Page 13 - Guitar Tuition for Students and Tutors chord chart book

Page 12

There 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 barres. (not a spelling mistake – that’s
what the chord shape is!) If you see a thick black line like this you will probably

be playing a barre chord.

X X O

Barre

Chord of D To the left:

Barre Chord of

A#minor (#=sharp)
or :

B♭ minor ( ♭=flat)

Now that you know what all of the symbols in a chord diagram mean, let’s try a
few examples. Start with an open D Major chord above. If you were to look

at a diagram of this chord you would see dots on the 2nd fret of the 3rd
string, 3rd fret of the 2nd string, and 2nd fret of the 1st string. All of the
other strings would have ‘O’ above them to indicate that you should play them
open and X to show that you don’t stum or pick them, unless told otherwise.

Sometimes you may see D/A . The first letter is the chord and the second
the bass that you can strum or pick.

X O O

Chord of D with

A bass (5 String)
th