Hey welcome to lesson eight of the Beginner Guitar Quick-Start Series. In this lesson
we're going to learn your first two chords. Those two chords are A minor 7 and then a
C major. These two chords are going to be really useful for you. You're going to be
using them a lot throughout your guitar career. The A minor 7 is great to start with because
it's pretty easy and you're going to have some good success with initially, and the
C major chord is really great for helping you learn the basics of how to make really
clean sounding chords.
Now both of these chords and all of the other chords we're going to learn in the Beginner
Quick-Start Series are called open chords. And open chords generally have two requirements.
They usually occur on the first three frets of the guitar and they have at least one open
string that you're going to play with them.
Throughout this lesson I'm going to be giving you some tips for your fretting hand technique
that are going to help keep your chords clean and buzz free. I'm also going to be giving
you some technique tips that are a little bit subjective, but they can pretty much apply
to everyone.
Before we jump into learning chords you actually need to know how to read a chord diagram,
so let me just go through that with you real quick. If you look at a chord diagram you're
going to see six vertical lines. Those vertical lines represent the strings of the guitar.
If you're looking at the diagram the one to the far left represents the low E string,
and the one to the far right represents the high E string. The horizontal lines on a chord
diagram represent the frets of the guitar. And if you look up at these chord diagrams
that we're going to be using in this lesson you're going to see a rectangle or a block
at the top of the chord diagram. That represents the nut of the guitar. That's just for reference
to help you kind of keep track of where you are.
The dots you're going to see on a chord diagram are there to tell you where to put your fingers.
You're going to see two types of dots. You're going to see filled in ones, or black ones,
and then you're going to see hollow ones. The filled in black ones represent the root
note of whatever chord you're playing. The numbers in the circles on the chord diagram
are telling you which fingers to use when you're playing a particular chord. So for
example, on our A minor 7th chord if you look at the chord diagram you're going to see a
circle with a "1" in it on the first fret of the B string, on the second string. That's
telling you to use your first finger to play the first fret of the B string.
Another part of chord diagrams that you're going to want to be aware of are "X's" that
occur above the nut. If you see an "X" above a string that's telling you that you shouldn't
play that string. So in the case of our A minor 7th chord you're going to leave the
low E string out.
Before we get started on this A minor 7th chord I just want to make sure that you realize
that you need to relax as you're making these chords. You shouldn't have any excess tension
because that can always kind of open the door for injuries. Stay relaxed when you're making
these chords, and the only pain you might should feel at all is the pain in your fingertips
as your calluses build up. You know after three or four weeks, a month or so, that should
get better too though.
Alright, to get started just stick your fretting hand out in front of you like this and pretend
like you're holding an apple or a baseball. That's a great posture to keep in mind when
you're thinking about fretting hand technique. And what you want to to is just bring that
hand up and put your thumb on the back of the neck. That's just the perfect starting
position to keep in mind as you learn these chords.
Okay the next thing I want to talk about is kinking your wrist. A lot of players tend
to kink their wrist really far this way when they're trying to make chords, or they kink
their wrist the other way. And this way can really hurt after a while and really stress
our your wrist. And this way it's going to be really hard to make the chords, to get
your fingers where they need to go. So, you want your wrist to be more or less straight.
Mine's a little bit curved like that, but that's generally a good posture to have when
you're making these chords.
Okay, as far as technique goes I'm going to cover two things as we make this A minor 7th
chord, two more things. The first thing is fret placement and the second thing is finger
posture. Let's get our first note on. Take your first finger down on the first fret of
the B string, and you're going to want to come down right behind the fret. When I was
talking about fret placement, that is what I'm talking about. You wan to be right behind
that fret. I'll show you why. The farther back I go the more buzzy that note gets, so you want to be right behind that fret.
fret.
The second tip that I want to give you is finger posture, and by that I mean you want
to come right down on the very tip of your finger. The reason for this is if I don't
come right down on the very tip of my finger, my index finger is going to brush up against
to come right down on the very tip of your finger so it doesn't mute any of the surrounding strings.
Alright, let's get the second note that we need for this A minor 7th chord on here. Take
strings.
Alright, let's get the second note that we need for this A minor 7th chord on here. Take
your second finger, put it on the second fret of the D string. Those are the two notes you
need to fret in order to play this chord. So, make sure you're coming right down on
the very tip of your finger, and make sure you're coming right behind the fret there.
Now, listen to the chord you just made. Was it clean and clear like that, or did it sound
of the guitar. Leave this low E string out.
Now, listen to the chord you just made. Was it clean and clear like that, or did it sound
more like this? Double check yourself. Make sure you're coming right behind the frets
and make sure you're coming right down on the very tips of your fingers. This may take
a while for you to build up the coordination and the muscle, but if you follow those two
rules you're chords will get clean.
Okay, when you're learning chords like this, get it on there and leave it there for a while.
Thirty seconds or so, and then take it off, shake your hand completely out, and the put
it back on. It may take you a while to get it on. That's fine. You're working on your
muscle memory here. Take it off. Leave it on there long than I'm doing in this video,
right. Leave it on there for a good while. Thirty seconds is good. But taking it off
and putting it on like that is a real good way to firm up that chord in your memory.
The next chord we're going to learn is a C major chord, an open C major chord, and this
is a great chord for letting you know if you're coming down on the very tips of your fingers
really well or not. Let me show you what the difference is here. Here's a C major chord,
and watch what happens when I relax my fingers just a little bit and don't come down on the
very tips. Listen to it now. Almost all the notes in that chord just disappeared, right.
So just that little motion from there to there is all the difference in the world.
So, if you had your A minor 7th chord, all you have to do to make a C major chord is
take your third finger right here and stretch it out to grab the third fret of the fifth
string, or the A string. And if you'll notice on the chord diagram that's a black note,
so that means that's a root note of the C major chord which means that this is a C note.
So do the same thing you did with your A minor 7th chord. Put that chord on, hold it there,
take it off, shake it out. Remember the tips I gave you. Come right behind the frets and
right down on the very tips of your fingers. It may take a while. You may have to go one,
two, three, but that's natural. You'll get better at it with time and eventually you'll
be able to go right to that chord.
So a couple more tips I want to give you. When you're learning chords, the more ways
you can kind of attack something to memorize it, the better chance you're going to have
of remembering it. So when you're making chords, look at the chord and try to visualize or
memorize what that chord actually looks like. Another thing you're going to want to do is
don't even look at the chord. Just once you have it on there close your eyes or look away
and just try to concentrate on what that chord actually feels like too.
Another tip to help you memorize chords faster is to practice these things several times
a day. If you can practice these new chords that you're learning four or five times a
day that will be awesome. You don't have to do it for very long. You know five, ten minutes,
but the more times in a day you can practice these chords and memorizing them the faster
you're going to learn them and the faster your hands are going to remember them.
Your fingers might be pretty sore for a while, but like I said earlier that's going to pass
in maybe four, six weeks, something like that. And one thing I want to warn you about, a
lot of people get frustrated because they can't make clean chords because they start
trying to learn and then change between chords before they actually have the shapes learned
really well. So, right now I don't want you to try to switch between the A minor 7 and the
C. Just work on those individual chord shapes. Getting them down as good as you can and going
right to them. Just work on each one individually for now.
In the next lesson we're going to add two more chords to your chord library, and I'm
going to give you some tips on actually switching between chords smoothly. I know that's an
issue that a lot of beginners have trouble with. So, if you have any questions about
making chords, making them sound good and buzz free, you can leave them here on the
comments on this page, or email me nate@guitarsystem.com See you later.