Guitar For Beginners - Easy Minor Chords - Lesson 2

During our last lesson we learned a great finger exercise for warming up and getting your fingers used to holding down the strings and putting your fingers in the right place. Remember, it's important to always put your finger as close to the fret as possible without being on top! That is true for anything, whether you are playing single notes or playing chords. In the last lesson we also learned the E major and A major chord. These are the perfect starting chords because later on when we get into intermediate lessons those shapes will really come into play. It's also a lot of fun to play these chords as a beginner because the change isn't too difficult and they sound awesome.

It's important to understand a core concept about music that we'll cover a little bit today. As a beginner guitar player you should understand at least two basic chord qualities; major and minor. As I said we covered two major chords in lesson one and now we'll cover those same chords but the minor versions. We can get into what makes chords major or minor later on but for now you should train you ear to hear major as a happier brighter sounding chord, and minor as a darker sadder tone. So let's cover E and A minor now. First try E minor (Em)

So if you tried E major before you'll notice that making the chord minor just means taking your first finger off of the third string first fret. When you're playing this chords you can strum every string leaving all of them open (meaning let them ring using no fingers) except for the strings indicated in the diagram. This is a very full sounding chord that you can have a lot of fun with. Next try A minor(Am)

Now you should notice that this is the exact same shape as the E major chord but with each finger moved down a string. You may also recall that I recommend as a beginner to play A major with an open b string (second string). This is to illustrate the idea that E and A chords are mirror opposites. I also want you to split your chords up into chord pairs. So when you are practicing practice changing between chord pairs. The first pair you should practice is E major to A major. The next pair you should work on is E minor to A minor. Pairing chord changes together makes the changes easier to manage and has you playing consistently in key. Keep up the good work! Rock On!

How To Play Guitar - Beginners

Here's some cool chord shapes to play if you're just starting out! When you're learning how to play the guitar you have to make sure you learn the basics first and don't learn bad habits that will get you into trouble. A great exercise to start with is the 1234 exercise.
This exercise just uses the corresponding finger with the corresponding fret. Start on the first fret first string using your first finger, then use your second finger for the second fret first string, third finger third fret, and pinky for the fourth fret. Repeat on all strings.



This is a great one to practice as a warm up and to improve finger dexterity. Next try a chord. Chords are a little different from picking single notes as now we are playing multiple notes and multiple strings at once. Try playing this E chord

Notice the proper use of your fingers. Yes, your third finger is on the D string and second finger on the A.  A lot of self taught musicians play those notes backwards and that is a bad habit. The 0's also indicate an open string so you strum all the strings for this chord. A good way to practice is to pick each string individually to you're sure every note is sounding. Try changing to this chord!

Important: This is an A chord but as a beginner I encourage you to leave out the third finger on the second string second fret and just leave the string open! This will still be a beautiful sounding chord and will have you easily changing between E and A.
Learning how to play guitar means you have to develop muscle memory for chord changes it also means developing good habits. The first exercise is something you should sit down and practice whenever you have a chance. No, it's not the most exciting thing to do when it comes to playing the guitar but it does help. It means you'll be able to play more difficult things as you progress and be able to easily learn new concepts. Playing E and A on the other hand will make that guitar sound good and it's an excellent change to master if you're just starting out. Play back and forth as much as possible and soon you'll have that muscle memory down and it will be second nature. Even try switching without strumming at first just get used to the hand movement. Rock On!