In this lesson we will begin to learn Open Chords. 

If you play nearly any song on acoustic, or a song on electric with a smooth clean tone, you'll probably encounter these types of Chords.  This lesson gives a brief overview of Open Chords, but if you are confused by these you may want to check out the main page on this topic:  Open Chords

Lets start with the D major open chord.

Place your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the high e string, ring finger on the 3rd fret of the B string, index finger on the 2nd fret of the G string, and you will play the D string open (typically you don't play the low E or A strings for this chord).

Once you are comfortable with this, I want you to try some exercises with this chord.  I'm going to show you some ways this chord is commonly modified to add more flavor.  

To begin play the chord like normal, but now lift your middle finger off the fret board altogether, so you play the high e string open, and keep your other two fingers the exact same.  The tab would look like this below.
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As soon as you are comfortable with this, lets try another modification.  Once again play the D major open chord like normal.  Then drop your pinky onto the 3rd fret of the high e string, while keeping your other fingers in the exact same position.

It should look like the tab and photo below.

It's important that you keep your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the high e string, even though you are playing the 3rd fret with your pinky in front of it.  This makes it easy to transition back and forth between the above chord and the regular D major.


Not put all three together, as in the below tab.
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As you start to learn more songs you will find that many of them contain a group of chords (also referred to as a chord progression), where each note is played individually (as a broken chord), but instead of playing the chord in it's normal form, they'll spice it up by adding a couple of notes here and there.  To do this in the most efficient manner, you must learn to keep your fingers in the same chord position, while either adding one finger or removing a finger to slightly alter the chord.  Try the example below.

Lets move on to a few other open chords.

C Major

For this chord you place your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the A string, middle finger on the 2nd fret of the D string, the G string is played open, index finger on the 1st fret of the B string, and the high e string is played open.  In general you won't play the low E string, but you can if you want as an alternative form.

Lets spice this chord up in a similar fashion that we did the D major.  For this one lets keep it simple.  Try a variation where you simply will lift your index finger off of the fret board, so you now play the chord with an open B string like below.

Next lets do the G major.
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Place your middle finger on the 3rd fret of the low E string, index finger on the 2nd fret of the A string, play the D and G strings open, your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the B string, and pinky on the 3rd fret of the high e string.  You will want to play all six strings at once on this one.

This is a tough one, so if it's tricky, don't worry.  It takes everyone time to convert these patterns to muscle memory.  

Now I'll show you one quick trick to alter this chord.  Simply take your index finger off of the fret board to play the A string open, like below.

Alright there you are!  Open Chords are difficult to learn at first, don't be frustrated if you are having trouble.  Once you have them down they become muscle memory and you will be able to bounce quickly from one chord to the next.  

If you want an example of where you will see these chords in use look up the guitar tab of the song "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC.  During the verse, the three chords you learned in this lesson are used in quick succession.   

In the next exercise we will focus on Minor Open Chords.  Click the link below for Lesson 7.

Lesson 7