Tips for How to Play Gospel Guitar Chords
Gospel music has a long and storied history. From traditional hymnals to blues and jazz-based praise music, the term gospel has come to mean a fairly wide range of musical styles. Because of the guitar's ability to play six different notes at once, it is well suited to act as the rhythm instrument in gospel music. A grasp of basic chords is required to play gospel, however.
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Open Chords
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Major and minor open chords are the most-used chords in all of gospel music. Open chords incorporate a few open strings into the basic chord shapes. The fingerings for these chords is not uniform, so you should use a basic guitar chord chart to learn these open chords. When learning these chords, make sure to bridge your fret-hand fingers in order to let all of the strings ring cleanly.
Major Bar Chords
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Bar chords are movable chord types that allow you to quickly jump from chord to chord. Major bar chords are extremely useful in gospel music. The six-note major bar chord starting on the low "E" string is played by barring your pointer finger across all six strings, then using your ring finger to fret a note on the "A" string two frets higher than the fret you are barring, using your pinkie to press against this same fret on the "D" string and finally using your middle finger to fret the "G" string one fret higher than the one you are barring. To play a major bar chord starting on the fifth string, bar the top five strings with your pointer finger and use your ring finger to fret notes on the "D," "G" and "B" strings two frets higher than the fret you are barring with your pointer finger.
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Minor Bar Chords
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Minor bar chords are also very important in gospel guitar. In order to play a six-string minor bar chord, play a six-string major bar chord, then lift your middle finger off of the "G" string. Make sure all of the notes sound cleanly when you strike a minor bar chord, especially the note on the "G" string. The five-string minor bar chord is played by using the six-string major bar chord shape, but starting it on the "A" string. If done properly, your pointer finger will bar the top five strings, your ring finger will be on the "D" string, your pinkie will be on the "G" string and your middle finger will be on the "B" string.
Other Chords
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Although major and minor chords are the most common types of chords used in gospel music, many other chords do get used from time to time. Use a chord chart to learn 7th, 6th and suspended chords in both open positions and bar positions. The more chords you know by heart, the better gospel guitarist you will become.
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