Questions & Answers with Neil Hogan #1.4

Q. What are some of the techniques I can practice as I am trying to learn guitar chords?

A. There are quite a few things you can do when you are starting to learn guitar chords. The first thing I tell students is to pick just a couple of chords, preferably easy ones, and get really familiar with their shape on the fingerboard. I might recommend E major and A minor as a good starting point because they are pretty much the same shape, just on different strings.

I have them place their fingers on one chord and press down repeatedly with their fingers, basically squeezing the chord. Then they do he same thing with the other before they try switching back and forth.

The next step is obviously picking another pair of chords and repeating the process. Some good combinations of chords to work on are described in some of the articles in the Chords section.

Another useful thing to do as you learn guitar chords is to understand the theory behind them, meaning you should study scales and chord formulas so you know what notes make up any particular chord. A little bit of keyboard knowledge certainly helps here as well. I frequently explain certain concepts to students using a piano (actually a cardboard replica that my dear friend Deb made for me a few years back).

Additional articles along these lines are at guitar lessons online.