Open Chords

What is an open chord? An open chord is simply a chord (two or more notes played at the same time) that contains open strings (an unfretted string- represented as "0" in guitar tablature).

However, when people talk of "open chords", they usually mean chords that are played in the 1st to 3rd frets that utilize 4-6 strings. These are the most common types of chords played on the guitar.

E Minor, used in countless songs, is usually the first open chord taught on the guitar.

This is the tablature for E Minor:

For this chord, you place your middle finger (3rd finger) on the second fret on the 5th string and your ring finger (4th finger) on the second fret of the 4th string (the red numbers indicate the recommended finger):

Practice playing the E Minor chord in the tablature below. Again, you will be using downstrokes:

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The Secret To Learning Guitar As Fast As Possible

The secret to learning the guitar as fast as possible: consistency. Don't confuse consistency with thinking this means you need all the free time in the world for guitar lessons. Practising the material I teach you for just 10 minutes per day will be far more beneficial to you than practising once a month for 6 hours in one sitting.

About Us

Contact us at stupideasyguitar [at] gmail.com. The goal of this site is to teach people how to play the guitar as quickly and easily as possible. From what I've found, guitar teachers and instructors often don't teach their students things that will help them learn the instrument as fast as possible. Why? Well, a lot of guitar teachers are classically trained so they will teach their students things like how to read music which can be very time consuming, frustrating and boring for beginner guitarists. While there is nothing wrong with learning how to read music, this should never be taught at the beginning of the guitar learning process because its gets in the way of teaching students things that are much easier to learn so they can get playing recognizable riffs, chords and songs on the guitar as soon as possible. The more students aren't learning the simple and easy things first, the greater the chance there is of them quitting and giving up on the guitar altogether.