Guitar Chord Charts

From LoveToKnow Guitar

For guitarists who want to take their playing to the next level, learning how to read guitar chord charts is a very necessary skill.

Why Learn to Read Charts?

While tablature is a great tool to help a young player get their initial chops together, playing along with tabs will only get you so far. To become a well rounded, sociable guitar player, you will need to understand chord charts.

The first situation where a guitar player usually encounters chord charts is in a group jam session. It is an extremely rare occurrence to walk into a band's rehearsal and see all the musicians reading along with tablature. There are a few reasons why this is likely to be the case. First of all, anyone who has ever visited a tablature website knows that there may be ten or more versions of a particular song transcribed, and some of the versions are likely not correct. In addition, tablature is a very specific type of musical notation where every note is recorded. This is almost too specific for group sessions where listening to other players is more important than focusing on every single note you are playing.

Guitar chord charts can be thought of as guideposts that help you see where the song is going. For example, if tablature is thought of as a detailed, mile-by-mile, step-by-step set of directions about how to get somewhere, guitar chord charts are more like directions you'd get from an old local: "Get on the highway and drive until you see the red barn". The second set of directions requires you to pay more attention to the road as you go; this is what chord charts hopefully encourage you to do as well.

How to Read Guitar Chord Charts

The basic system for chord charts is simple, and with a few introductory pointers, you'll be up and running in no time. Before you read any further, visit this LoveToKnow article to print out a free Guitar Chord Chart. You can refer to the chord chart while reading the information below, and this will make understanding the main points of reading charts much easier for you.

The Lines

To understand how to read chord charts, you need to first examine a single chord and study how it is notated. In the chord chart you just printed out, look at the chord in the top left which shows a C chord written in chart form.

To begin with, what you are looking at is an image of your guitar's fretboard. In the image, your guitar is standing upright, facing you. The six vertical lines correspond to the six strings on your guitar. Your low E string (low meaning the string that produces the lowest sound) is on the left, and the high E string is on the right. The strings in-between the two E strings, from left to right, are A, D, G and B. The horizontal lines are the frets. The very top horizontal line is the nut on your guitar, the second line down is the first fret, the third line down is the second fret, etc.

What are the Dots?

The dots on the chord charts are your fingers. When you see a dot on a chord chart it corresponds to where your finger should go in order to play that particular chord. Most chord charts, however, don't tell you which finger to use. Here's where a little common sense combined with an understanding of how your fingers work is important. For some chords, there will only be one way that you can place your fingers and actually get the chord to work. For other chords, however, there may be several ways a player could reasonably finger them.

Sometimes, the style of music a guitarist plays influences how he/she fingers chords. Bluegrass players, for example, typically finger a G chord with a similar shape to the way they finger a C chord. This is because of the way bluegrass music moves between those two chords. However, rock guitarists might finger a G chord differently. The most important thing is that you find a way to play these chords that is comfortable for you. Later on, if you meet different players and they have a better way of playing a chord, you can always borrow techniques from them.

Open Position vs. Up the Neck

All of the chords in the chord chart you have printed are written for open position. Open position means that the strings without dots on them correspond to open strings on your guitar. When you play a chord, you let the open strings ring through to complete the full sonic spectrum of the chord. For most chords you see written in chart form, this will be the case.

In some instances, you might see a chord chart that has a number like 5 written next to one of the horizontal lines. In this case, the horizontal line next to the 5 represents the fifth fret on your guitar. You'll need to position your fingers on the strings in relation to the fifth fret of your guitar in order to play the chord correctly.

Your Ticket to Ride

Understanding chord charts is your ticket to playing with other musicians and bringing your practice to life. Once you master the basics, you can walk into any situation and, by glancing quickly at the charts, know what's going on with the music. There is no substitute for this knowledge, and all guitar players will benefit themselves greatly by applying themselves to a serious study of understanding chord charts for the guitar.

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