Lesson #1

In this first of my basic guitar chords video I’m going to show you some of the most important basic guitar chords to learn. These chords are the easiest to learn in the beginning as well as some of the most useful — the D chord, the A7 chord in the G chord. I’ll also cover the principles of how to get a good sound with the least amount of effort and how to change between chords smoothly.

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Hi there. I’m Tomas Michaud. In this video, Basic Guitar Chords for Beginners, I’m gonna show you three of the most popular guitar chords. And the the most popular because they’re the most useful and the easiest for beginners to learn. So this is the series, this is video number 1, and we’ll start off with the D chord. Let’s get going.

Okay, the D chord. Take a look at my fingers. It’s a three finger chord, you’re gonna have your first finger on the second fret, third string; the second finger on the first string, that’s the second fret also; then in between those, the third finger on the third fret, second string. You’re gonna aim for four notes, the top four notes. The top string by the way is the one closest to the floor. And also make sure that your fingers are going up and then down. You’re gonna get better connection with the notes. Okay next, A7. Now keep your fingers on the D chord, and move everything over to the A7 chord. The
first finger is on the fourth string, second fret; your second finger is now on the second string, second fret, the third finger comes off, the string in between these fingers is open now. You can hit the fifth string as well, A7. Looks a lot like the D, you just move the first two fingers over the string and take of the third finger. That’s your A7.

Now for the G chord. For this video, we’re gonna use a simple G chord, it’s not the only G chord, a single finger G. That’s your first string, third fret, third finger; and aim for four strings. If you accidentally hit the other string don’t worry too much. That’ll be G for this video.

By the way, a more complex G – if you’ve been playing for a while – is the three finger G like this. It’s okay. Though if you’re starting out, I encourage you to start with the single finger G. You can always add over a string later, add a finger. Okay?

So let’s try it. D, move the first two fingers over to A7, and now to G, a third finger. Let’s do a simple exercise to practice changing from one chord to the other. I’ll call out the chords and you play along. Start with D two times, go to A7 two times, back to D, and then G two times. Repeat that. Let’s do it. Ready? Go! D, A7, D, G, back to D strumming straight down to A7. Either what you repeat, it doesn’t matter. D, G, and on D. Good work!

That’s it for this video. There will be more chords on the next video, so keep coming back. I look forward to seeing you again. Bye for now.

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