Basic Guitar Chords

The easiest chords to play on the guitar are the Major, Minor and Seventh chords in open voicings. These chords use open strings and no more than three fingers, and they don't go into the higher positions of the guitar. The ease in playing these chords makes them the best for beginners to learn. This article will show them in two different ways: fretboard diagrams, and tablature (Tab).

A quick review of chord symbols: Uppercase letters indicate Major chords, a chord with a lowercase "m" indicates a minor chord, and a "7" indicates that the chord is a seventh chord.

Fretboard Diagrams

• Open circles indicate open strings.
• Dark, filled in circles indicate the spots on the frets where you put your fingers.
• The "X" symbol tells you to not play a string.
  

Tablature

Minor Scales

(You may want to read an introduction to scales first.)

There are three types of Minor Scales: Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor.

Natural Minor

The Natural Minor scale has the following pattern of half-steps (H) and whole-steps (W):

W-H-W-W-H-W-W

Here is a Natural Minor scale starting on F:

Harmonic Minor

The Harmonic Minor scale has the following pattern of half-steps, whole-steps and one augmented second (A2):

W-H-W-W-H-A2-H

Here is a Harmonic Minor scale starting on F:

Melodic Minor

The Melodic Minor scale is different because when we go up the scale we use one pattern and when we go down the scale we use another.

The ascending pattern is: W-H-W-W-W-W-H

The descending pattern is the Natural Minor Scale: W-H-W-W-H-W-W

Here are the ascending and descending patterns for the Melodic Minor scale starting on F:

Learn about more Scales