Page 33 - Guitar Tuition for Students and Tutors level 1

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In this guitar sheet we are going to learn how to read chord diagrams. Chord
diagrams are graphics that tell you where to put your fingers on the

fretboard in order to make a specific chord. Often you will see chord
diagrams at the top of a music chart or throughout the chart. Sometimes
these are put there just in case you don’t know the chord, but sometimes the
person who wrote the song wants that specific shape to be played for that

chord.
Nut

Chord diagrams have six vertical lines that represent the strings of the
guitar and a few horizontal lines that represent the frets. The far-left string
represents the low E and the far-right string represents the high E.

Sometimes you will see diagrams with plain black dots that indicate where you
should put your fingers, and sometimes you will see black dots with numbers in
them. These numbers represent the finger number that you should be using
playing those notes.

Here are a couple more chord diagram symbols that you should be aware of.
If you see a rectangular block at the top of the diagram, that just represents
the nut of the guitar. If you don’t see the nut you will probably see a number
to the left of the diagram that indicates what fret you should be on. An X
above one of the strings means that you should mute or just not play that

string. If you see a black dot or just a circle above one of the strings, that
means that you should be playing that string open. Thick black lines or arcs
that go over multiple strings represent bars. If you see a thick black line like

this you will probably be playing a bar chord.

Now that you know what all of the symbols in a chord diagram mean, let’s try a
few examples. Start with an open A major chord. If you were to look at a
diagram of this chord you would see dots on the 2nd fret of the 4th string,

2nd fret of the 3rd string, and 2nd fret of the 2nd string. All of the other
strings would have ‘O’ above them to indicate that you should play them open.

Reading chord diagrams may come slowly at first, but if you stick with it you

will start to recognize certain chord diagrams instantly. Grab a piece of music
that you like or look one up on the web. See if you can read the chord
diagrams and maybe even learn some new chords in the process.