Learn Acoustic Guitar – The 13 Most Important Open Chords Explained

By Dave Long

Open chords

The open chords consist of most of the very basic chords used in music, and while not every style makes as much use of them, it is still an important fundamental even to those kinds of music.

What differentiates the open chords from other chords is the use of the open strings within the chord shapes. This feature gives a little more play to some of the chords by allowing the guitarist to fret and unfret strings to form the sustained versions of several chords (chords where the third is replaced by a major second or perfect fourth).

Using sustained chords in the middle of progressions can make bars that really are just one basic chord sound much more interesting than just strumming the chord for the entire time. A very good example of this is the Dsus4,D,Dsus2,D chord riff in the chorus lead in of The Beatles ‘You’ve got to hide your love away”.

E and Em Chords

E: 0-2-2-1-0-0
Em: 0-2-2-0-0-0

The above are the notes of the E and Em open chords. The two chords are fairly easy to switch between, only requiring the lifting of the index finger. However, swapping between the major and minor versions of a chord is a pretty infrequent chord change, but it does make learning both the chords fairly easy.

A, Am, and Asus2 Chords
A: X-0-2-2-2-0 or X-0-2-2-2-X

The open A chord has two common ways it is held.

The first shows a variant that leaves the open high e string in the chord, while the second has the first four strings barred (which means that high e is not played in the second version).

Someone having difficulty holding the first chord shape may want to use the second version instead, since the first can be somewhat difficult to hold without bumping into the open A and open high e strings. The second version also can be much easier to get into and out of in some progressions (particularly ones using moveable bar chords), and may be a better choice even for guitarists who can hold the first fingering of the chord.

Am: X-0-2-2-1-0
Asus2: X-0-2-2-0-0
The above shows the Am chord, as well as the Asus2 chord. The Asus2 chord can be moved into by lifting the third finger in the first version of the A chord or by lifting the index finger on the Am chord. It can be used to add a little more interest to progressions using either the A or Am chord.

D, Dm, Dsus2, and Dsus4 Chords

D: X-X-0-2-3-2
Dm: X-X-0-2-3-1
The D and Dm chords do seem very similar, but due to the position on the neck, the fingering is slightly different for the two. It is one of the easier chords to learn because it does not really require the same amount of strength or dexterity to hold as some of the other chords.

Dsus2: X-X-0-2-3-0
Dsus4: X-X-0-2-3-3
D and Dm are probably the two nicest open chords for swapping to the sustained versions of the chords. Despite the different fingering, both work pretty much exactly the same for these chord shifts. To reach Dsus4, both chords simply require placing the pinky onto the fretboard. Dsus2 is reached by lifting the finger on the high e string to let the open string ring. There are quite a number of songs based fairly heavily around these types of switches because they sound good and are quite easy to perform.

C, C7M, and Cadd9 Chords

C: X-3-2-0-1-0

C can be a bit awkward at first, but it is still a good chord to get down well.
C7M: X-3-2-0-0-0
Cadd9: X-3-2-0-3-0
C has a few easy variants to move in and out of without too much effort. The index finger is just lifted off the B string. The Cadd9 variant is not quite as easy to do as Dsus4, but can sound quite nice in some progressions. For that variant, the pinky is brought on the B string to fret the third fret.

G Chord
G: 3-2-0-0-0-3 or 3-2-0-0-3-3

G is a useful chord for many songs, but there is not really all that much play to it besides the basic chord. There are two variants, but most guitarists just pick one. The second variant does have the advantage of being easily shifted into Cadd9, but that is about it (X-3-2-0-3-3 is also a valid way to hold Cadd9).

Learn more free acoustic guitar tips: Learn Acoustic Guitar

Dave Long is the owner of http://www.LearningAcousticGuitar.net where he provides acoustic guitar tips and advice.

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Guitar Lesson: Learn Open Chords – By Peter Edvinsson

You will first learn a very easy form of tablature with only numbers. Tablature staffs written the ordinary way can easily be displayed in a distorted way in articles like this one.

To show how to read the tab notation I give you this note to play on your guitar:

3/2

The first number tells you to play the third fret. The number after the slash indicates which string to play. This means that you are to play the third fret on the second string. That will be the note D on an commonly tuned guitar.

open chords are used in many types of guitar tunes. First you have to know what an open chord is. It usually refers to the most common chords played in the first position with some open strings, that is, strings that are not pressed down.

You will start with an ordinary C-chord. It looks like this:

C: 3/5 2/4 0/3 1/2 0/1

Now you are going to try the nice sounding but easy Fmaj7 chord by changing two fingers. Here it is:

Fmaj7: 3/4 2/3 1/2 0/1

these two chords can be played together as an intro to your new song for example.

You can play them like this:

C / / / Fmaj7 / / / C / / / Fmaj7 / / /

We will now take a look at a chord you will find by sliding the Fmaj7 chord up two frets. You will get the chord G6:

G6: 5/4 4/3 3/2 0/1

We can now play the following chord progression:

C / / / Fmaj7 / / / G6 / / / Fmaj7 / / / C

You will now test a chord progression starting with the common open A-minor chord that can be used together with the previous progression. Here is the A-minor chord:

Am: 0/5 2/4 2/3 1/2 0/1

By sliding this chord up two frets you will get a nice sounding chord that can be called Bm7add11:

Bm7add11: 0/5 4/4 4/3 3/2 0/1

The last chord in this progression is an open A-minor 7th chord in the fifth position:

Am7: 0/5 5/4 5/3 5/2 0/1

The guitar chord progression with the previous chord shapes will look as follows:

Am / / / Bm7add11 / / / Am7 / / / Bm7add11 / / /

We will now play a little chord progression with the previous Am7 chord. We will need two more chords to complete this progression. Here is the open Am6 shape:

Am6: 0/5 4/4 5/3 5/2 0/1

We will now alter the fret on the fourth string again and we will get the Fmaj7/A chord.

Fmaj7/A: 0/5 3/4 5/3 5/2 0/1

Here you have a guitar chord progression with the last chords we learned:

Am7 / / / Am6 / / / Fmaj7/A / / / Am6 / / /

Let’s take a look at the open E-major chord:

0/6 2/5 2/4 1/3 0/2 0/1

By sliding this chord up three frets you will get the following interesting guitar chord:

0/6 5/5 5/4 4/3 0/2 0/1

It is a form of the E-minor 7th chord.

If you continue to slide this chord up you will get an A-major add 9 chord:

Aadd9: 0/6 7/5 7/4 6/3 0/2 0/1

If you move the chord up two more frets you will get a B sounding chord that can be called Bsus/E:

0/6 9/5 9/4 8/3 0/2 0/1

These three chords can replace the more common E, A and B chords in a progression.

Starting with the open E-major chord you will now learn a flamenco guitar sounding progression

First, the E-major chord:

0/6 2/5 2/4 1/3 0/2 0/1

Now, slide this chord up one fret and you will find the three open strings sounding the same but blended with a F-major chord on the strings that are pressed down. An interesting morish sounding chord. Here it is written with tabs:

0/6 3/5 3/4 2/3 0/2 0/1

The next chord to use in this flamenco progression is the E-minor 7 chord you will get by sliding the chord two frets further up the fretboard:

0/6 5/6 5/5 4/3 0/2 0/1

You can do many things with the basic open guitar chords by sliding them to other frets and slightly change them. These were just a few examples to start your investigation!

Peter Edvinsson invites you to download your free piano sheet music, guitar tabs, ebooks, music lessons and read his guitar lesson blog at http://www.capotastomusic.com