there are lots of shapes to memorize.

Don’t worry! If you struggle with any of these – we’ve got you covered with some upcoming tricks and techniques.

The guitar is a pattern-based instrument that can be conquered with just a few visualization tricks.

How to read chord charts

Chord charts are a simple and effective way to help you memorize chord shapes using diagrams. Think of chord charts as the bird’s-eye view of the fretboard.

Let’s cover the ground rules about chord charts and you’ll be serenading your friends and family with new songs before you know it!

• The strings from the left to the right indicate the lowest to the highest pitch.
• In basic open chord charts, the numbers inside the circle tell you which fingers to use for each fret.
• The black bar at the top of the diagram indicates the ‘nut’, which is essentially where your open strings start.

Here’s an example of what a chord chart looks like:

Why are these chord charts so affectionate?! 😘 🤗

Unfortunately, those X’s and O’s aren’t kisses and hugs. Sometimes chord charts will guide you toward which notes to play, and which notes not to play.

• X’s indicate that you don’t play the string.
• O’s indicate that you should play an open string.

Why use chord charts?

• Chord charts can be super useful for working on your fretboard visualization skills.
• They’re great for helping you remember that cool chord voicing you discovered one afternoon in your practice session!
• They’re easy to draw and annotate in case you forget.
• Every guitar player can read and use them.

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10 must-know chord shapes

Now that you know how to build chords and read charts, let’s get you started with 10 must-know chord shapes!

You’ll definitely want to lock these 10 guitar chords down as they’re crucial for learning almost every song that you can imagine!

Bonus points if you can commit these shapes to memory.

Open major chords

Open minor chords

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First bar chords

Patience is the name of the game!

Guitar chords can feel tricky and complex initially. Take your time as you work to memorize each of the 10 shapes.

Once you’ve got them down, we’ll step up the chord challenge in the next section!

Bar chords vs open chords: What’s the difference?

When it comes to building chords on the guitar, there are two types of chords that you’ll want to know the difference between. Introducing the beginner guitar player's final boss: Bar chords!

• Bar (sometimes ‘barre’) chords are a particular type of chord voicing used by guitarists.
• We make the by using our index finger and barring across all 6 strings.
• Your index finger is basically working as a moveable nut.

Below are a two chord charts for G major. On the left is the open chord and on the right is the bar chord version.

The two shapes sound quite different from each other, even though they’re playing the same chord.

Now that you know the ‘how’, let’s find out the ‘why’!

Why use bar chords?

As you can see and feel, bar chords are built a little differently to open chords.

Lots of guitarists will graduate from open chords and switch to bar chords once they have the finger strength because of how ‘moveable’ the shape is.

The main difference between open and bar chords is:

• Open chords use the open strings and only work in one area of the fretboard.
• You can test this by taking a C open chord and shifting it up the neck - doesn’t sound too great, right?
• Bar chords are fully ‘transposable’ meaning that you can take the entire chord shape and move it anywhere along the fretboard.  

Bar chords and open chords both have their own uses. Lots of singer-songwriters and fingerstyle guitarists will use a capo instead of playing bar chords.

• The capo allows them to use open strings while allowing the capo to do all of the barring.
• It’s much easier on the hands and allows you to maintain that gorgeous, open-string sound.

Still struggling with getting bar chords down? Our Beginner Learning Pathway has a series of excellent exercises to help you master it in no time!