Lesson 5
First Chords
Learning to play the three most basic open-string chords: E, A, and D.
Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!
At this point, pain will probably be searing through the muscles of your fretting hand. The truth is, they’re just not used to being forced into these new positions. And they might just be popping away from the fret board or across frets, muting the strings you want to hear. This is completely normal. If your left hand won’t behave itself, don’t be afraid to push the fingers back into place with your right hand.
Making a Noise
OK, this is it. We’re ready to start making music. Before we go on, just a note about music theory: at this point, we’re not going to even think about it. In my K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing the Guitar, I don’t bring it up until almost halfway through the book.
Although theory is useful for some players (and critical if you want to play classical pieces), it’s really not worth worrying about if you just want to thrash away at a few chords. You’ll get far more motivational value by hearing yourself play than understanding whole notes and four-four time.
So let’s make some noise! In this lesson you’ll learn how to play three different chords: E major, A major, and D major. That may not sound like much, but you’ll be surprised at how many famous songs — especially some of the oldies — you can play just using these three chords.
E Major
Your first chord is called “E” (or “E major” to be proper).
- Place the first finger of your fretting hand on the first fret of the third string. Make sure that the pad of your finger sits just behind the fret. Take care that it isn’t positioned on top of the fret or else the string will be muted and you won’t hear it very clearly.
- Position the second finger of your fretting hand on the second fret of the fifth string.
- Put the third finger of your fretting hand on the second fret of the fourth string.
- Now get ready. With a pick in your other hand (or just your fingernails, if you don’t have one), drag across all six strings from the bottom to the top.
Congratulations! You have just played your first chord. I bet that feels good.
Playing your first chord: the E major chord (illustrations courtesy of Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
Training Your Fingers
Try this exercise. Stand with the guitar strapped across your shoulder. Relax your arms, hanging them alongside your hips. Place your left hand around the back of your guitar’s neck and fret an E major. Hold your left hand in position for between 10 and 20 seconds and release your arm again. Repeat often and your fingers will soon understand what’s expected.
Another Chord
With your first triumph under your belt, you now can move on to your second chord. This one is “A” (or “A major”).
- Put your first finger on the second fret of the fourth string
- Put your second finger on the second fret of the third string
- Put your third finger on the second fret of the first string
- Strike the strings with the pick, but this time only play the top five strings.
Your second chord: A major (illustrations courtesy of Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
Now try playing that chord, but this time playing across all six strings. You’ll notice that it sounds quite different. The five-string version should sound somehow cleaner. The reason for this is that chords generally sound better when the “root note” — the note that defines the name of the chord (A in this case) — is the lowest-pitched note. Playing the sixth string in an A major chord is not incorrect (or even that uncommon), since the open sixth string is the note E, which (as you can see from the other notes that make up the chord) is a valid component of an A major chord.
Yet Another Chord
The third chord we’ll look at in this lesson is called D (or “D major”). Here’s how you play it:
- Put your first finger on the second fret of the third string
- Put your second finger on the second fret of the first string
- Put your third finger on the third fret of the second string
- Play across the top four strings with your pick
The final chord you’ll learn in this lesson: D major (illustrations courtesy of Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
As with A major, in the chord above, you could choose to play the open fifth string because that’s an A, which is a valid part of the D major chord. It’s up to you how you do it. However, one thing you can’t do is play the open sixth string. Why is that? Because that note is E, which is not a part of a D major chord.
There is a cheat’s six-string version of D major that you can play if your finger span is wide enough. Bend the thumb around the back of the neck and hold down the second fret of the sixth string — that note is called F sharp and it’s a part of D major. This method is considered improper, so don’t tell anyone you saw it here. It produces a great full sound, though.
Open-String Chords?
The chords you’ve so far been shown are all what can be termed “open-string” chords. This refers to the fact that they have been formed around the open (unfretted) strings of the guitar. Open chords are the easiest to form and play. Chords that are not open-string in nature are called “bar” chords. You’ll come across those in more detail in Lesson 10, but if you want to cheat ahead, you can check out pages 174-183 of the K.I.S.S. Guide.
Chord Fluency
You knew someone was going to mention the dreaded word practice sooner or later, didn’t you? Here you have it — harsh truth number one: you don’t get to be good without practice.
You’ve now learned the fingering for three simple chords. But for them to be of any use, you need to be able to shift from one chord shape to another somewhat smoothly. This will be extremely difficult at first. Unless you have a prodigious talent, you’re going to have to constantly stop to rework the finger positions. But don’t worry about it — before too long, they’ll become automatic.
To help you on your way, here is a series of exercises aimed at getting you fluent in moving between the three chords. Your job is to move from one chord to another as smoothly as possible. For now, don’t worry about timing — we’ll be coming on to that in a while. Just concentrate on getting the fingering right.
