Absolute beginner? Start here! These easy guitar chords for beginners are the 4 most important chords you must know! Learn songs on guitar RIGHT AWAY with the 4 easiest absolute beginner guitar chords are the first shapes I teach my beginner guitar students on their first lesson. You’ll play thousands of songs with just 4 easy chord shapes and the “2 finger” trick.

The first guitar chords you should learn: G, D, Em, C

► WORKSHEET for this lesson available in my FREE E-BOOK!

Learn the easiest chords to play on guitar and unlock the ability to play 1000s of songs… songs using these 4 beginner guitar chords:

Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
Zombie – The Cranberries: Coming soon!
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Wagon Wheel
Perfect – Ed Sheeran
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
Viva La Vida – Coldplay
Little Talks
Save Tonight
Good Riddance Time of Your Life – Green Day
Hey Ya – Outkast
Wonderwall – Oasis
Hey Soul Sister – Train
I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
No Woman No Cry – Bob Marley
Fast Car – Tracy Chapman
Despacito
Stand By Me – Ben E. King
You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift
Country Roads – John Denver
When I Come Around – Green Day

TABLE OF CONTENTS

0:00 – Demonstration
0:25 – Why you should learn these 4 easy shapes
1:46 – Essential technique that makes this very easy
2:36 – Easy way to play D chord
3:43 – Easy way to play G chord
4:47 – Switching from G to D smoothly
6:47 – Easy way to play Em chord
7:56 – Switching from D to Em smoothly
8:44 – Easy way to play C chord
10:04 – Switching from Em to C smoothly
10:50 – Switching from C to G smoothly
11:37 – Practice the easiest chord progression on guitar
13:36 – Add some strumming
15:44 – Play TONS of songs!
17:05 – Farewell message

We begin with the core of this entire progression. We need to place our 3rd and 4th fingers on the top 2 strings at the 3rd fret. They will stay there for every single chord shape and provide you a “pivot point” that will make switching as easy as possible.

Next we add our first finger, and play the D chord easily. This is followed by the G chord, which uses our middle finger. With 2 shapes, we can practice switching, which is really the essential skill you need to play rhythm guitar. It only takes these 2 shapes, and we can already play a full song (What I Got by Sublime).

We repeat the process for the Em and C chords, practicing the switch between each shape and then putting our entire progression together. We practice switching gradually and add simple rhythm, followed by a useful strumming pattern.

With just those 4 shapes and a simple pattern, you are ready to play TONS of hit songs. We go over a few simple ones before concluding the lesson.

If you would like a printable pdf copy of the worksheet, please check out my free eBook: https://goodguitarist.com/learn-rhyth…

Enjoy!
-James