How to Read Guitar Chord Charts

Easy guitar chord chart: 12 open chords to start with

These twelve shapes all sit in the first three frets. The rest of this page explains how to read each part of a chart like these.

Read one chord step by step: C major

1. Check the top. The thick nut line is there, so the shape sits at the first frets.
2. Read the x and o marks. String 6 has an x: skip it. Strings 3 and 1 have an o: they ring open.
3. Place the dots from the lowest string you play. Ring finger (3) on the A string, fret 3. Middle finger (2) on the D string, fret 2. Index finger (1) on the B string, fret 1.
4. Press just behind the fret wire, on your fingertips, so the open G and high e strings are not touched.
5. Strum from the A string down and listen. Then pick each string one at a time. A dull or buzzing string means a finger is too far from the fret or is touching a neighbouring string.

The text under the card, x 3 2 0 1 0, is the same chord written as fret numbers from string 6 to string 1. Many songbooks and websites print chords only in this form, so it is worth reading both ways.

The parts of a chord chart

The chart shows the fretting hand only. It does not tell you the rhythm; that comes from a strumming pattern or the song itself.

Finger numbers and the thumb

The numbers in the dots are fretting-hand fingers: 1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring, 4 little. A T means the thumb wraps over the top of the neck to press the low E string. Charts without numbers just show the notes; any fingers that reach them will do.

Finger numbers matter more than they first seem. In the usual fingerings of C and Am, the index and middle fingers stay on the same two notes, so only the ring finger has to move when you change between them. Practise that change against a metronome, one change per bar at 60 BPM, before you speed it up.

Open strings, muted strings and the root

An o means the string must ring. If it does not, a finger is leaning on it. An x means that string is not part of the shape: either avoid it with the pick, or touch it lightly with a spare finger so it cannot ring.

D major is a good test. Only the top four strings are played, so start the strum on the open D string:

On these cards the darker dots are the root, the note the chord is named after. In D major that is the D on the B string, fret 3; the open D string is a root too. Knowing where the root is helps later, when you move shapes up the neck and need to find the right fret.

Barre chords and fret numbers

A curved or straight bar across several strings is a barre. One finger, almost always the index, lies flat and presses all of those strings at the same fret, and the other fingers make a shape in front of it.

When a chord sits higher up the neck, the chart drops the thick nut line and prints a fret number beside the top row instead, such as 5fr. That number is the fret of the top row, and every dot below it counts on from there. The charts on this page do this only when the shape no longer fits in the first five frets, so the Bm barre at fret 2 is still drawn from the nut.

The bar across the Bm card is the index-finger barre at fret 2, with an Am shape held in front of it. Slide the whole shape up to fret 5 and it becomes Dm, x 5 7 7 6 5, which a chart would draw with 5fr beside the top row. Move it one fret and the chord name moves one half step. That is why one barre shape covers every key, and why open-chord players usually learn barre chords after the first eight or ten cowboy chords. The barre chords guide charts the two main shapes and the fret for each root note.

Chord charts compared with guitar tab

Tab is a different kind of chart. It shows six horizontal lines, one per string, with the high e string on the top line and low E on the bottom, the opposite of what many beginners expect. Numbers on a line are frets to play on that string, and time runs from left to right.

A chord in tab is a column of numbers stacked on top of each other. Here is C major written as tab:

Chord charts are faster to read for chords; tab is better for single-note lines and riffs. Both describe the same fretboard.

Left-handed chord charts

A left-handed player holds the neck the other way, so a left-handed chart is the right-handed one mirrored: low E on the right, high e on the left. The finger numbers and fret positions do not change. If you play left-handed and only have right-handed charts, read the strings from right to left.

Quick test: read these four

Read each chart before you tap it, play it, then tap to compare. Each one is a shape from the basic open-chord set.

• G: all six strings play; the low E is fret 3, not open.
• Em: two fingers only, on fret 2 of the A and D strings.
• E: the Em shape plus the index finger on the G string, fret 1.
• A: three fingers side by side on fret 2; the low E string is not played.

If all four sound like the card, you can read any chord chart. The rest is learning shapes, and every new chord you meet, from 7th chords to sus chords, uses the same symbols. The chord directory has a chart you can hear for every common chord, and the chord finder names a shape from the frets you press when a sheet shows a diagram without a name.