How to Finger Acoustic Guitar Chords

Learn Acoustic Guitar Chords

As a beginner, you only need to learn a couple acoustic guitar chords to start playing your favorite songs. In fact, there is a great book of 50 songs, The Guitar 3 Chord Songbook by Hal Leonard that has only three chord guitar songs, using chord C, chord D and chord G. This book includes favorites, such as "All Shook Up", "Hound Dog", "Lay Down Sally", "Sweet Home Chicago, and "Werewolves of London".

Reading Chord Diagrams

Below are diagrams of all seven major guitar chords. The frets 1, 3 and 5 are indicated on the diagrams for your reference. The "X" means that the string should not be strummed. The numbers within the black circles represent the fingers to be used. A guitarist's fingers are numbered 1 (index finger) thru 4 (pinky), as shown in the diagram below.

Major Guitar Chords

Also, check-out this free, printable acoustic guitar chords chart that includes minor and 7th chords, helpful in expanding your chord repertoire. Or, search the free guitar chord charts library for print-outs of individual guitar chords.

Watch this video for more detailed information on how to read cord diagrams, chord maps, and scale maps.