Ok. Chord Charts.
These are easiest to read if you think of a guitar hanging on a wall and facing you.
The vertical lines in the chord chart represent the strings.
The horizontal lines in the chord chart represent the frets.
If you look at one of them and again refer to the supplemental materials for this you can see kind of a grid.
The far left vertical line in the chord chart refers to your low E string.
The far right vertical line refers to your high E string.
As you read from left to right you cover all of the strings.
The frets. Starting with fret one go from top to bottom when you are looking at the chart.
If there is a number out to the side directly to the left.
Normally what we would call the first fret if there is a number that says five or six etcetera.
That means that the chord chart starts at fret six.
So whatever you would think of as normally fret one when you're looking at the chart
you would actually begin up here at fret six and begin fretting those notes.
The dots that you see and if you refer to the supplemental materials
you will see that I have chords E and A already charted out.
You have already worked on these chords if you are following my lesson series.
This will be a really good opportunity to get familiar with how the chord chart works.
The little black dots on the chart refer to where you place your fingers.
According to this chart we've got a note here on the second fret on your A string,
we've got a note on your second fret on your D string and a note on the first fret on your G string.
Those are where the dots are placed on the chart.
If you notice right above the chart directly below the name of the chord are little zero's above some of the strings.
What that means is that you are going to play that string even though you are not fretting a note on the string.
If you look at the A chart you've got a little x directly over your low E string.
That means when you play this chord you are not going to play the low E string.
Finally, below the chart you see little numbers.
Those numbers are which fingers you are going to use to play the notes that are fretted.
In this particular example I have the fingering of the E chord set up like this.
Your second finger is going to be playing on the A string second fret.
Your third finger is going to be playing on the D string second fret.
Your first finger is going to be playing on the G string on the first fret.
Then because of the zero's up above the chart you are going to be strumming all of the strings.
This is slightly different than the fingering I had in the other lessons I was recommending people do it this way.
Either way works.
The A chord I have set up on this chord chart to play like this.
You are not playing your low E string.
Then you've got an open A string.
Then with your first finger you are playing second fret on the D string.
Second finger second fret G string.
Third finger second fret B string and then your E string is open.
When we get into bar chords in a later lesson if you have a line
drawn across one of the frets so it would be a horizontal line in the chart.
That is saying you are going to take your first finger, usually, and you are going to play across the entire neck.
We will get into that technique in a little bit but as you start seeing chord charts show up like that, that is what that means.
Next up is musical notation.