Learn to Play the Guitar Part 2

I will not be showing you how to play all of the chords in alphabetical order. Instead I will start with the “G”, “C” and “D” chords. With these three chords under your belt you will be able to play a large number of songs from artists from Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd to The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Remember the numbers associated to each finger.

Also take a second to familiarize yourself with the image of the first three frets from the last lesson. Each string is labeled by a number from 6 to 1.

I assume, after your first lesson, you are ready to start playing chords. We’ll start with the “G” chord.

To play the “G” chord, you will probably feel at first that stretching your fingers across the neck of the guitar this way is very cumbersome. Just place your fingers on the strings as indicated in the image, starting with your third finger and working your way over to the first and then second finger.

Press only on the strings indicated in the image and strum down and up through all the strings, making sure the strings you are pressing make a clear sound and the strings between, that are not being pressed, also ring clearly. Do this exercise as long as you need to until all 6 strings ring clearly.

Once you feel you can play the chord well enough, you then need to practice the speed at which your fingers can get into position on the neck to make the chord.

Lift all of your fingers off the guitar neck and then place your fingers where they need to go to make a “G” chord. Do this again and again, increasing your speed slowly until you are comfortable placing your hand in that position on the guitar instantaneously.

Practice getting your fingers in position quickly and playing the chord clearly. Once you have mastered this, you can move on to the next chord.

Good Luck!