Thursday 31 January 2013

Em Guitar Chord | Beginners Guitar Chords

The Eminor guitar chord (also written as Em), is an easy guitar chord shape to play. You can start with an E Major guitar chord and remove your first finger.
em guitar chord
Em guitar chord
Here's the fingering for the Em guitar chord, it's typically played with your 2nd and 3rd fingers as in the photo, but it's common to play it with the 1st and 2nd fingers too.
e minor guitar chord | beginners guitar chords

As you can tell from changing between E major and E minor, there is only note difference between major and minor chords.

Eminor uses these notes: E, G, B
Minor chords use the scale degrees: 1, b3, 5

Minor chords have a sad sound compared to major chords. Try this chord together with the G major guitar chord and check the full list of beginners guitar chords

Wednesday 30 January 2013

E Guitar Chord | Beginners Guitar Chords

The E Guitar chord is an easy guitar shape to play and works really well with A Major and D Major guitar chords to play lots of your favourite songs.

E major guitar chord


To play the E Major Guitar Chord, put your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the A string, your 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the D string and your 1st finger on the 1st fret of the G string.

As ever, use the tips of your fingers and play each string to make sure each of the notes is sounding clearly.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Allan Holdsworth Chords

Virtuoso guitarist Allan Holdsworth was born in Leeds, UK in 1946. Holdsworth is known for his legato lead lines but his chord use is equally interesting. In today’s we’ll start a new series looking at how Allan Holdsworth approaches chords.

Holdsworth is known for his unusual chord voicings that often involve large stretches and his approach to using chords: rather than following diatonic chord progressions, Allan approaches chords as groups of notes that imply a certain scale, thinking of chords as belonging to a certain key, which imply a given diatonic scale. 

You can then play any note that is diatonically correct for that scale that sounds good. For example if playing a C major chord, the chords may not necessarily be an inversion of any kind of C Major chord, but just something that comes from the scale.

This is quite different to the more traditional jazz approach of playing chord changes.

Creating A Chord Scale
  • Play a chord inversion, ideally one that is a little ambiguous and not a standard triad or seventh chord.
  • Move each note of the chord up to the next note of the scale you're using
  • Continue moving the chord through the scale and use all of these possible chords to play
Here we take one inversion and take it through the C Major scale. This chord uses the notes G, C, D and A. Although this chord is labelled D11 here, Allan would use this chord in place of any diatonic chord from C major. 
allan holdsworth chords
Allan Holdsworth guitar chord1


Raise each note to the next note in the scale and we end up with the same inversion two frets higher, here named E11 but again used for any diatonic C Major chord. We change from:
  • G, C, D, A to
  • A, D, E, B 
allan holdsworth chords
Allan Holdsworth Guitar Chord2


Raise each note to the next note in the scale. We change from:
  • A, D, E, B  to
  • B, E, F, C
This time we have a different inversion
allan holdsworth chords
Allan Holdsworth Guitar Chord3

Raise each note to the next note in the scale. We change from:
  • B, E, F, C to
  • C, F, G, D 

allan holdsworth chords
Allan Holdsworth Guitar Chord4


Raise each note to the next note in the scale. We change from:
  • C, F, G, A  to
  • D, G, A, E
allan holdsworth chords
Allan Holdsworth Guitar Chord5


Raise each note to the next note in the scale. We change from:
  • D, G, A, E to
  • E, A, B, F
allan holdsworth chords
Allan Holdsworth Guitar Chord 6


Raise each note to the next note in the scale. We change from:
  • E, A, B, F to
  • F, B, C, G
allan holdsworth chords
Allan Holdsworth Guitar Chord7


Allan Holdsworth chords. Play combinations of these over any C major chord e.g:

  • C major
  • D minor7
  • E minor7
  • F major7
  • G7
  • A minor 7
  • B half diminished
You'll find more Allan Holdsworth chords in these other posts.

B7 Guitar Chord | Beginners Guitar Chords

The B7 guitar chord is a really useful chord for beginners to learn. Played together with E Major and A Major chords it can be used to play countless songs from 50's rock 'n' roll, through to contemporary pop.
B7 Guitar Chord


To play this guitar chord shape, put your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the A string, 1st finger on the 1st fret of the D string. 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the G string and your little finger on the 2nd fret of the top E String.
B7 guitar chord

The B7 chord uses the notes: B, D#, F# A

Saturday 26 January 2013

Am Guitar Chord | Beginners Guitar Chords

The A minor guitar chord, is one of the first minor chords that acoustic or electric guitar players learn. Minor chords have a sad sound compared to major chords. Am is an easy guitar chord shape to play and an easy guitar chords for beginners.
am guitar chord
Aminor guitar chord

Put your first finger on the 1st fret of the B string, your second finger on the 2nd fret of the D string and your 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the G string.
a minor guitar chord

The A minor guitar chord can be written as Am or A minor. Try playing this together with the C major chord and check back soon for another guitar chord of the day.

D Guitar Chord | Beginners Guitar Chords

If you're learning how to play guitar chords for acoustic or electric guitar, the D Guitar Chord, is one of the first guitar chords to learn. Reading guitar chord diagrams is easy, each of the 6 vertical lines represent a string, the horizontal lines represent frets and the dots show you where to put your fingers.
d guitar chord | beginners guitar chords
D guitar chord


The D guitar chord is an easy chord for beginners to learn. Put your first finger on 2nd fret of the G string, your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the E string and your 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the B string.

There are lots of easy guitar chord shapes for beginners to learn. Look through all of the basic guitar chords and you'll know how to play guitar chords that can be used easily in thousands of songs.

Friday 25 January 2013

A Guitar Chord | Beginner Guitar Chords

The A Guitar Chord, is one of the first guitar chords we all learn to play. Reading guitar chord diagrams is easy, each of the 6 vertical lines represent a string, the horizontal lines represent frets and the dots show you where to put your fingers.
a guitar chord
A major guitar chord


The A guitar chord is an easy chord for beginners to learn. Put your first finger on 2nd fret of the D string, your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the G string and your 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the B string.
a guitar chord


There are lots of easy guitar chord shapes for beginners to learn. Look through all of the beginners guitar chords and you'll know how to play guitar chords that can be used easily in thousands of songs.