FIRST Guitar Chords You NEED To Learn - Easiest Beginner Guitar Chords For Playing Songs

Hello guitar enthusiasts. My name is Lauren Bateman and I'm here at my music school in Massachusetts, LB Music School. And I wanted to share with you today the four basic chords that I teach to my beginner guitar students to get them started so that they can have success. So we set a foundation of success before moving on to even more and more complicated things. So what I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you four chords today which most of them we're only going to need to use two fingers, alright? And they're going to be a G chord, a C chord, an E minor chord. And the last one which will be the hardest is the D chord. We're going to have to use three fingers on that D chord. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to start with the first chord which is our E minor. So we're going to need two fingers. We're going to use the first finger and the second finger on this chord. And what I'll do is I'll show you all the chords and then I'll go in for a close up so that you can see them from both angles. So the first chord is E minor. And what we're going to do, this is a great chord because you get to play all six strings, you get to strum. So we're going to take our first finger and just as a reminder, if you don't know, so the bottom string is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And the sixth string is your top string, the big fat string at the top. So we're going to start at the big fat string at the top and we're going to go down one string. So we're going to end up on the fifth string and we're going to be in the second fret. So these little chunks are called frets. And what we're going to do is we're going to move from the, sorry, from the first string here, this top string to right here, the second to the top, which is the A string. And we're going to put our first finger right on that string. And right below it we're going to put our second finger. So I have two fingers down, both of them are in this second fret. So it's going to be the first finger is going to be on the fifth string, second fret. The second finger is going to be on the fourth string, second fret. So it will sound like this.

So let's do that again. So we're going to take our first finger. We're going to go to the top string, move it down one. So we're on that fifth string, second fret, we're going to take the second finger, just put it right below that first finger on the fourth string and we get to strum all six strings. Very nice. Very nice. So the way to get to your next chord, which is going to be a G chord, we're going to just move one finger. So this is why it's good to have a solid foundation of E minor. So we're going to go back to that E minor chord. So as a reminder, first finger is going to go at the second fret. Fifth string, the second finger is going to go on the second fret. Fourth string, so they're both piled in that second fret. And then all we're going to do, we're going to leave the first finger right where it is and we're going to move the second finger up to the top string, third fret. And this is going to be our E easy G chord. So we go from E minor, we're going to move that second finger up to the top string and over one fret to the third fret. And that is going to be our G chord. So for this, I'm going to let you strum all of the strings on this. So to go back to E minor, we're going to take this second finger and we're going to move it back to the second fret underneath the first finger.

Here we go again. So we're going to do second finger up and that's going to move to the third finger or, sorry, the third fret top string.

So I'm going to go in for a close up to show you these two chords and the chord changes so that you can see what you need to do before we move on to the next set of chords. So let's take a look at this chord change for E minor to G. We're going to start with our E minor chord. So if you remember, it's first finger on the fifth string. And then we're going to put our second finger right below it on the fourth string of the second fret. Now to get to G, all we're going to do is we're going to lift up our second finger here and we're going to move it up and over so it's up and over to the third fret on the top string. And you can strum all six strings for this if you want. So to get it back, we're going to lift up that second finger, scooch back the first and put that second finger right underneath. To get back to G, we're going to lift up that second finger, bring it up, scooch everything over and up a fret. So we're going to end up on that third fret of the top string and strum. So back to E minor.

And back to G. Just lift and move that second finger.

E minor.

And G.

One more time. Second finger under for E minor, second finger up and over for G.

So the next set that we're going to learn, we're going to move from E minor to a C chord. Now the great thing about this is you also only have to move one finger. So if we go back to our E minor chord. So first finger, second fret, fifth string, and then second finger, second fret, fourth string, we have our E minor chord. What we're going to do is for the C chord, we're going to move our first finger. So the second finger is going to stay right where it is. And we're going to move the first finger down to the second string first fret, and we're only going to play five, sorry, the bottom four strings. So if you can only hit the bottom four, that would be awesome. So to get back to E minor, we're going to lift up the first finger and move it back to the second fret, fifth string.

And to get back to C, we're going to take the first finger, lift it up and move it down to the first fret of the second string. And only strum the bottom four strings of your guitar.

One more time, we're going to go back to E minor. So lift up that first finger, put it on the second fret of the fifth string.

And to get back to C, we're going to lift up that first finger, put it down on the first fret of the second string and strum.

