You could even imagine a range of alternative strumming patterns included in written music. For example, you could have the pattern used by the artist on the record or a simplified version that would suit a beginner guitarist. You can tell from the sheet music where to change chords in a song, but for a beginner it would be much less of a chore if a strumming pattern was given.

This point of view seems to be purely that of a newbie guitar player. More experienced guitarists seem to hold the view that fooling around with guitar strum patterns is a natural part of the guitar player’s training. The key is to start with your own “near enough” idea of the song’s strumming just to give you enough practice to get the chord changes right. This process will give your muscles and your mind the kind of practice you need to make up your own strum patterns.

You can start the process of making up your own guitar strum patterns by listening to the song and getting the hang of the rhythm used by the guitarist. You should be able to come up with something that will at least fit in with the song. And remember to bear in mind the time signature of the song and to keep your metronome handy.

The final aim of learning to play songs on the guitar is to play YOUR way. Sure, many guitar players take pride in reproducing the sound of the original artist, but that’s already been done. You can come up with your own totally original arrangement of the song. Start with a basic pattern that fits the song’s rhythm. For a song in 4/4 time, as most popular songs are, a Down Down-Up Up-Down pattern works well. If you look on the internet for guitar strum patterns, you will see that the way of writing strum patterns is simply to use the initials like this: D DU UD.

Your search for guitar strum patterns will benefit greatly by a little visit to YouTube or a similar video host. Watching experienced guitar players play their versions of your favorite songs will be extremely helpful.

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There are three ways to learn how to play chords on a guitar. The most time consuming way is to learn to read music. If you can read standard music notation you do not necessarily need to know the names of the chords you are playing. You will have the ability to recognize and play musical notes without hesitation. To learn to play chords this way takes a long time but the ability to sight-read music will make all your work at learning how to play the guitar much easier.

Another way to learn how to play chords on a guitar is to learn to read tablature. Guitar tablature, or “tabs”, is another musical language. Tabs show you where to put your fingers on the guitar fretboard. It only takes half an hour or so to learn the basic idea behind guitar tab, and although it has its limitations, it is a good way to learn how to play chords.

The simplest and most immediate way to learn chords is by chord charts. Chord charts are basically pictures of the guitar strings showing you where to put your fingers to play chords. Chord charts do not take any time to learn to understand and they give you the freedom to get on with the job of learning how much pressure to exert to play your chords and how to place your fingers so that you do not muffle the strings.

Once you have chosen a way of learning to read chords, the next step is the physical work of learning how to play chords on a guitar. The simplest way to begin is to strum the guitar with a pick while you make the chord shapes with the fingers of your left hand. The pick is held firmly between the thumb and first finger of your right hand. You must hold your hand so the pick strikes the strings cleanly without scraping.

When you first begin to play chords it is a good idea to choose a chord that is easy on the left hand like the E minor or C major chord in the first position. When you have your fingers in the correct positions, try strumming the chord. The sound should be clean with each of the strings sounding without the left hand fingers brushing against them causing the notes to stop sounding.

You have now played your first chord. The next step in learning how to play chords on a guitar is changing from one chord to another. Again, you should take care that your fingers only touch the strings they are supposed to touch, so careful practice is called for.

The video lesson is for guitarists who want to be more focused in their use of chords. By selecting which notes you play in each chord you get the power to express yourself in a more individual way:

Here is the url for this lesson on chords so you can follow the rest of Aaron’s chord lessons on YouTube.

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And here is the amazing Justin Sandercoe with a video guitar lesson on the A and E chords.

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There is more info at the Basics Of Guitar blog on how to change chords fast.

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You can make learning barre chords less arduous by relaxing your arm as you finger the chord shapes and seeing how best to place your arm and you hand to grip the guitar with only the necessary amount of force. For some reason many learner guitar players try to place the first finger flat and straight on the fretboard to play barre chords. You will find that if you allow your first finger to move a little in the direction of your thumb so that it is sitting almost on its side, your hand will be more comfortable and you sound cleaner.

Here is a video from justinguitar on getting your barre chords right:

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e————————|

B————1———–|

G—–2——0———–|

D—–2——2———–|

A—–0—2–3———–|

E-0———————-|

The chords we use for these notes are A minor and C major.

This video gives an intro to guitar chord solo playing using Three Blind Mice:

If you are going to be a guitar player with some understanding and mastery of not only your guitar, but also of music, you are going to have to learn some chords. The good news is that of the blinding number of chords you will find in a chord dictionary or jazz guitar tutor, there is only a handful that are really necessary to learn today’s music.

You will need to learn the chords A B C D E F and G - major and minor. You can start with the open chords which means you will be playing within the first three frets on the guitar, and stay with these as you learn how seventh and ninth chords enhance your playing. After that, you can learn the basic barre chord shapes and the way they can make your playing sound more interesting.

As you learn new chords, you will be putting them to use in songs that you like. Otherwise you are going to get bored learning and practicing chord fingerings alone. The open chords are all pretty easy once you get the knack of pressing down on the strings without muffling the adjacent strings.

Here is a video on learning and practicing new chords:

Bear in mind that as you get a collection of chords to learn guitar you totally ignore any impulse you might have to play fast. Speed comes by itself the more you practice. You main concerns at the moment are precision and relaxation. It will seem like impossibly slow work, but that’s the way you need to do it.

If you want to speed up the job of trying to learn chords for guitar, it is best to allocate half an hour a day to practice. At least. Remember that you are not only learning the chord fingerings but also practicing changing from one chord to another.

As you learn your chords, you will gradually be able to change chords while you keep in time with the music. Again, you will be playing slowly at first as you become more convinced that you DO need chords to learn guitar, your confidence and speed will both grow.

The first chords you will be learning will be open chords in the first position on the fretboard. If you do not have some songs to learn but you want to learn some chords, start with simple ones like E major and A major. Practicing the changes between these two will get your fingers into guitar chord mode.

Learning chords as you need them for songs, and using a chord dictionary as your resource makes you reliant on the chord charts for the fingerings you need and on the sheet music or tab for the chords you use for any song. There is nothing wrong with this way of learning chords. It’s just that you can learn some basic ideas behind the use of chords in music and, if you like, you can learn the locations of the notes on the guitar fretboard which will give you the freedom to choose which notes in which position you use to make up your chords.

However you learn guitar chords, it’s always easier with someone showing you the chord fingerings on video:

If you want to learn how to play guitar chords you will be learning new muscular habits. You will be practicing a new chord shape until your fingers automatically take that shape without you having to think about it. Part of this process is learning to take the new chord shape from many different starting points. You will naturally be learning the new chord shape starting with your hand at rest, but it’s important to be able to take any guitar chord shape from any OTHER shape.

The video shows a great way to make new guitar chords easy to learn using the chords you already know. Not only does this method of learning guitar chords work but it also helps cut down the drudgery of routine practice. And remember that you can also learn more than one new chord at a time using this method. Just don’t go too quickly.