3 finger

When we play three different notes simultaneously, we produce a chord. Our 12 note musical alphabet can yield lots of possible chords, but many combinations are unpleasant and cacophonous.

A handful of basic chords will get us off to a nice start. The easiest type of chords to learn are called open chords. We call them open because we use one or more open strings as part of the chord.

You might of heard the term “caged” chords before. It just refers to the open major chords C, A, G, E and D.

open C Major chord

open A Major chord (3 finger version)

open A Major chord (variation w/index only)

open G Major chord

open G Major chord (variation)

open E Major chord

open D Major chord