Basic Chords of Guitar (Part-1):  by Sablu Mukesh

Introduction:

Dear Readers and the beginners, I have immense pleasure and take my privilege to publish these contexts on Guitar chords as many readers/members have shown their keen interest in knowing and learning about Guitar Chords. I am sure many of them will be well acquainted with playing and knowing about Guitar Chords. This context, I hope will be much helpful for the guitar beginners/amateur players. To be honestly expressing, I learned guitar by my own musical sense and skill through the grace of Almighty who being my Guru, gave me the power to devote myself and learn at my level best. And so, I have been putting my best efforts and also simultaneously imparting free education to my students.  Since this is the first context, I depicted the basic part with respect to the Guitar basic major chords and minor chords. 

Chord: It’s a combination of more than one, two or three notes in the musical aspect simultaneously to produce melody in sound. The word note in the musical aspect, we refer to the Sargam part. Say Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa and in Guitar, we use a combination of these above mentioned notes, which is known in Guitar language as Do, Re, Mi, Fa So, La Ti Do. The seven Surs or Notes are the base in music and for any composition of song, these surs play paramount role which only give the true concept of various Raags and based on Raags, songs are composed. Chord produces a specific melody in sound in order to match the scale and octave of the songs. It is mandatory to have all the strings properly tuned as per the scale basis. Mainly in guitar musical instrument which is physically strings based instrument, a combination of two, three or even sometime four strings’ notes make one single chord. Generally a combination of three strings’ notes or only two strings’ notes are mostly used as a chord style playing in guitar, exceptionally four strings’ notes are used at some complicated style of playing and also depending upon the type and variation of songs, but it produce more melody with good pitching. As a whole, we can say that chord is known as the key and soul part to play on Guitar which is more popular and mandatory in particularly Western Style of Music apart from Hindi Music.  I am depicting some basic major chords with support of diagrams and symbols which will help the beginners to identify the root very easily. The following figures have been drawn and depicted by me in order to make the conception more apparent to the learners.

Basic Chords of Guitar:

Major Chords: A major, B major, C major, D major, E major, F major and G major. In alphabetical expression, they are figured as simply A, B, C, D, E, F and G and so the other major chords.

I have depicted the diagram of major chords.

Minor Chords: A minor, B minor, C minor, D minor, E minor, F minor and G minor.

In alphabetical expression, they are figured as Am, Bm, Cm, Dm, Em, Fm and Gm.

In my next publication (part-2), I will be depicting diagram of minor chords of guitar along with all other types of chords.

         Diagram of Basic Guitar Major Chords: In the following diagram, at the very bottom mentioned fret word is a divided segment of guitar or say a line divided in guitar as a section which helps understand the sequence of strings and notes. I have depicted the dotted lines as a symbol of guitar’s string and 0 means finger as well as alphabetical sign ABGDAE as a particular number of guitar strings. From right, E is the very first string of guitar, B is the second, G is the third, D is the fourth, A is the fifth, and finally E is the last sixth string of guitar. The symbol [x] means the particular string of guitar should not be used while strumming.

. [..........]..........]..........]     E                                                                         
. [..........]....0…]..........]     B
. [........ .]....0....]..........]     G
. [..........]....0....]..........]     D
. [..........]......... ]..........]     A        

x[..........]..........]..........]     E

   Fret 1    Fret 2    Fret 3                         A major chord

[Put your index finger on 4^rth string of guitar at fret 2, middle finger on 3^rd string at fret 2 and ring finger on 2^nd string at fret 2. These combinations make a set of chord A. press gently and strum the strings]                                                    

. [......0..]..........].........]     E
. [..........]....…  ]......0.]     B
. [........ .]..........]......0.]     G
. [..........]..........]......0.]     D
. [..........]..........].........]     A          
x[..........]..........].........]     E

   Fret 2    Fret 3    Fret 4                         B major chord

[Put your index finger on 1st string at fret 2, middle finger on 4^th string at fret 4, ring finger on 3^rd string at fret 4 and finally the last thin finger on 2nd string at fret 4. These combinations make a set of chord B. Press gently and strum the strings]                                                    

. [..........]..........]..........]     E
. [.....0...]..........]..........]     B
. [........ .]..........]..........]     G
. [..........].....0...]..........]     D
. [..........]..........].....0...]     A          
x [.........]..........]..........]     E
    
   Fret 1    Fret 2    Fret 3                      C major chord

[Put your index finger on 2^nd string of guitar at fret 1, middle finger on 4^th string at fret 2 and ring finger on 5^th string at fret 3. These combinations make a set of chord C. Press gently and strum the strings]                                                    

    
. [..........].....0...]..........]     E    
. [..........]..........]......0..]     B                  D major chord
 .[......... ].....0...]..........]     G
. [..........]..........]..........]     D
. [..........]..........]..........]     A
x[..........]..........]..........]     E
    
   Fret 1    Fret 2    Fret 3

[Put your index finger on 3^rd string of guitar at fret 2, middle finger on 1^st string at fret 2 and ring finger on 2^nd string at fret 3. These combinations make a set of chord D. Press gently and strum the strings]                                                    

.[..........].........]..........]     E    
.[..........].........]......... ]     B                  E major chord
.[....0... ].........]..........]     G
.[..........].....0..]..........]     D
.[..........].....0. ]..........]     A
.[..........].........]..........]     E
    
   Fret 1    Fret 2    Fret 3

[Put your index finger on 3^rd string of guitar at fret 1, ring finger on 4^th string at fret 2 and middle finger on 5^th string at fret 2. These combinations make a set of chord E. Press gently and strum the strings]                                                    

.[....0....].........]...........]     E    
.[....0…].........]...........]     B                  F major chord
.[......... ].....0..]...........]     G
.[..........].......  ].......0..]     D
.[..........].........].......0..]     A
.[..........].........]...........]     E
    
   Fret 1    Fret 2    Fret 3

[Put your index finger on 1st string and 2^nd string at fret 1, middle finger on 3rd string at fret 2, ring finger on 5^th string at fret 3 and finally the last thin finger on 4^th string at fret 3. These combinations make a set of chord F. Press gently and strum the strings]                                                    

.[..........]......... ]....0...]     E    
.[..........]......... ].........]     B                  G major chord
.[......... ]......... ].........]     G
.[..........]......... ].........]     D
.[..........].....0...].........]     A
.[..........]..........]...0....]     E
    
   Fret 1    Fret 2    Fret 3

[Put your index finger on 2^nd string of guitar at fret 2, middle finger on 6^th string at fret 3 and ring finger on 1^st string at fret 3. These combinations make a set of chord G. press gently and strum the strings]                                                    

[Note: Sequentially, I will be depicting all the chords combination, playing techniques, guitar scales and octaves in the coming further publications of mine. Readers and learners are welcome to place any queries pertaining to the subject matter. I welcome with my pleasure and also I would like to know from the readers and learners how far they liked my blog. I will appreciate their valuable comments and recommendation to my blogs.]