How to Learn Guitar Chords Pointers

Why Learn Guitar Chords?

You must be able to learn guitar chords to be able to play songs. You cannot play an entire song on a single string; you must know chords for that. Single string play is what kids who have no idea about playing guitar do, not someone who knows how to play the guitar.

In this article, we will discuss what guitar chords are. We will also discuss some of the problems you may face as a beginner when you learn guitar chords, and how to overcome these problems.

Things to Know Before You Learn Guitar Chords

As a beginner, you must be wondering how difficult it would probably be to learn guitar chords. You also must be having numerous questions running in your mind. 'Where do I start?' is a very common question. The answer is obvious: start at the beginning; learn what a guitar chord is.

The dictionary states that a chord is the sound that emanates from a musical instrument when you hit a minimum of three pitches simultaneously. For someone who is learning the guitar, what this means is you need to hit the strings together with the fingers of the strumming hand, while holding down the strings at specific positions on the fretboard with the fingers of the other hand, to produce the required sound.

There are a number of guitar chords - simple and complex. When you start to learn guitar, you learn the easier chords first. These chords are called simple guitar chords, or beginners' guitar chords. The easiest chords to learn are G Major, C Major, and D Major. Once you learn these chords, you can go on to work on the more complex ones.

A Few Problem you May Face While Learning Guitar Chords

When you learn guitar chords, you have to be able to hold down the different strings of the guitar across strategic locations on the fretboard. Each chord has a specific positioning of specific fingers. This gives rise to three basic problems:

- Acute pain in the fingers arising from holding down strings with fingers stretched.
- Pain, numbness, and sometimes even blistering of the soft skin on the fingers.
- Inability to switch chords rapidly.

The problems mentioned above are universal to everyone when they practice chords for the first time. As with all problems, these too have solutions.

The pain in the fingers is because they are not used to being stretched thus. The best way of countering the pain is to exercise your fingers before your daily practice sessions. Practice stretching your fingers over the frets, playing single strings as you do this. This exercise stretches your fingers, while also enabling you to increase the speed with which you move the fingers across the frets.

The numbness and blistering of the soft skin is because of the skin rubbing against the sharp-edged strings for long periods of time. You can counter this by rubbing methyl alcohol over the skin of the fingers prior to practice.

The stiffness of the fingers and inability to change chords rapidly is because you have never done something like this ever before. Learn the proper finger positions for the different chords. Once you are familiar with this, practice changing chords. Your speed will increase with practice, and the stiffness will disappear.