Guitar Chords: Five That Are Easy To Play

• September 27, 2016
• Guitar Lessons

Let's take a look at five easy guitar chords. These chords are a fundamental part of every guitarists repertoire. We'll include the most popular shapes and give you some helpful exercises and pro tips to get you sounding great ASAP. Once you master these chords you will  be able to play hundreds, if not thousands of popular songs. So grab your favorite axe, tune it up and get ready for some serious strumming.

First of the Easiest Guitar Chords is G

Probably the most popular chord in the history of guitar. There are a few popular ways to play this chord. We like this one the best because it sounds nice and full. Plus it's easy to transition to C2 (more on that later). Here's the shape:

Here are the obstacles: you're fingers do not use these muscles in this way for anything else in your life. Give them a little time to adjust. It probably won't sound awesome at first but by the time you take your fingers off of the frets and put them back on for the tenth time, the notes will start sounding better and your fingers won't be fighting you as much.

Pro tip: You don't have to push down super hard. It's more about finger placement, then extreme pressure. Give your digits a break and get as close to the fret as possible.

The Second Easiest Guitar Chord is C2

This chord is immensely popular and it's an easy transition from G. Just look at the similarities. You just have to move your first and second finger up a string. Okay, technically you're moving your fingers down a string but we call it up because you're moving them to a higher pitched string.

Okay, now you're ready to play "Every Rose has its thorn" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j2r2nDhTzO4 Just play G C2 G C2 etc. Actually this is one of the best ways to get fluid at chord changes. You just switch back and forth between two chords. The transition will get easier and take less time with each repetition.

Pro tip: Refrain from holding a chord too long. It will hurt your finger tips and wear out the tiny little muscles in your fingers. Just place your fingers in the right spot, strum a few times and release. Pretty soon you'll find muscle memory working in your favor and you won't have to tell each finger what to do.

The Third Easiest Guitar Chord is D

Moving right along. This one is a completely different shape. It's time to give those fingers a fun little challenge before getting to the easiest of the easy guitar chords- E minor.

As you play through the D for the first time you may feel like we wrote down the wrong fingers. It's correct. First (G) third (B), then second (High E). The reason for this is twofold. It will help you make smoother transitions to G and C2, and it will be easier to play other polar forms of D like D2 and Dsus.

Pro tip: Make sure that you're not hitting any extra open strings when you strum these guitar chords. For instance, only strum the D through high E when playing the D chord. Also, Keep your eyes on your left hand when playing guitar. Allow your right hand to figure out what to play by feel.

The Fourth Easiest Guitar Chord is E minor

The easiest of all the easy guitar chords-- Time to kick back relax and strum one of the easiest guitar chords in existence, the E minor chord. Side note:Minor Chords are usually anotated with a small m, i.e. , Em. Major chords don't have any special annotations so if you see a capitol letter by itself, know that it's probably a major chord. Without further ado, let's take a look at this wonderfully simple chord.

This is an easy chord by itself, but it will still be a challenge to switch between chords so let's take a look at a few exercises that will have you changing chords like a champ. Choose any two chords from your growing repertoire and switch between them 4 to 8 times. Ie G D G D G D G D. Then choose two more: Em C2 Em C2 Em C2 Em C2. Careful or you just might write a hit song.

Once you're feeling fluid with two chord changes move on to three chord progressions, and then four chord progressions. In order to play all of the songs that feature these chords, you will have to switch chords in a fraction of a second. Which requires muscle memory, which requires thousands of repetitions. Not to worry, these numbers rack up quick. Just know that you're chipping away at the magical number where everything clicks and  and just starts to happen automatically.

The Fifth Easiest Guitar Chord is A minor

The last, but definitely not least of the easy guitar chords will look at today is the little gem. This one is pretty similar to the E minor but on a different set of strings and with the addition of your first finger. This makes it pretty easy to switch to the Am from the Em but won't help you much when switching from Am to D. Here's the most common shape for the A minor.

Definitely go back and do the chord change exercise with all five of your new chords. These really will lay a great foundation for your guitar playing. Some methods of learning even go so far as to base their whole way of teaching around these five chords. Keep it fun by learning as many songs as you can that feature these chords. After all that's a huge part of playing guitar, just strumming and having fun with it!

Now that you have mastered five easy guitar chords the world is your oyster. There are a few more chords that are every bit as important as the previous five. Most of these are simple variations of the chords you just learned. These "bonus" chords will help you to expand your chord vocabulary without doing any extra heavy lifting. Here are the shapes for 5 more easy guitar chords just to keep you headed in the right direction.

You can learn many more tips and tricks from the pro instructors at Pro Lessons. Click the link below to get started. We make learning easy and fun!