The power chord. If you’re new to guitar, you may not know what it is, but you’ve surely heard it. It’s the sound of rock n’ roll. These simple two-note chords have been used to create some of the greatest riffs and chord progressions in rock history. In this lesson we’re going to look at the basic power chords for guitar, from construction to the various ways they’re played.

When starting out on the guitar, or any instrument for that matter, it’s important to build a strong foundation. Seems like a pretty common sense principle, but we all can agree that we’ve had to fight the urge to tackle more advanced concepts and techniques before we were ready for them. So with this lesson I’d like to hit on the essential guitar chords for beginners to learn.

One of the more challenging obstacles as a beginner guitarist, or if you’re just new to guitar theory, is figuring out how to determine the key of a song. Some songs stick to standard chords within a key, which makes this task much easier. Other songs, however, are not as straight forward.

In this lesson we look at chord formula basics to help make sense of these names and build an understanding of how chords are made.

Guitar chord inversions allow you to create different voicings for a given chord. These voicings can add a little flavor and variety to the typical chord sound. While “chord inversion” may sound complicated, it’s actually quite simple.

The importance of knowing the intervals on guitar can’t be overstated. It allows you to better understand how scales and chords are constructed and gives you a deeper understanding of how music works.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a guitar system to easily allow you to visualize and connect the guitar fretboard up and down the neck? The CAGED guitar system does just that. It lays out the guitar fretboard in a logical manner, allowing you to easily navigate the fretboard.

Knowing the major scale chords sets the foundation for writing and understanding chord progressions, transposing to other keys, and developing your ear as a guitarist. In this lesson you’ll learn how chords are constructed from the major scale by stacking 3rds, what determines the quality of these chords, and how these chords map to the fretboard.