Learning to play the guitar like a master might seem like an uphill battle. But you can instantly improve your guitar playing if you start out with the simple, easy chords. Learning to play the simple chords first will ensure you learn the right technique and it gives you better chances of mastering the difficult chords later.

E Minor also known as Em

Em is one of the easiest chords to learn. It only requires you to hold on to two strings on the fret. In order to play the Em chord, you need to place your middle finger on the fifth string and the ring finger on the fourth string. On a tab, Em chord looks like this:

|——– |
|——– |
|——– |
|—3— |
|—2— |
|——– |

Remember, when you are reading the tabs the top of the guitar (when you hold it) is actually displayed at the bottom of the tab. It is also important to note, the first string is the bottom string of the guitar and the sixth string is the top string.

E Major

Once you master the Em, it is easy to learn to play the E major or E chord. All you need to do is press down the third string with your index finger. The tab for E major looks like this:

|——– |——– |
|——– |——– |
|—1— |——– |
|——– |—3— |
|——– |—2— |
|——– |——– |

A Minor

Once you master these two chords, you can learn to play the A minor chord. Again, this is going to be very easy since all you need to do is to move your E major finger position down one string for each finger. Your middle finger plays the fourth string, your ring finger rests on the third string and your index finger is pressing down the second string. The tab for A minor is:

|——– |——– |
|—1— |——– |
|——– |—3— |
|——– |—2— |
|——– |——– |
|——– |——– |

C Major

Once you’ve practiced playing the above chords, you can get a little change to your practise by moving onto the C major chord. Again, the difference to A minor isn’t anything too drastic. Your first finger is still on the second string and your middle finger remains on the fourth string as well. But your ring finger moves on to the fifth string, on the first fret of C note. The tab for C major is:

|——– |——– |——– |
|—1— |——– |——– |
|——– |——– |——– |
|——– |—2— |——– |
|——– |——– |—3— |
|——– |——– |——– |

If you want to understand the guitar fret board better, you can check out this GuitarGear.org blog post. There are some simple exercises there to teach you the frets better as well.

D Major

D major finally changes things up a bit and gives you some new positions to practise on. On D major chord, you place your first finger on the third string, your middle finger on the sixth string and your ring finger on the second string. On a tab it would look like this:

|——– |—2— |——– |
|——– |——– |—3— |
|——– |—1— |——– |
|——– |——– |——– |
|——– |——– |——– |
|——– |——– |——– |

A Major

A major is a perfect beginner chord, because it gives you the option to use different playing techniques. You can either use three different fingers to play the A major chord or opt to use only your index finger. On a tab, A major looks like this:

|——– |
|—3— |
|—2— |
|—1— |
|——– |
|——– |

You can find great finger strength exercises from Guitar Cardio. These are great for boosting your skills and will make playing all these different notes a lot easier.

The above chords are great guitar chords for beginners. They are easy to learn and will be used in a majority of the songs. You can find the best guitar songs for beginners from our blog to take your chord practise to the next level.