Beginners guitar lessons

First chord is the D Maj chord. Place your first finger on the 3rd string 2nd fret. Place your 2nd finger on the 1st string 2nd fret and your 3rd finger on the 2nd string 3rd fret.

Make sure you are not touching the 4th string with your 1st finger, and also, make sure your fingers 1 2 and 3 are not touching any other strings, as this will affect the sound of your D Maj chord.

Once all your fingers are in place, strum with one down stroke your D Maj chord. 

Click below to watch video of D Major chord.

2nd chord is the A major. Place your 4th finger on the 2nd string 2nd fret. Place 3rd finger on 3rd string 2nd fret. place 2nd finger on 4th string 2nd fret.

I utilize my little finger for this chord as my fingers are too big to use a 1,2,3 finger combination for this chord. If you want to play the chord using a 1,2,3 finger combination instead of what I used for the example, then feel free to do so.

This chord can take a bit of practice, squeezing your fingers together to play it properly, so be patient and don't give up.

Click below to watch video of A Major chord.

This video shows the next step after learning how to play the D and A chord.

After we learn how to position our fingers to play the D and A chord , we now have to learn to play both chords together.

Click below to watch video of A and D Major chords.

To continue on with our D and A Maj chord lessons. We are now going to play four strumming motions on each chord before we change to the next chord and then repeat that sequence. We now introduce a 4 beat count as we play to help with timing.

To simplify, we play D Maj with 4 down strums, counting each strum, and then change to the A Maj chord without losing your timing as you play. This takes some practice, so don't despair if you can't get it the first time.

Repeat this process until you can change between the chords more fluently, while keeping a 4 count timing to your playing.

The idea here, is to have smooth chord changes. Maintaining your timing becomes a critical factor in this process. Using a metronome at a slow bpm [try 60 bpm] "slower if you need to", will help maintain your timing and assist you with your changes.

Click below to watch video of D and A Major chords with 4 down strums.

How to play the C and G Maj chords

3rd chord is C Major. Finger 1 goes on the 2nd string 1st fret. 2nd finger goes on the 4th string 2nd fret. 3rd finger goes on the 5th string 3rd fret.

Again, watch for placement of fingers on each string making sure not to touch other strings. There is one open string in between fingers 1 and 2.

Make sure that finger one isn't touching either open strings open E and G.

Click below to watch video of C Major chord.

To play a G major chord. Place finger 1 on 5th string 2nd fret. Place finger 2 on 6th string 3rd fret. Place finger 3 on first string 3rd fret.

This chord requires a bit of finger stretching.

Watch your fingers, so as not to touch any of the open strings, mainly open strings D and B.

Click below to watch video of G Major chord.

In this lesson, we now focus on changing from the C Major Chord to the G Major Chord and back again.

After we learn how to position our fingers to play the C and G chord , we now have to learn to change from one chord to another.

The video below will show, how to do this.

Click below to watch video of C and G Major chords.

Now, we focus on timing. We continue with the C and G Major chords. Strumming on each chord 4 times and then change to the next chord.

Starting on the C major chord, strum 4 times, while counting each strum, change to the G Major chord and continue strumming and counting 4 times.

The idea here, is to have smooth chord changes. Maintaining your timing becomes a critical factor in this process. Using a metronome at a slow bpm will help you to maintain your timing and assist you with your changes.

Click below to watch video of C and G Major chords with 4 downward strumming.

This next lesson is the last for the second series. We combine what we have learned from series 1 and combine that with series 2 and play the 4 chords all together as a complete piece of music.

Using a downward strumming action, we strum each chord 4 times, we start on the D Major chord, which was the first chord we learnt from series one. Change to the A Major chord, keeping our timing in check whilst playing.

Change to the 3rd chord, "C Major". Again, keeping a 4 count as we play. Final change is to G Major. Strum 4 times and then you are ready to go back to D Major and repeat the above process again.

Click below to watch video of D,A,C and G Major chords with 4 downward strumming.