Guitar Chords for Beginners - Campfire Chords, Pt 2
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Hi. This is Hub Guitar.
We're going to take a look at a few open chords. These next four are all dominant 7th chords. That means they have an extra note, a flat 7, added in there. They usually appear as the fifth chord of a key. For instance, G7 would be the dominant 7 of the key of C, and so on. So I'm gonna show you those four. First is C7, we are gonna play it with our third finger, third fret, second finger, second fret, fourth finger, third fret, first finger, first fret. So it's a C major chord, and you put your pinky finger on the third fret of the third string. That's C7. Then we have D7, so this kind of looks like D, but upside down. So we have open two, one, two. like that, The next one is G7, first finger on the first fret of the first string, second finger on the second fret of the fifth string, and third finger on the third fret of the sixth string, so differs from the G chord and that this note is lower a whole step to the F here on the first fret. Finally we're gonna do the B7, that's a lot like the D7, except it starts here on the fifth string. So we've got two, one, two, open, two, B7.
Now we're going to take a look at one of the hardest open chords. This chord is famous for giving beginners a hard time. A lot of players can even remember the moment they first successfully played this chord.
I'm talking about the F major chord. So the trick to play F major chord successfully, first of all, you can have an awful guitar. If your guitar is awful, you maybe can't play this chord, which means the guitar should be a decent guitar and the string should not be coming off of the guitar by huge amount and make it impossible for you to push them down. Because what you gotta do is you've got push the first and second strings down on the first fret, and you gonna do both of those with the first finger. And you've gotta rolled your finger a little bit to it's side, and that's gonna be a little uncomfortable, deal with it. So play this two frets here with first finger, try to roll this finger onto the side. Then once you've got that done, you can take your second finger put it on the second fret, and hopefully this is still intact. Finally once you've got that done, you can take your third finger put it on the third fret of the fourth string.
Once you've mastered these chords, you should be able to handle just about any open chord you run into. Then you'll be ready to start tackling power chords and barre chords.
(Continued from Campfire Chords.)
The remaining chords presented here are called seventh chords. This basically means they have an extra note.
Seventh Chords
The Famous “F” Chord
This chord is somewhat difficult to play, especially for beginners. The trick is to use your index finger to push down both “F” and “C”. You should also roll the finger onto its outer edge (the side of the index finger that would be next to the thumb in a curled fist. If you’re playing a bad guitar, or it needs to be set up, you may not be able to do this chord.
An Alternative F
Since the classic open F chord is so difficult to play, many beginners benefit from learning this alternative. This chord adds an extra note, “E”, turning the chord into Fmaj7, which will work as a substitute for F in many songs.
Common Chord Progressions
If you include the chords from the previous page, you will have enough chords to play some of the most common chord progressions in music.
| C A- F G |
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| E7 E7 A7 B7 |
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Key Tasks
- Memorize all of the chords.
- Practice the chords until you can play them cleanly. Each note should sound clear.
- Compare the chords of the same letter-name to each other. How are they alike?
As the creator of Hub Guitar, Grey has compiled hundreds of guitar lessons, written several books, and filmed hundreds of video lessons. He teaches private lessons in his Boston studio, as well as via video chat through TakeLessons.