How to Build D Major Chords on the Guitar

With chord building, guitar players learn what goes into a chord. It helps on how to play the chord, and also advances your music theory. The D major chord is easier to some guitar beginners because it is a more clustered chord (all of the held frets are on the top three strings). Here's how to build your D major chord on the guitar.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Lay out your chromatic scale. For the key of D, it's going to be D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D. You may remember this from "do re mi fa..." which is a sounding of the major scale. We'll be using these notes out of the major scale to craft the major chord, which uses the first (or base) note, the third and the fifth.
2. Put your index finger on the second fret of the G string (fourth string from the bottom). This is your A note, your fifth scale note.
3. Add your ring finger to the third fret of the next string toward the top, the B string (second string from top). This is your D note, your first scale note, and the note the chord is named after.
4. Get your middle finger onto the second fret of the top E string. This is your F sharp note, your third scale note. You see you now have the first, third and fifth, though not in that order.
5. Leave the rest of the strings open.
6. Strum all of the strings together. You'll hear a D major sound, even though the low E string isn't part of the chord at all, and the open A might seem in conflict with emphasizing the first scale note, the D. For a "cleaner" D major chord, strum just the top four strings of the guitar.