Every student guitar player wants to learn easy guitar chords but is learning technically undemanding guitar chords going to fast track your progress as a guitarist? There are chords that only need one or two fingers but using these chords for a whole repertoire of songs is going to make for a very boring experience for your audience. If you focus on which chords to learn so that you can become a real guitar player and at the same time dedicate some energy to learning HOW to play chords you will actually be turning all chords into easy guitar chords.
The essence of learning guitar chords is learning how to move from one chord to another. If you learn one chord by itself and then move onto another chord and learn that one separately, you are going to have some problems when it comes time to learn to play songs. So you learn the fingering for the open version of two or three chords to some simple song that you like and you work on changing from one chord, to the next, to the next. Play the chords in different sequences, use your metronome, play slowly without the metronome. Create challenges for yourself so that you can play your chords at any time of the day or night.
So exactly how do we learn our separate chords? Take an easy guitar chord like the G major or C major chord in the first position, and without making too much tension in your hand or arm, place you fingers where your chord chart tells you. You have all the time in the world, no need to rush, no need to screw your face up or hold your breath. The only parts of your body that should be involved in the chord are your fingers and your attention. Now strum all the guitar strings with a pick or your thumbnail.
There’s a good chance that there will be a muffled string or two when you sound your chord. Usually on your first attempt at playing even an easy guitar chord, your fingers will not be exerting enough pressure on the strings to make a clean sound Or the sides of your fingers will be brushing the strings next to them making them produce a muffled sound. Don’t react with frustration, simply adjust your fingers and try again. If you want to make guitar chords easy you will be going through this process for up to a year from now. Of course it’s not always as slow and painful as the first time but you always need to apply your attention to how you are touching the strings.
Besides learning open chords you should be learning the bar chord versions of every chord you learn. You don’t have to get too intense about it but you need to be always contributing to your knowledge of chords and the guitar fretboard. You will be surprised at how few basic bar chord shapes there are. If you want all guitar chords to be easy, you can do it, but you must get into the habit of slowing down your mind so that you can really see what your fingers are doing wrong.
Ricky Sharples
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