How To Play Chords

Hold your fretting hand out in front of you and pretend you’re holding a ball. Now place your thumb flat on the back of the neck of the guitar and lower the tips of your fingers onto the fretboard in the shape of a chord. This is the hand shape you want to have for the perfect hand position for learning chords. Use the tips of your fingers to press the chord down behind the frets Staying on the tips of your fingers ensures that will not be muting any of the surrounding strings.

To learn and memorize chords, place your fingers on the fretboard in the shape of a chord. Start with 1 chord, a C chord. Look at the chord for 15 seconds as you hold it and memorize what the chord shape looks like. Then look away from the chord for 15 seconds and think about what the chord feels like. Strum the chord for a count of 8 and then play each note of the chord one note at a time to see if it rings clear.

Now remove your hand from the fretboard shake it out and repeat the process. Stay relaxed when you the play chords.

As for now don’t worry about switching chords, just work on each chord shape. Once you feel that you know the chord shape you can begin to switch between chords. Start with C and Am chords and then G and D chords working up to more complex chord progressions.

Once you have memorized two chord shapes like C and Am, visualize the chord you’re going to switch to before you switch. For an example as you make the C chord start to visualize the Am chord shape before you need to switch to it. This will help you to transition from chord to chord cleanly.