Watching someone who plays a guitar is really entertaining and romantically appealing. It even attracts aspiring guitar enthusiast to learn the same skill of a good guitarist. However to start with, the first thing a newbie must do is to learn how to read a chord diagram. This post will introduce the basics and fundamentals of learning to play guitar which is the chord reading. So let’s start with what is a Chord.
Chord
A chord is a combination of several notes to blend together harmoniously. In guitar, this combination of notes is reached by plucking or strumming several strings together. Those notes are varied by the number of strings plucked/strummed together and fret at which the string is pressed or left “open”. Thus you will see in a chord representation the patterns and combination of which strings to strum, press, pluck and at which fret the pressing should be applied. Below are the different representation of a chord in the world of playing Guitar.
Chord Diagram
A chord diagram is an illustration which represents the neck of the guitar. The 6 vertical lines in the diagram represent the 6 strings of the guitar whose numbering range from 1 to 6 starting from right to left. These strings can also be represented as notes E, B, G , D, A and E respectively.
Meanwhile, the first horizontal line is called as the nut of the guitar. And the area between every two horizontal lines is called a Fret. Thus the first area after the nut is the 1st fret followed by 2nd fret, 3rd and so on.
Let’s take a look at the sample of chord diagram of A. (see below image)
The block dots in the diagram above show which strings to press down with your fingers. While the numbers below those dots indicate which specific finger to use for each string. (see list below)
- 1 —–> Index Finger
- 2 —–> Middle Finger
- 3 —–> Ring Finger
- 4 —–> Pinky Finger
The “x” on top of the chord diagram means mute, telling not to play that specific string. While the “o” on top of the diagram means open or you do have to play that string.
So to play the A chord, press down your index finger on the 4th string, 2nd Fret. Press down your middle finger on the 3rd string, 2nd fret and press down you ring finger on the 2nd string, 2nd fret. The 6th string is muted while the 1st and 5th string are played open. Now try to strum all those five strings simultaneously up and down.
Numeric Chord
As the music industry improves, so as the representation of a chord. Another way to represent it is through a numeric way. Instead showing the position of dots in a fret, a chord will be notated in just string of characters. So for the same example, the Chord A is represented as:
x02220
From these string of characters, the string numbering starts from 1 to 6 starting from right to left. Similar to chord diagram, the “x” and “0” are known as mute and “open” respectively. While the numbers represent the fret at which the string number needs to be pressed. So for this numeric chord notation, the pressing of the 2nd, 3rd & 4th strings take place in the 2nd fret only.
This type of chord representation is also becoming widely known as it is faster than generating a chord diagram. The only disadvantage is that the assignment of the specific finger to use on each string is not shown. However this should not be a big deal because you can opt any of your fingers which you deem more comfortable and convenient to use as long as you are pressing the right sting on the right fret.
Tab Chord
Another notation to represent a chord is through TAB (short for tablature). A Tab is like a combination of chord diagram and numeric chord. You will see all 6 strings of the guitar laid out like a chord diagram while showing the numbers of fret at which the strings are needed to be pressed down. The first broken horizontal line represents the 1st string (or first low e-string) while the second broken horizontal string is the B string and so on. Below is the tablature of chord A:
A CHORD
e:-------0--------------------------------------------| B:-------2--------------------------------------------| G:-------2--------------------------------------------| D:-------2--------------------------------------------| A:-------0--------------------------------------------| E:-------x--------------------------------------------|
This kind of chord representation can be expanded to plot all your chords of the entire song including your extra notes and ad lib. Thus this notation is the best way and accurate to depict in detail the plucking, strumming and brushing of guitar strings needed to play a specific music.
So now, if you see these kinds of chord representation in any guitar tutorial sites or song books, you should be able to interpret it and play it without any problem. You can try to check other tabs and chords and try to read and play it and see if you really understand it if your guitar will sound like close to the original sound. If you want, you can also try to check out my own guitar tabs and chords of some few music I love under the same post category, Music.
I hope you learned a lot from here! Thanks!
