How to Learn Classical Guitar Chords (and Why They’re So Useful)

Do classical guitarists need to know classical guitar chords?

Classical guitar demands that we build many skills at the same time. We need to learn to read music, understand rhythm, and learn proper technique.  We tackle common right-hand patterns, weird vocabulary and left-hand exercises. Plus a host of other things.

But how many of us take time to learn chords?  Yet guitar chords are as important for us as they are for electric or acoustic guitar players.  

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For many who begin their classical guitar journey, chords often get bumped to the back seat. Practicing guitar chords can get tossed into the “maybe later” pile.  

This could be because commonly, we expect chords to accompany a song.  And when we play classical guitar, we don’t usually sing.  We might also feel that because we read music notation, there’s no need to learn finger shapes on the fretboard.  

This is a shame because the guitar is organized around chords. It’s what the guitar does well.  

We find chords in most musical genres.  Yes, they underpin rock, Blues, pop and jazz.  But they are as much a part of classical music as acoustic or electric guitar music.  So chords can be thought of as “classical guitar chords” in the same way as we think of “acoustic guitar chords”.  They are the same chords.  It doesn’t matter whether we are reading from standard notation or guitar tabs. 

The Masters Knew Their Classical Guitar Chords: Do You? 

Knowing common chords will help with almost everything that we play on the fretboard. 

The old masters of the 18th and 19th centuries knew this well.  All the top players in those days were composers also.  And many (like Sor and Carcassi) wrote method books championing classical guitar chords and a systematic approach to harmony.

Below is a beginner’s guide to the most common chord shapes. You’ll find quite a bit of information, two videos, and a challenge. (Are you game?)

You’ll see chord diagrams and pictures of open chords.  (“Open” means the chord uses strings with no fingers pressing.  The string is “open”.)

And finally, enjoy an anecdote showing the power of classical guitar chords.

The Memory Challenge: Music and Language

Try this: Give yourself five seconds to try to memorize the following catchy letters:

Test #1:      AOEULRCHKOUSNT

Got it? Great! (Yeah right.) Even if you did get this one, how well will you be able to recall it tomorrow?

Now do this one:

Test #2:    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

Why is the second so much easier to memorize? Because the letters fall into recognizable groups.  And the groups fall into an order that makes sense, and all work together to convey an idea.  It seems to have a logical rhythm.

As I’m sure you realize, we can draw an analogy:  We can compare the letters in the first example to musical notes on a page.  The groups (words) in the second example are like chords.  The order of the words is like a chord “progression” (a string of chords).

Letters = notes
Words = chords
Sentences = chord progressions

The words are easier to recognize and memorize than the string of letters.  But only because we have so much more practice with them.

With time, we can recognize and recall notes and chords in the same way.  As beginner guitarists, we may struggle at first. But we improve with time and focused guitar practice.

Which Classical Guitar Chords Should You Learn?

Chords are made from groups of notes called major and minor triads.  We won’t go too much into music theory in this article.  But if you’d like to learn about triads, click here.  The chord is usually named after the lowest note. (The bass note.)

In beginner guitar lessons, we often start with a C chord (aka C Major chord).  From there, we learn the G Major Chord and the D Major chord.  These three (C, G, and D) are very common and popular chord shapes, and a good way of getting to grips with the fretboard.  (We’ll learn below why we group chords.  Their relationships form the backbone of songwriting.)

How To Play Chords

One chord shape might be more difficult to play correctly than another.  And most beginners find it challenging to smoothly change between chords. This is completely normal, and there are many different ways to overcome it. 

Practice strumming between these with correct hand placement.  This reduces tension and makes it easier to get a clean sound.  Keep your thumb behind your fingers.  And it also helps to have your guitar neck pointing up (not down).  

Then we can listen to a steady beat in our head and try to keep our strumming in time.  This will get easier and quicker the more we stick to it.  Each guitar chord will feel more joined up to the next. 

How to Read a Chord Chart

Below is a chord chart (aka chord diagram).  The dots represent finger positions for each chord.

• “X” means do not play that string.
• “O” (for open) means play open strings with no fret/finger pressed.
• And the 1, 2, 3, and 4 refer to the index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger (pinky), respectively.

Download the Guitar Chords Resources

(Tip: Enter your email address in one of the boxes on this page to download open chord diagrams and resources. For a play-along video to help you get started, see the Classical Guitar Beginner Toolbox.)

We’ve included the F major chord below, but it takes a bit more work to perfect.  Don’t worry if you find it difficult.  We can revisit it when we’re familiar with some of the others.

