Open Chords E, A and D

Course: Electric Guitar Starter

EGSC Audio Track 02 E A D

In this video

Welcome to Lesson 2 of this Electric Guitar starter course focusing on Rock guitar!

In this lesson, I show you how to play a short guitar riff with just three easy open chords; E majorA major and D major.

If you need more help with these chords, check out this lesson from the free version of my beginners course. 

NEW Interactive TAB!

Click the play button below to jam along with the audio jam track for this tutorial while also seeing the TAB in real time!

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Chords & tips!

This is the E major chord. Each number tell you which finger to place down; 1 being index, 2 is middle and 3 is ring finger. Anchor finger in yellow.

This is the 2nd chord we'll learn, the A major chord. Notice the 1st finger is on the same string as it is in the E major chord.

To change from the E chord to the A chord, keep your 1st finger down, lift off the others and slide it to the 2nd fret

If the D chord isn’t ringing out when you change

Don’t keep your 1st finger totally still. Instead, slide it from the middle of the fret on the A to the ‘good’ side of the fret on the D! This is the most common cause of the D chord not sounding good during a song- make sure you slide the 1st finger over!

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The anchor finger is crucial here. Any chord change you struggle with should be practiced for a minute each practice session

Next Up: Heavy Rock Style Palm Muting [aka chugs!]

Well done! Let's jump into the next lesson of the course.