5 Ways To Play A G Chord On Guitar - Easiest to Hardest

Hey, guitar enthusiasts. In this lesson video we're going to be going over five different ways that you can play a G chord.

So I get a lot of questions on my guitar video where I show the two finger G chord and people say, Lauren, I'm confused because I thought a G chord was three fingers or I thought it was four fingers and sometimes use the third finger or the fourth finger. Like which way is the right way to play a G chord. So in this video I'm going to show you five ways to play a G chord, working from the easiest to to the hardest. Now before we get into it, I just want to explain very quickly so that you guys understand why there's so many variations of a G chord. A G chord is basically made of three notes, A G, a B and a D. And as long as those three notes are present, you can have a G chord. It's really, really cool. And they can be in any order. That's the simplest way. But now what I'm going to do is show you the five versions starting with level one. So this first version of the cord is going to be the simplest. It's only going to use one finger, not two fingers, one finger. And we're going to be taking the third finger, placing it on the bottom string of the third fret. This is a G note, just so you know. Alright, so the bottom's e string up 1, 2, 3 frets. I would use your third finger and you'll see why later. And what we're going to do is we're going to play the bottom four strings.

This gives us the notes D, G, B and then G on the bottom. So that is probably the simplest way to play a G chord. Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying this lesson. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel so that you can see when I release more videos just like this one. Let's get into the next version. The next version I'm going to show you is the two fingered G chord. It's actually the one that I usually teach in my four Easiest Guitar Chords video. And we're going to be using the first and second fingers. And I like this version because it works well pivoting off of an E minor chord. So if you want to learn about that transition, you can go watch that video later. But I'm going to show you with two fingers, we're going to start on the top string and the fifth string. Okay, so we're going to take our second finger and we're going to put it on the third fret of the top string, okay? That's a G note. And then we're going to put our first finger on the second fret of the fifth string. That's a B note.

Okay? And all I'm going to do is have you strum kind of the top portion of the chord if you get the whole thing. Thing, it's okay. It's not really going to be a G chord because we have this E note on the bottom, but that's fine. This is technically called a G6 chord, but don't worry about that. Just know that if you just strum kind of like the top, you know, three or four strings, you're going to be fine. Why? Because we have G, we have B, and we have D. And then if you hit the fourth string, you get another G. So we're just going to try and strum, you know, the top four or five strings, whatever you can get. If you get them all, not a big deal. But that is the second way to play a G chord. Now, the third way I'm going to show you is probably one of the most common ways to play a G chord. And I'm going to give you two different variations. And what we're going to do is we're going to start on the level two version with the second finger on the third fret of the top string, first finger on the second fret of the fifth string. And this third finger now is going to come back down to. To the third string on the bottom fret. Sorry, the third fret on the bottom string. I'm talking dyslexic here. Very, very sorry. Okay, now the most common question I get asked with this chord is people say, well, Lauren, I was taught to play it with my pinky. That's totally fine. You do whatever version you want to. If you like the third finger. I prefer the third finger. But if you like the pinky, do the pinky. I think the pinky's a little awkward for me and my hand shape, but some of you might find that that the pinky, if you have a smaller hand, maybe the pinky gives you a little bit more reach. So whichever you want, but the top two fingers remain the same. So once again, it's going to be the top string, third fret, fifth string, second fret, ok? With that first finger and the bottom string on the third fret, you're either going to use the third finger or the pinky. Okay? It doesn't matter. It doesn't change the sound of the Chord. Whatever you're more comfortable doing, do that one. Always choose the chord that is the most comfortable for you in your hand. All right, level four. This is going to be a four fingered G chord. And once again we're starting out the top the same. Okay, Second finger, first finger. Those are not changing what we are going to do. And this is where people, if you use the pinky on the bottom, you might get a benefit. Pinky on the bottom string, third finger on the second string, third fret.

A lot of people call this the Django G chord. It's a very bright sounding chord. Hear that? Now this is still a G chord because our original G chord we have G, B, D, G, B, G. This four finger G chord is now G, B, D, G, B, G. It's still a G chord. We still have the three notes, G, B and D. It just has a brighter sound because of that extra be note. Hear the difference? Here's the first one. Alright, here's the brighter one.

This chord is used very commonly in songs. It's very interchangeable with the regular G chord. It has a brighter tone. That's how you'll know it's being used because you hear more of those bright sounds on the bottom two strings. Think of a song like Stuck Like Glue that that's a song that uses it. A lot of country songs use this. Singer songwriter types use this chord a lot. So it's another version of the G chord. Hey guys, hope you're enjoying this lesson. Make sure to give me a thumbs up and let me know in a comment below which version of the G chord you like to use best. Now the fifth and final version of the G chord that I'm going to show you is a bar chord. Now if you are a beginner, I would absolutely not recommend attempt bar chords. I would pick one of the other four that I showed you and start with that until you build enough strength to do bar chords. But just so you know, for down the road, this is something you can work towards, alright? A G bar chord is going to be the third finger on the fifth fret of the fifth string and the pinky goes right below it on the fourth string fifth fret. Okay, so these two are piled together. Now the second finger goes on the fourth fret of the third string. So it basically looks like an E major chord but with fingers three, four and two. Okay. And then we just slide that up to the fifth and fourth fret and we have this shape here. Now what happens? This is where our bar comes into play. Our first finger acts like a capo. Alright, so let me grab my capo here real quick. So if I were to capo at the third fret and play this E shape, that is a G bar chord. But without the capo, my first finger has to act like a capo and squeeze all of the strings. Okay. This is why bar chords are so hard and hard for beginners because it does require some strength. Okay, so that is going to be the fifth full bar chord. That is a G chord. So those are your five versions. Like I said, pick the one that works best for your level. Work that into your songs and as you get better and better, you can try some of the harder versions. I hope you guys enjoyed this lesson video on the five versions of a G chord. YouTube's going to pop up a couple more videos up here. Go check those out. And I hope to see you guys in another lesson video.