Common Guitar Chords

Learning the Beginner Chords

In the movie “What About Bob?”, Bill Murray’s character uses the tactic of “baby-stepping”.  Whatever situation he finds himself in, he simply “baby-steps” through it.

The basic idea is that anything can be taken one moment, or one little piece, at a time.  We can use this philosophy to learn these easy chords.  

Just as when we begin to learn a new language, it can be easier to memorize new material when it shares a context.  In language, this would be sentences. (i.e. “Where is the library?”)

It’s useful to practice chords in groups that frequently occur together.  This trains us to not only know the chords, but to be able to move from one to the next (like words in a sentence).

When we strum chords in this way, we train our muscle memory to move fluidly between chord shapes.  We can remember them on the fretboard more easily because of the context.

These chord sequences also introduce an important concept in music theory: Chord progressions.

Chord Progressions

Many of us will be familiar with the role of the “rhythm” guitar in a band.  It plays the chords, and provides the rhythmic and harmonic foundation for a song.  And when we’re listening to our favourite music, we might notice two or three chords cropping up again and again. 

You also may have heard of the old “Three Chord Trick.”  Some rock bands are well-known (and affectionately mocked) for using the same three chords.  But knowing which chords fit together well in sequence is the key to successful composing. 

It’s the same with classical guitar.  Practicing classical guitar chords is a great way of getting to grips with the basics of music theory.  So if we learn to play common chords and progressions, we gain instant access to a vast repertoire of music.  

Mastering guitar chord progressions may sound challenging.  But luckily, there is a kind of rule book of common progressions that we can follow.  (Remember, these are all classical guitar chords as well as chords found in songs.) 

Okay! I’ll Take the Chord Packet

Common Types of Chords

The most common types of chords on the guitar are major chords, minor chords, and 7 chords.

There are other types of chords, including ones that sound dissonant (clash).  But these are the ones we use most. 

When we see “Em” or “em”, it refers to an E minor chord.  Just the bare letter, such as “E”, refers to an E major chord. Major chords and minor chords have a different sound and mood, as we can hear when we play them. It’s why we can tell the difference between the Blues, rock and jazz.

Chords are common to all types of guitars that use standard tuning.  Electric guitar, acoustic guitar (steel-string), and classical guitar all use the same chords.  We may use them more or less, depending on the style of music, but the same chords sound the same on all guitars.  (Unless we are using a capo.  More about that here.)

So learning progressions is a skill that can serve us in the future, should we decide to play a different guitar. 

Other Types of Chords

And once we have these basic chords mastered, we can dive into using a capo, barre chords, and slash chords! (This is when we play a different note in the bass than is usual.) For each basic primary chord shape, there is a matching barre chord that can be useful in many situations.

For more on chords and chord progressions for beginners, click here.

Learn Guitar Chords to Help Musical Memory

Learning to play chords also helps our musical memory and understanding.

Here’s a story:

Superhero: The Memorizer

I was taking a lesson with a guitar teacher in Atlanta once.

He was a classical and flamenco guitarist.  And the music store (Maple Street Guitars) had recommended him while I was in town visiting my sister.

I had some music I had been working on for months. It was close to memorized, but not quite.

In the course of our lesson, without even seeming to try, he memorized the entire piece. Every note – I was amazed!

“How’d you do that?!” I asked.

I felt it was some virtuosic trick or special power he got after being bitten by a radioactive spider.

“It’s a fairly simple chord progression. I just used the harmony and filled in the blanks,” he answered.

At this point, I had been playing guitar for several years. (I was a couple of years into classical guitar after playing folk for several years.)  I knew my basic primary and barre chords, and had my chord changes smooth.

But I hadn’t connected knowing my chords with memorizing my classical guitar pieces.

Forests and Trees

It was a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.

From then on, I started trying to notice when parts of the basic chords I already knew showed up in my pieces.  Spotting a familiar major chord became quite addictive.

The chords weren’t always complete guitar chord shapes.  But if I could notice the chord “fragments”, I could create a basic structure (like a plot in a story).  This would help me remember where I was in the piece.

What I found was that by doing this from the start, I learned much more quickly. Plus I memorized my pieces much more easily.

This is what we do in The Woodshed® Classical Guitar Program.  Using custom materials and techniques, members train their brains to recognize classical guitar chord patterns.  It makes music make sense.  And this helps them learn pieces much more easily. 

Click here to learn more about how joining as a member can help you elevate your guitar playing.