Playing this exercise over and over will help you remember the finger positions and become fluent at changing chords.
Chord Exercises
Exercise 1
E
E
D
A
Exercise 2
E
A
D
A
Exercise 3
A
D
E
A
Exercise 4
D
A
E
E
Exercise 5
A
E
D
E
Exercise 6
D
E
A
A
Exercise 7
E
D
A
D
Exercise 8
A
D
A
D
Moving Forward
Stay tuned for more! This has been a brief introduction to chords and how they are formed. Please don’t get frustrated — it all gets easier with practice. Remember to practice your E, A, and D. In the next lesson, we’ll delve into strumming and picking, and you’ll have something to do with the hand that’s not fretting! And don’t forget to do your homework.
Assignment: Practice Your First Three Chords
- Review Chapter 8 of the textbook, “Three Chord Tricks.”
- Practice the chords you learned in the lesson (E, A, and D).
- Try the exercise included at the end of the lesson.
- Check in with the Message Board to report your progress and find out how your fellow students are doing.
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Lesson 1
A Bit of History
A look at the way in which the guitar has evolved from its pre-Christian origins to the present day.
Our Textbook for This Course
Our textbook is a book I wrote for Dorling Kindersley’s Keep It Simple Series, K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing Guitar. This 432-page book includes chord charts galore, tips for buying your first guitar and gear (acoustic or electric), the basics of scales and keys, style tips for jazz, classical, country, and rock — plus an included CD that you can play along with as you get started.
The Popular Guitar
For much of the past 50 years, the guitar has been a major influence on the sound of popular music, and it’s easy to see why. Although the serious-minded student could spend a lifetime mastering the instrument’s nuances, just about anybody can invest a couple of days and learn enough simple chords to play along with some of their favorite songs.
If playing music is new to you, you may be surprised by how few chords are needed to play a whole lot of pop, rock, country, and folk music:
- Think about Elvis swinging his hips and thrashing out “Hound Dog” on his acoustic guitar. There are only three chords to “Hound Dog,” and you’ll be able to play them all by the end of Lesson 5.
- Think about John Denver singing and playing “Annie’s Song” (OK, it may not be the most pleasant thought). “Annie’s Song” features some neat finger picking (you’ll do that in Lesson 6) and some extra major and minor chords (which we’ll cover in Lessons 8 and 9).
- Now turn your mind to the rock anthem of the 90s, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The bulk of this classic is based on four bar chords — you’ll come across those in Lesson 10.
We’re not pretending that within the space of four weeks you’ll be an Eric Clapton, a B.B. King, or even that guy with the funny rubber mask in Slipknot. But you will be armed with the basics to enable you to take your playing in any direction you choose thereafter.
This is a pretty basic course — we can only go so far in five weeks. But if you’ve already got a bit of guitar experience and are still not sure if this course sounds right for you, try telling yourself these three statements:
- I can play the chord G minor 9-5
- I am familiar with the Myxolydian mode
- I know that a compression pedal is not something I’d find under the hood of my Dad’s automobile
If you can’t say all of the above truthfully, then this course is for you. What are you waiting for? Let’s get this show on the road.
Tuning
The standard modern-day guitar has six strings tuned to the notes E, A, D, G, B, and E. During the 16th century, most guitars featured four courses of strings tuned to C, F, A, and D. Five-course instruments also existed, adding a lower G.
The Ud
The guitar’s most significant ancestor found its way into Europe via the south of Spain following conquests by the Moors around 800 A.D. This Arabic stringed instrument was called the ud. The ud evolved over the centuries, spreading throughout Central and Northern Europe, giving rise to instruments such as the lute and the gittern.
Ancient History
The origins of the guitar are shrouded in a mystery that has been further confused by disagreement among music historians. The oldest truly recognizable ancestors of the guitar can only be traced back as far as the 14th century. But how they evolved up until that point, we can only guess. We do know, based on archeological discoveries made over the centuries, that stringed instruments certainly existed before those times.
The earliest evidence of stringed instruments can be seen in Babylonian clay reliefs discovered in Asia Minor. Dating back around 4000 years, images depict groups of musicians playing instruments from which the guitar probably evolved. These instruments shared important features with their modern counterparts, such as a fingerboard, frets, the use of more than two strings, and a resonating body capable of projecting sound. It seems likely that the volatile cultural landscape of the region, as well as the movements of the early merchants and traders, are likely to have spread the use and popularity of these mysterious early guitars.
The First Real Guitars
The earliest true guitars appeared at the end of the 15th century, but these instruments were much closer in size to the smaller lute. The vihuela, an instrument about the same size as the modern guitar, was prevalent at this time. Even though most people today have never heard of the vihuela, during this period the guitar was viewed very much as its smaller, cruder relative.
