As I have mentioned a few times on my blog before, I have taught lots of beginners in my many years as a guitar teacher. In fact, a large portion of my students are complete beginners, and have been taking lessons with me since the very first time they picked up a guitar. This means that I have built up a vast experience in teaching beginning guitar students both in person and online, including guiding them through learning their first chords on the instrument. As learning guitar can be a daunting task, I have found that it is useful to learn the following 9 basic open chords to begin with, and if anyone reading this article is also a beginner, I recommend this as a good place to start with on the guitar:

There a few reasons I recommend learning these chords first, mainly:
- You can play a large number of songs with a combination of these 9 chords in the open position on the guitar.
- You can play an even larger number of songs with a combination of these 9 chords if you use a capo.
- They are easier to learn than barre chords, which I would personally save until you have been playing for a couple of months.
- Learning a number of songs with these chords in them will give you the confidence to learn more advanced material.
How To Learn Your First 9 Guitar Chords
One of the hardest things about learning guitar is the first few chords. Not only is it difficult to fret the chords properly and get them sounding good, but it is also tough to memorise the shapes, and change between them in time to a song. To help you overcome this particular obstacle, I have put together a micro course to teach you how to play each one. My “First 9 Chords For Beginners” video course features one video for each chord, making it a handy quick reference guide for you to refer back to at a later date. The course is divided into separate video chapters, with each video being approximately 3-5 minutes in length. Here is a full chapter breakdown:
- Introduction – 01:15
- How To Read Chord Box Diagrams – 04:13
- The A Chord – 02:56
- The Am Chord 02:50
- The C Chord – 03:00
- The D Chord – 02:50
- The Dm Chord – 02:53
- The E Chord – 03:04
- The Em Chord – 03:00
- The F Chord – 05:16
- The G Chord – 04:30
- Outro – 0:59
Below is a free preview of the course. Check out the “C Chord” chapter below:
The course is priced at just £3.49! Click here to purchase it now!

[…] online lesson for beginners. One you are comfortable with these melodies, then check out my next beginner lesson on your first chords. Remember, there is no substitute for having guitar lessons with an actual teacher, so if you want […]