Guitar Chord Chart: 9 Essential Beginner Chords
9 essential beginner chords — tap to hear them
How to Read These Guitar Chord Charts
Each diagram shows the fretboard as if the guitar stood upright: vertical lines are the strings (thickest E on the left), horizontal lines are the frets. Dots show where to press, numbers inside the dots are the recommended fingers (1 = index to 4 = pinky), and a curved bar marks a barre across several strings. Tap any chord to hear it played as a slow arpeggio.
These 9 chords — C, G, Am, Em, D, A, E, Dm and F — cover the majority of pop, folk and camp-fire songs. Learn them in the order Em, Am, C, G first, because their shapes share common fingers and switching between them is easiest. The F barre chord usually takes a few weeks; keep the thumb low on the back of the neck and roll the index slightly onto its side.