Many musicians consider open chords to be nothing more than an initial learning hurdle for beginning guitarists. Often when a new guitarist has learnt how to finger and strum the basic open chords, they will quickly dump them for the more mobile barre chords. While barre chords sure are cool, they also lack the certain chimey quality that open chords produce, open chords also feel a lot more free compared to barre chords, which are quite dense sounding. Perhaps the main reason why open chords are quickly discarded, is that most guitarists only know at most 10 of them. Usually these are E, Em, maybe F, G, A, Am, C, D and Dm. That doesn’t really open a lot of musical doors, where is the Fm, Gm, Cm, and all of the Bs!? What about the dominant 7ths, minor 7ths and major 7ths? Well, don’t fret! Here is the definitive open chord guide, which accepts and welcomes all of the neglected open chords! If you like, you can download a print friendly word document version of this post.
Practicing these chords will not only give you a massive edge over the average guitarist who only knows 5-10 open chords, it will also give you a much larger tonal range to tap into, and it will increase your finger dexterity and strumming ability! If you use these open chords to tackle my guide on chord progressions, then you will have the advantage of remembering the progressions faster than if you played barre chords. This is because all the open chords are closely clustered together, the changes are faster and easier, therefore your muscle memory for the progressions develops at a faster rate.
Before I show you the chords, I will show you a chart which details the skeleton of each of the chords. With this simple little chart, you will have the power to construct your own chords, a lot of these open chords I actually constructed myself by using QwikChord as I couldn’t find some of these open chords anywhere on the net, at least not accurate ones. It’s a good exercise to try and construct your own chords from scratch, give it a shot!
OPEN CHORDS
Chort Type | Chord Formula |
Major Triad | 1-3-5 |
Minor Triad | 1-b3-5 |
Major 7 | 1-3-5-7 |
Minor 7 | 1-b3-5-b7 |
Dominant 7 | 1-3-5-b7 |
Be sure to check out the other guitar guides scattered throughout the site!
- Chord Guide: Pt II – Barre Chords
- Chord Guide: Pt III – Chord Progressions
- Song Lesson: The Girl From Ipanema
Pingback: The Chord Guide: Pt III – Barre Chords | end of the game
Pingback: The Chord Guide: Pt I – Chord Progressions | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: The Chord Guide: Pt II – Barre Chords | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: University Course: Introduction to Music Theory | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: Modes of the Melodic Minor Scale! | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: Modes of the Major Scale Explained! | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: Natural, Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: Frank Gambale: Modes No More Mystery | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: Mother of All Music Theory – The Major Scale | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: Jazz Guitar – Bebop Scales | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: Mother of All Music Theory – The Major Scale | END OF THE GAME
Pingback: Song Lesson: The Girl From Ipanema | END OF THE GAME
Couldn’t this list also include suspended chords?
LikeLike
It could, but I wanted to keep it simple and digestible.
LikeLike
Great posts. Thank you.
LikeLike
Think of some of the things that have happened in your life that seemed “awful” to you at the time, but
in hindsight are things you’re incredibly grateful for now.
Breathing deeply several times can help slow your heartbeat, lower your blood pressure
and allow you to feel in control again. I didn’t
push any bad emotions down into the dungeon.
LikeLike
Pingback: PRISM’s Guide to Chord Progressions | PRISM
This site rocks alot
LikeLike
Dude, your site is awesome.
I’m French and we don’t really do that kind of helpful sites and stuff (which is rather a shame).
Keep up the good work!
LikeLike
Pingback: List Of Chord Progressions (Genre Specific) | Diablo Beretta Beats
This is one of the top sites for infomation on chords. I have read quickly 2 pages and i feel like i have already learnt so much with out even touching the guitar or writing anything down.
Thankyou.
LikeLike
Anyone know how i can get a full retail copy of QwikChord3. The website is gone. the free version is very restricted. I am 79 years old and have started (trying) to learn to play the guitar. Hope somebody can help. Thanks in advance
LikeLike