It’s always the same for beginner guitarists – the guitar chord chart has become a mindless reference for “building” chords. This is all very well for quick visual reference, but too many guitarists have restricted themselves too far into their playing life by relying on such charts to map out their fretboard options. The limitations become immediate.

This is one of the “parrot-fashion” learning techniques that creates the non-thinking guitarist. When you learn a chord from a chart, you know where to put your fingers and you know what the chord sounds like, sure, but there’s one major problem…

You learn to associate a chord with just one or two positions on the neck, and in just one voicing.

If you’re asking “what’s a voicing?” or “what other positions are there?” then read on, because this will be like opening the gate (OK, I borrowed that from an advert on TV!)

First, make your chords mobile

Shortly after you get your first guitar, you probably wanted to learn some chords so you could play a song. Hell, any song would do – you just wanted to use your newly found instrument. You most probably started with the 5 major open position chords.

Then you discover there are minor versions of these chords, then 7th versions which add a bluesy feel to the chord.

The next logical step is to associate these chords with shapes, so essentially you have the E, A, D, G and C shape chords.

Many find all this out from using a guitar chord chart – fine at this stage, because if anything, you’re just trying to work your fingers into chord movements and get that tough skin formed around the fingertips.

The problem starts after this point is reached in your chord knowledge development – these open position chords alone can allow you to write great songs, even epics – I mean, all the “greats” have shown their love for these simple but vibrantly lush sounding chords down at the first few frets.

You have to make these “shapes” movable. This is where the barre chord comes in, starting with the dreaded “F chord”. The barred F chord is in fact the “E shape” moved up to the first fret, so your index mimics the nut (or a capo). Move it up another fret (half step) and you get F#, then G, and so on…

Again, this can feel like such a milestone to guitarists (mainly physical) that they stop their chord development dead after they can barre the “E shape” up the guitar neck! The freedom they now have to be able to roam the fretboard with this movable major/minor shape!

I ask you – what about the other shapes? Remember, the A, D, C and G shapes? You can see what I mean on the guitar barre chords page.

Learn these 5 movable shapes (and their minor, 7th, and other modifications) and what have you got? Different voicings!.

These new found shapes give you voicings with lower 3rds, higher 5ths or doubled tones for the same chord – effectively, you now have a choice to see which fits into your chord progression most logically.

To stop the learning here though is still a few goals short of the win, and you still haven’t fully progressed beyone this guitar chord chart logic.

Second – Make your chords dynamic

So you’ve learned the 5 main chord shapes for use anywhere on the guitar neck. Now it’s time to understand. It’s time to use these shapes as foundations for one simple scale but a seemingly infinite number of chords and voicings.

You see, with guitar, chord shapes work directly with a co-inciding scale shape. Once you learn the major scale and its shapes/patterns around the fretboard, you start to realise how everything links together – chords and scales are two of the same thing (not “scales are for lead guitar and chords are for rhythm guitar”)

You options open up so wide that your songwriting is no longer limited by what some guitar chord chart told you – see?

If you haven’t already, it’s time to get out of the parrot fashion mindset…

Here are some helpful steps to take (you can use this site too!)

1) Learn the movable chord shapes.

2) Use these shapes and apply the major scale shapes around them.

3) Use your knowledge of the major scale to create triads, 7ths and extended chords in several positions on the fretboard.

4) Use your knowledge of chord construction to create unique chord voicings and inverted chords all over the fretboard.

5) Don’t forget to “float” chords occasionally with open strings.

^ 5 steps I recommend you spend some of your regular practice on. ^

Free yourself from the constraints of the guitar chord chart and learn to use the chord library that music naturally allows you to build – just a little homework goes a long way.