Confused by chord diagrams

1

Hi Justin, I’m in week one of the journey (at age 64) and very excited about it. But I get easily confused, such as when I see different chord charts showing that you play two open strings on D Major and others where you only play one (the D string). What am I missing? Thank you, and also thanks for your great lessons. Roger

2

There are different versions of D chord (actually, of every chord). You have your three finger version, but you also have one finger version (third fret on the B string). You also have D6, for example, two finger versions (G and e on second fret). Some of them are easier to do, if you have some sort of physical difficulties and/or the author of songs chose them, because they thought they sound better in their song (for their voice) over regular D…

3

Hi Roger,

I wish you a fruitful guitar journey :slight_smile:

As for the various open chords and their variations, some music theory will come handy a bit further down the road. Basically, most of these variations (e.g. suspended chords, dominant/major/minor seventh chords, etc) can be derived from the major scale theory.

For the time being, I’d suggest you stick to the open chords as taught by Justin and get familiar with the sounds and the fingering. Theory-wise, the concepts of root note, (major or minor) third and (perfect) fifth are sufficient at this stage.

4

So some charts show open A and open D strings? Others show just play open D string?

:thinking: Well, I think A is a note in the D chord… so it’s not too bad to play. I generally stay away from that open A string when playing that D, but maybe for certain songs you need it :neutral_face: If it sounds bad don’t play that open A :+1:

Welcome to the guitar club!

5

Thanks everyone for those helpful comments. Sorry I took so long to respond. Cheers.