How to Read Chord Diagrams
Six lines, six dots, a few X and O marks. Once you can read a chord diagram you can play any of the 670,000 songs in this site.
A chord diagram is the guitar neck stood on its end and viewed from the player’s perspective. The vertical lines are strings (low E on the left, high E on the right) and the horizontal lines are frets.
A dot means press here. The number inside or below it is the suggested fingering: 1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = pinky.
Above the diagram you might see O (play the string open) or X (don’t play this string).
C major — the canonical first chord most players learn.
- String 6 is X — mute it (rest a thumb).
- String 5 fret 3 with finger 3.
- String 4 fret 2 with finger 2.
- String 3 is O — play it open.
- String 2 fret 1 with finger 1.
- String 1 is O — play it open.
Self-check
Did you complete the drill above and feel confident with this lesson?
- Wikibooks · Guitar / Chords · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lesson copy © Free Chord Book. Content adapted from sources marked CC BY-SA 4.0 is itself shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.