And that is your E minor to C chord switch. I'm going to go in for a close up so that you can see exactly what I'm doing with my finger chord. We're going to take the first finger, we're going to go from the top string to the fifth string on the second fret and then we're going to put my second finger right underneath it. So if you see I've got both fingers in this second fret and we strum all six strings. Now to move to that C chord, we're going to lift up the first finger and we're going to bring it back from the Fifth string to the second string. So the first string's here, second string, first fret. So that's your C chord. So to go back to E minor, we're going to lift up the first finger, put it right above the second finger.

To get back to C, we're going to lift up the first finger, move it down to the first string, second fret. So it's right here.

And then to get back to E minor, we lift up that first finger, and we put it back on that fifth string one more time. So we have E minor, lift up the first finger, move it down to the first, second string, first fret, and you have your C chord. The last chord we're gonna go over is a D chord. The D chord is going to be the most difficult chord for you in this set because it uses all three fingers. Unfortunately, there's no way around it. You got to use the three fingers. But it's good because you can practice getting in out of those other easier chords to get into D. So what we're going to do is we're going to start with our first finger, and we're going to put that on the second fret.

Of the third string. And then what we're going to do is we're going to put our second finger on the bottom string, second fret. So we've got the third string, second fret, first string, second fret. And then we're going to form like a little triangle here. We're going to take the third finger and we're going to put it on the third fret of the second string. And for this chord, we get to strum the bottom four strings. So let's do that again. So we're going to take our first finger, we're going to put it on the third string, second fret. We're going to take our second finger and put it on that bottom string, second fret. And the third finger is going to go on the second string, third fret. So it's sandwiched in between. Now, for practicing, we're going to go back to that E minor chord. Because what do you know? The first finger and the second finger are used in the E minor chord. And the first finger is on top of the second finger. So this is great, because when we move to a D chord, what I want you to do is I want you to move these two fingers down and just spread them out so that there's a string in between them. So let's go back to E minor. So we're going to Move the fingers down. First finger is going to go third string, second fret. Second finger is going to go bottom string, second fret. And then we're just going to add that third finger to the second string third fret. So when you're first practicing, just practice moving those two fingers, just getting those two fingers to move between E minor D, E minor D. And then you can add the third finger. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go in for a close up so that I can show you guys this transition so that you can practice going between the different chords. Alright, so I'm going to show you the close up of the D chord before we go to the chord switches. So here we're going to start with our first finger. We're going to count up 1, 2, 3 strings, second fret. And our second finger is going to go on that bottom string, second fret. So you see they're both in that second fret. And then this third finger is going to come up and it's going to end up on the second string in between on the third fret. And you can play the bottom four strings for this chord. Now when you first play, you might get some, you might get some muting. It probably means that your fingers are laying flat. You really want to play on your fingertips and that takes a little bit of time and practice to get that. So if you're hearing that muting, don't worry about it too much for now. Worry about getting the chord shape correctly and then straightening out those fingers so that you play with the finger tip. You can probably see where the string is digging into my fingers. You'll play on the fingertip as opposed to the pads of the fingers. So here's our D chord again. We got the first finger on the second, third fret, sorry, second fret, third string, second finger on the first string, second fret and then third finger on the third fret of the second string.

So now if we're going to go from E minor, let's go back to our E minor chord. So we have our first finger and second finger. We're going to move these two fingers down. First finger is going to go to the third string. Second finger is going to go to the first string. Let's put that back. So back to E minor. First finger down to the third string, first finger down or second finger down to the first string. Once again, E minor, first finger down to the third string, second finger down to the first string. And third finger is going to come Right in the middle on the third fret of the second string.

So we're going to go E minor.

To D.

E minor.

To D.

E minor.

To D.

One more time. E minor, first finger to the third string, second finger to the first string, third finger to the second string, third fret. And that's how you transition between E minor and D. So there you have it. Those are my four basic guitar chords for success. Usually what I do for my students is I have them practice switching between all the chords. So E minor to C, E minor to G, E minor to D. And then I'll have you switch between C and G and C and D. And then the last one would be going between a G chord and a D chord. If you can learn these four basic chords, you have access to thousands upon thousands of songs that you can play. Just as a beginner guitar player, even if you didn't learn any other chords on the guitar, if you just learnt these four, then you would be able to play thousands upon thousands of songs. So that's why I teach these four chords to my students. First, I would recommend just sitting and practicing these chord changes until you get them down pat, because then you'll have access to start playing songs, strumming more, and having a lot more fun with your guitar. So take your time, learn these chords, go back and forth, and then you can visit my website, which is laurenbateman.com I have lots of little chord charts on there that actually use some of these chords, so you can go ahead and figure that out.