Back in the 16th century, the 12-stringed vihuela was considered a superior instrument to the guitar (photo courtesy of the Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
The early guitars looked something like their modern counterparts, but there were some striking differences. For instance, rather than featuring a series of individual strings tuned to different notes in the modern way, the strings on these early guitars were grouped together in pairs called courses (somewhat like modern-day 12-string guitars). Each pair was tuned to the same note.
More dramatically, however, the fingerboard did not have fixed metal frets permanently in place: they were made from pieces of animal gut, which the musician wrapped around the neck. The number and position of these frets depended on the nature of the music being played. This meant that before performing, the 16th-century guitarist would not only have had to ensure that each pair of strings were in tune, but that the frets were positioned for correct intonation. Thank goodness that all changed!
The Great Segovia
By the beginning of the 20th century, the guitar had become very popular, but was still looked down upon by the dowdy classical fraternity. It was largely through the efforts of one man — the self-taught Spanish virtuoso Andres Segovia — that the profile of the guitar escalated in concert halls throughout the world. Through his influence, some of the finest composers of the past century — Villa-Lobos, Ponce, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Rodrigo — have created seminal works for the guitar.
The Classical Guitar
By the 17th century, the guitar had become quite popular in the courts of Central Europe, replacing the vihuela as instrument of choice. Although Spain was home to the instrument’s major developments, Paris and Venice were by now the two most important centers of activity.
At the middle of the 18th century, the guitar began a period of transition. Four- and five-course guitars gradually gave way to six-course instruments. Over time the courses were replaced by single strings, and the now standard E-A-D-G-B-E tuning system was adopted. And, thankfully, the frets were finally fixed into the fingerboard.
In Spain during the following century, the work of Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817-92) turned the guitar into a serious and credible instrument. Torres experimented with construction and dimensions and created a template for the classical instrument that exists to this day. Torres became the maker of choice for the finest classical players of the second half of the 19th century. Among them was Francesco de Tárrega, who as a musician brought respectability to the guitar, and as a teacher created the foundations of the modern classical guitar technique. As far as the classical “Spanish” guitar goes, that’s pretty much the whole story in terms of the development of the instrument.
This 1876 Torres guitar was designed to carry 11 strings (including five bass strings). It has been restored to carry six strings (photo courtesy of the Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
Who Was First?
There is considerable disagreement as to who actually invented the solid-body electric guitar, since there were clearly a number of like-minded individuals working along similar lines at the same time. One claimant is the well-known country-jazz guitarist Les Paul, who created his own guitar using a Gibson neck attached to a solid piece of pine on which the pickups and a bridge were mounted. For more on the history of the solid-body guitar, see pages 36-39 of the K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing Guitar.
Developments in America
Although the guitar is clearly a European instrument, its most significant developments over the past 120 years have taken place in America.
The first serious guitars to be made in the United States were produced by Christian Frederick Martin. The heir to a long and eminent line of instrument makers, Martin left his native Germany in 1833 to seek his fortune across the ocean. His flat-top instruments provided a template for the modern steel-string acoustic guitar. During the same period, a British migrant named Orville Gibson set up shop. His guitars had features more closely associated with violins, in that they had a curved arch top and acoustic f-holes. The companies formed by both men remained the most significant guitar makers until the beginning of the post-war period.
In spite of the growing popularity of the guitar throughout the jazz age, an acoustic guitar’s naturally low volume meant that in most bands it could only be used to provide rhythmic backing. This began to change with the development of the magnetic pickup. The earliest experiments in this area were conducted by Gibson engineer Lloyd Loar.
Fitting pickups to an acoustic guitar revolutionized music, but also resulted in one serious problem. If the sound coming out of the loudspeakers was too loud, the body of the guitar would vibrate, creating a howling noise known as feedback. The solution to this problem was to increase the body mass of the instrument so that it would not vibrate so readily. So it was that at the end of the 1940s, the first solid-body electric guitars were developed.
At this point we can bring in the single most important name in the history of the electric guitar: Leo Fender. In 1950, this Californian radio repair shop owner created the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar — the Fender Broadcaster. A year later, Fender re-christened his groundbreaking instrument the Fender Telecaster. A year later Gibson replied with the famous Les Paul. And in 1952, Fender produced the Stratocaster — arguably the most famous instrument of them all.
Moving Forward
Now that we’ve taken in a brief history of the guitar, we’re ready to move on to the next lesson. In Lesson 2 we’ll cover some of the different types of guitar music and the great players from each genre. See you next time.
Assignment : Introduce Yourself
For your first assignment, visit the Message Board. Consider introducing yourself. Let the other students know where you’re from, how long you’ve been playing (or simply admiring) the guitar, and who some of your favorite players are. It’s guaranteed to get opinions flying.
If you’re interested in guitar history, flip through pages 28-39 in K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing Guitar for an illustrated history of the guitar through the ages.
