Basic Guitar Chords and Proper Finger Positions

Other beginners may still encounter some confusions in reading the chord chart so i think it will be much better if we have an illustration of the proper finger positions on the fret board. Be sure that all the pressed strings sound clearly and the open strings are not muted by other fingers during the chord playing.

 
Its important to curve your fingers in pressing the strings so as not to touch other open strings. I personally prefer to learn beginning guitar lessons without using a pick to acquaint ourselves to different tones of our fingers when strumming or plucking the strings. For me its important to learn to connect our bare fingers to the instrument first before we use guitar picks. While we started to enjoy how we improve in chord execution, we must not disregard how the strings sound individually because sometimes there exist some unnecessary buzz in each strings we play. Though it seems you can already sound the string, sometimes it has a distorting sound not usually noticed when you strum a chord wholly. The beginners often neglect to check how individual strings sound cause they are preoccupied in the joy of being able to sound a chord.

    

When you reached the proper finger stretched position the first time you sound a chord, always remember this needed effort for speedy finger positioning familiarity and dexterity. Constant practice is a must. Start by a single downward strum by your thumb and make your left hand fingers just adapt to strum time duration of the right hand for acquiring balance familiarization.

  


After you had learned to execute properly these first group of basic chords by a single downward stroke of the thumb, you must add some extra right hand activity. Lets say by these basic chords, learn to play by adding an upward stroke after every downward thumb stroke motion thus you can have an alternating downward (thumb) and upward (forefinger) strokes at a repeating count of "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" and continue that until your both hands feel some extended effort to continue for another set of counts.

Guitar Basic Strumming and Notations

Before we start to learn different strumming methods, lets see briefly some important musical symbols to consider

a "whole note" counts this way 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
half note - 1 and 2 and;
quarter note - 1 and

                       Today we will learn about the basics of guitar strumming. On the illustration below, notice that on the first line, we use the standard 4 beats in a bar music counting to gain the proper movement of the right hand in a down-up strumming movement.                                     

   

The second line denotes the kind of note a single strum movement will be timed. Here at the illustration we used the eight note notation which signifies that you have to move your hand in a down and up manner 8 times. The third line signifies the alternating down and up motion of the right hand in a strumming manner. The arrow pointing downward means strumming the guitar by your thumb in a downward motion beginning from the string closest to you which is the thickest string going down to the first string nearest the floor while the arrow pointing upward means strumming it beginning at the first string nearest the floor which is the thinnest string going up to the last string closest to you. Hear this audio of this strumming pattern. Position your fingers in key of G chord.

I recommend also to try your hand at some basic chords given here previously and just try this strumming pattern at its basic counting measures. I prefer to learn fundamental strumming methods with bare fingers to get the real touch and feel of the play at the first learning. You can use the back of your thumb when strumming upwards slightly touching your thumbnail as smooth as possible.