The 8 essential open chords for beginner guitarists (chord charts and changes)

With these 8 open chords (C, D, E, G, A, E minor, A minor and D minor), you can play hundreds of songs. Here is how to finger them, which order to learn them in and how to change chords without gaps.

The 8 open chords

An open chord uses open strings: no barre, it is where every guitarist starts. An "m" means minor (Am = A minor).

How to read the charts: you are looking at the neck from the front, low E string on the left; the thick bar at the top is the nut. The numbers in the dots are your fretting-hand fingers: 1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring. An empty circle above a string = play the open string, a cross = do not play that string. In orange: the root (the note that gives the chord its name); start your strum from it.

Which order to learn them in?

1. Em and Am: the easiest, with only two or three fingers.
2. C and G: the two most used chords in popular music.
3. D and Dm: only four strings played, be careful not to hit the two low strings.
4. E and A: E is the same shape as Am, one string higher; A is played with three fingers squeezed on fret 2.

Allow one pair of chords per week: in a month, you have all 8.

Fingering a chord properly

• Fingertips, nicely curved, so you do not mute the next string.
• Right behind the fret (body side), not in the middle of the fret space: less pressure, less buzzing.
• Thumb behind the neck, roughly opposite your middle finger.
• Check string by string: pick each string separately; if one sounds wrong, fix that finger.
• Sore fingers? That is normal for the first two or three weeks. Play 10 to 15 minutes a day rather than one hour at once: calluses form quickly.

Changing chords without gaps

The real challenge is not making a chord, it is getting to the next one in time. Three tips:

• Pivot fingers: from C to Am, fingers 1 and 2 stay put, only finger 3 moves. From Em to E, just add finger 1. Always look for what stays in place.
• Put all fingers down at once, like a stamp, instead of one at a time.
• Never stop strumming: if the next chord is not ready, strum the open strings on the last beat. Your strumming hand keeps the time, your fretting hand follows.

Exercise 1: the one-minute change

1 minute per pair, count your changes:

Em <-> Am     C <-> G     D <-> G     Am <-> C
E  <-> A      D <-> A     Am <-> E    Dm <-> Am

Goal: 30 clean changes per minute.

Write down your score every day: it is very motivating to watch it go up.

Exercise 2: strumming

With a metronome at 60 bpm, start with 4 downstrokes per bar (level 1), then move on to the most used folk strumming pattern (level 2):

Level 1:  1   2   3   4         Level 2:  1   2 and  and 4 and
          D   D   D   D                   D   D  U    U   D  U

D = downstroke, U = upstroke

In level 2, your strumming hand keeps a constant pendulum motion (down-up on every beat) and only hits the strings on the strokes shown.

Exercise 3: 5 chord progressions to play

1) G   | Em  | C   | D   |   (the '50s progression)
2) Am  | Dm  | E   | Am  |   (minor, Spanish flavour)
3) E   | A   | E   | A   |   (rock / blues)
4) C   | Am  | Dm  | G   |   (pop)
5) D   | G   | A   | D   |   (folk)

One bar = 4 beats.

Once you are comfortable, put it all into a real song: Knockin' on Heaven's Door uses only G, D, Am and C. To see any chord across the whole neck, use the interactive fretboard (Chords mode).