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Learn Guitar Chords Quickly

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The Fastest Way To Learn Guitar Chords

The fastest way to learn how to play guitar is to learn guitar chords. If you can play a couple of dozen guitar chords, then you can play virtually thousands of popular songs: pop, rock, country, folk, sacred. You can jam with your friends, play in a band, play at church, or play at home for your family. You can take your guitar to the beach or to the mountains or wherever you go for vacation. You can write your own songs or play someone else's songs.

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Learn Guitar Chords So You Can...

Play Lead Like A Pro

guitar chords lead guitarIf you want is to play some fast and furious guitar licks - jazz, rock, or bluegrass - then learning guitar chords is the fastest way to do that. Those "hot licks" that you hear being played by top guitar players aren't pulled out of thin air; their solos flow from the song's chord progression!

Learn Guitar Chords And Progressions

From the Circle of Fifths

guitar chords circle of fifthsIf you can tell time and do first-grade math, then you can learn guitar chords quickly enough to be jamming with your friends in a few weeks.

Here's the secret: the chord progressions of 90% of all western music - including classical - are built around a device called the Circle of Fifths (see photo), representing musical "keys". For our description, imagine the Circle of Fifths as a clock.

Pick any key on the chart; "C", for example. For the key of C, the home base is at 12:00. In elementary harmony, the chords in a song move no farther away than 11:00 or 1:00 before moving back home again.

So, a basic chord progression in the key of C would be C-F-C-G. If you were jamming in the key of G, your basic chords would be G-C-G-D. Three chords per key, that's all. Learn guitar chords by learning the Circle of Fifths, and you will be playing guitar faster.

Learn Guitar Chords By Sound

And you will never get "lost" in a jam session.

guitar chords jam jam sessionOf course, there are a lot more chords than just a few dozen. Guitar chords can be "colored" by adding more notes.

But to learn guitar chords well you need a system that comes to you naturally and will keep you motivated.

Knowing which chords to learn is only part of the challenge; good musicians can hear and anticipate the chord changes. They can tell just by hearing a chord whether it's major, minor, seventh, or flatted.

The Natural Way to Learn Guitar Chords

Learn to "speak" guitar

learn guitar chords free bookIt's been said that music is a language. How true! The parts of the brain that control how we learn to speak are the same that enable us to learn a musical instrument.

For decades, the most successful music teaching methods have been built around this "music as a language" concept. In fact, there's a name for it: the "Mother Tongue" method of learning.

The most effective way to learn guitar chords is to learn them the same way that you learned to speak English: listen, watch, and imitate. Learning your language came naturally to you. Learning guitar chords will come naturally as well, if you go about it correctly.

Click the link below to watch the video about how to learn guitar chords by the "Speak Guitar" method.

Learn to "Speak Guitar"

So, Who's The Best?

Cast your vote!

learn guitar chords best rock guitarist

Everyone has an opinion about who is the best rock guitar player. What's yours?

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Do you prefer electric or acoustic guitars? Leave us a comment...

  • Ronlove Nov 28, 2011 @ 1:55 pm | delete
    I like both Depending on what I'm playing.
  • madhu2219 Nov 8, 2011 @ 3:34 am | delete
    Short and sweet article!
    Seems guitar learning was never so easy
  • AmyTK9 Sep 15, 2011 @ 11:59 am | delete
    I've always wanted to learn how to play the Guitar. I've never had one to play around with though. Or the money to buy one.
  • ThomasJ4 Sep 13, 2011 @ 3:23 pm | delete
    I play the piano and have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, nice lens you've got here
  • CruiseReady Sep 11, 2011 @ 12:53 pm | delete
    acoustic!
    I took a few guitar lessons, and found it exceptionally difficult for some reason. And this, in spite of the fact that I alread read music, and played both piano and clarinet. I gave up on it.
    So I appreciate a good guitarist, because I don't think it's that easy.
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Wayne_Jordan

Wayne struggled to learn guitar chords for years before stumbling into the "Mother Tongue" method of learning music. Since then, learning has progres... more »

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