• September 27, 2021

How to Read and Play Guitar Chords Using Chord Diagrams

You don’t need to read music to play basic guitar. This article explains how to interpret chord diagrams on sheet music and play them on the guitar.

One of the things you find immediately when reading sheet music is the chord symbol. This is the musical symbol that describes the harmony at a particular point in a piece of music. An example is Gmi7. This tells you that the chord is a G minor seven chord. But what notes do you use to play a Gmi7 on guitar?

Popular song scores often have guitar chord diagrams on top of each staff that show you how to play the chords. These diagrams allow you to play a chord without knowing what the chord symbol means or what notes are in the chord. The diagrams simply show where to put your fingers on the fretboard strings.

Of course, as you continue to study guitar and music, you will probably want to learn music theory to understand the structure of the chords and the notes used for all the important chords in the twelve keys. But to start making music, this is not necessary thanks to chord diagrams. They are much simpler than playing complex chord symbols.

A guitar chord diagram consists of a grid of five horizontal lines and six vertical lines that represent the fretboard of the guitar. The diagram is a miniature image of the fretboard as if you are holding the guitar in front of you and looking at the top of the neck.

The vertical lines represent the strings of the guitar. From left to right (low to high pitch), the lines represent the E, A, D, G, B, and E strings.

Frets are represented by horizontal lines. The thick line at the top represents the guitar nut at the end of the fretboard. Hold your guitar in front of you and look at it, and this will all make sense.

The dots on the vertical lines of the strings show where to put your fingers, the notes you play with your left hand when playing a chord.

The numbers under the chord lines at the bottom of the diagram indicate the finger of your left hand to use to play the note. 1 = index finger; 2 = middle finger; 3 = ring finger; and 4 = little finger. Normally, the thumb is not used to worry.

The X or O above a string line means that the string is open or untensioned. An X means that he does not play the string with his right hand and an O means that he plays the string in the open.

In cases where a chord begins at a fret other than the 1st fret, a number on the right side of the diagram indicates what the initial fret is, such as 2fr, 5fr, etc. Chords that use the first four frets often use open strings and are simpler to play. Therefore, they are more common in chord diagrams.

That’s all there is to it to get started. When looking for sheet music or music books, just make sure they have guitar chord diagrams, and you can start playing basic guitar right away.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *