C Major: Guitar Chords

Video Transcript

"Okay, so now we've learned several melodies on the guitar in this open position area. We've learned "Yankee Doodle", We learned "Mary Had a Little Lamb" before that. We learned "Amazing Grace" and we learned "Greensleeves". Now it's time to learn some chords now that we have these notes under our hands. One chord, we are going to use our third finger on the third fret of the A string. Playing C, right? We're going to use our second finger at the same time to play the second fret of the D string (E). So try to play C and E. Make sure that you can hear the E underneath the C. If there's any problems arch your third finger a little bit more. Move it up possibly and reposition it so you can hear that. Now you want to hear open G underneath that. You want to hear the first fret of the B string (that's C). So, C, E, G, C. Then you want to hear open E on top. Okay, you want to hear everything together. Try picking through it until the sound is correct. Then try giving it a strum. When you want to strum, you're going to take your pick (either your pick or your thumb). You're going to start on the A string and you're going to move it right across the strings. Without the pick (with our thumb) it's the same concept (moving across the strings). For now, we're always just going to be strumming down until we learn some strumming patterns. Then we will be strumming up and back. Avoid (when you play C major) avoid strumming the low E string. The low E on top gives it a murky sound. We want the C (the lowest note) to be our bass note. Good Luck!"