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Guitar basics: Perfect open chords
Check out this video lesson
The MusicRadar Team, Tue 18 Mar 2008, 9:17 am UTC
Fretting chords accurately is an essential part of guitar playing (© MusicRadar)
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Fretting chords can be a tricky business, especially if you've just started playing. There are quite a few factors to bear in mind, like finger and thumb positioning, fretting accuracy and strumming the correct strings.
It's worth taking the time to get your technique right at the beginning of your playing 'career' as it's more difficult to undo poor technique once it's been ingrained over a period of time. Although it can be frustrating working on seemingly insignificant changes to your technique, like small change in thumb position, it will pay off when you can fret chords perfectly without thinking about it.
This tutorial shows you how to position your fingers and thumb correctly to avoid fret buzz and dead strings as well as showing you how to avoid unnecessary tension that may cause damage to your precious fretting hand.
We've also put together a set of 10 chords that we feel every guitarist should know. Make sure you learn the names as well as the finger patterns.
Also check out our lesson on fretting tips for more information on good basic guitar technique.
User comments (4)
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I'm not a complete beginer but I am not excatly a new Sam from Dragonforce and before watching this vid i wasant very good at chords but now Ima little better!
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Do some shredding on that guitar! It's an ESP, play some metal!
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good advice i wosent very good at chords before (i havent been playing for long)but now im (a bit) better!
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Excellent advice here but think on this:
Open G chord played with fingers 1,2,3 slows down changes to C or D because the hand has to rotate to change the chord. Try 2,3 4 instead - 2&3 can then move together to any of G C or D chords. I started with 1,2,3 like most people do (nobody told me any better), but my playing didn't slicken up until I learnt to use 2,3,4. Some people take to 2,3,4 straightaway, others prefer 1,2,3 until they get used to working the pinky. (2 on 5th, 3 on 6th, 4 on 1st ... BTW using 2,3,4 allows 1 to play Gsus4 on 1st fret of the B string, or boogie on the 2nd fret of the D string.) Try it!
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guitarmaster
Wed 23 Jul 2008, 7:12 pm UTC