Three Basic Chords To Use With Your Strumming Patterns

Guitar Chords For Beginners | February 12, 2011 by | 4 Comments

Guitar Chords

In order to get the most out of these strumming patterns you need to learn some chords. It’s best to learn chords in pairs starting with 2 at a time. Once you have them down you can either add another chord so you can play the 3 chord trick or if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous learn another two and then you’ll be able to play almost any tune.

Check Out The Videos Below!

Click Here For The Chord Videos


A Major

In this video you will learn three basic shapes for A Major. Just choose the one that you find the easiest, if you have slightly bigger fingers then you’d probably want to use the 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger option



D Major

Make sure your 3rd finger doesn’t touch the 1st string. If it does then the highest note in D Major simply won’t ring out.



E Major

This time you’ll be playing all 6 strings!(Sneaky Tip: If you move all 3 fingers down 1 string you’ll have A Minor. :-)


Let me explain… Certain chords go really well together because they belong to the same key. Like A and D for example. So those are two good chords to start with. Of course you’ll need more than two chords to play a tune so once you know A & D it’s time to learn E and voila! A, D & E = 3 Chord Trick in A Major. Those are the three chords that you’ll always find together in songs that are in the key of A Major. So does that mean you can only play songs that are in the key of A? Certainly not!

The Capo To The Rescue!

Using a capo will allow you to play in any key using only those 3 shapes. For more info about how a capo works click the link and check out the video.

Strumming Patterns + Chords = Songs & Music!

Right so if you’re a beginner you need to have a few basic strumming patterns down as well as A, D and E. Then simply practice those chords with the strumming patterns and once they’re nice and fluent you can start to tackle some basic songs.

Don’t you think it makes so much more sense to learn a rhythm and some chords and get them to sound good before attempting a song? This way when you learn the tune you’ll have the basics sorted and you can get on with making music so much faster!

Did you enjoy this lesson? Let me know in the comments below and tell me what else you want to learn!

4 Responses to “Three Basic Chords To Use With Your Strumming Patterns”

  1. joaquin
    January 7, 2012 at 12:04 pm #

    very enlightening and encouraging. looking forward to the next one.

    Reply
  2. joaquin
    January 7, 2012 at 12:05 pm #

    thanks for the little tips. makes a difference when followed.

    Reply
  3. John
    February 26, 2012 at 6:06 pm #

    Where can I find music for songs that is broken into the strumming patterns and chord notations, and perhaps an occasional single bass note pick, for A, D, E songs?

    Reply
    • masterstrummer
      February 28, 2012 at 5:50 pm #

      A good song book will do John, I’ll post some on the website soon.

      Reply

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