Open Chords

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Open chords are very important to learn as they will provide your main knowledge of chords, they will help build your finger strength & flexibility, and also because they appear in so many pieces of music. Open chords are a valuable asset to guitar players & song writers and used by every artist I can think of.

I thought it would be a good idea to put some basic open chords up here for you to reference when needed. You’ll see there is a major and a minor version of each chord displayed.

Starting with the 6 string chords, these are nice very commonly used chords that you should have no problem getting your fingers around if you’re a beginner. The only one that you may find tricky is the G minor because it’s a bit of a stretch; don’t worry if you do just keep coming back to it from time to time. As you progress you’ll find your fingers become more flexible naturally. But also remember that you want to be close to the fret markers, not in the middle of the frets if possible (this just makes it easier to produce a clean note).

Progressing onto the 5 string chords; these chords require you to miss a string out when you’re playing them. You’ll see the string you are supposed to miss has an X mark on it. A & A min are pretty straight forward chords but the one to watch is the C minor like the G min its a stretch and not too commonly used in this form but very good practice to know this. You’ll also see the C min requires you to miss a second note, the top E string, so strictly speaking you cant call this a 5 string open chord, but for the purpose of consistency I put it in anyway.

Moving on to finally the 4 string open chords. You have to miss two strings out when playing these. The F chord is infamous for being a little awkward because of the positioning on the two/three upper strings (EBG). The best way this combat this is to create a half barre Chord, by placing the first finger over the top E B & G strings.

Hope that helps a bit

James B