Chord Basics

A chord is defined as a combination of three or more notes played together. To examine this, I want to take a look at chord diagrams. Chord diagrams are used to illustrate how a chord is played. They are very easy to use because they look very much like the neck of the guitar. 

so it’s easy to make the connection between strings and fingering. There is also a picture

of the type of chord diagram that appears in most other Guitar learning guides. I want you to

be aware of that form of ‘standard’ chord diagram because you may want to use it when

writing up chords on your own paper.

So, now that you know what a chord diagram looks like and how it matches with the neck of

your guitar, it’s time to come back to what I said earlier about a chord being a combination of

three or more notes played together. Finger placing symbols are added to the chord diagram

so we know which notes to play. To start with, let’s look at your fingers.