The Lessons

Your fretjam

Misc Stuff

Home > Guitar Chords > Open Guitar Chords

Open Guitar Chords

In the basic guitar chords series, we were introduced to some essential open guitar chords and their most common variations. This lesson is all about discovering more interesting chord variations, built around those same open positions - E A D C and G. I think you'll be surprised at the vast library of chords you'll have under your belt just from playing around with these positions.

The beauty of open chords is, because they use open strings, they sound especially vibrant and lush. The idea is that you build up your chord voicing options and experiment with each in your songwriting. Open chords shouldn't replace other chord forms you learn, but just having the option gives you that creative freedom.

E position open guitar chords

Major open E chords

Notice how the key elements of the basic major chord (the root E string, the 3rd on 1st fret G string and 5th on A string 2nd fret) are kept intact. All we're doing is adding tones to these basic chords to give them more depth.

Eadd6/9	E13
Emaj13	Eaug
Eaug7

Minor open E chords

Again, key elements of the basic minor triad are still there (root E string, open G string minor 3rd and 5th on A string 2nd fret). We're just adding tones around it to spice things up. They won't sound right in every context, but they're there when you need them!

Emadd6/9	Em9
Em9 alt	Em13

A position open chords

Major open A chords

A13	Amaj13
Amaj7sus2	Aaug
Aaug7

Minor open A chords

Am13	Amadd6
AmMaj7

Suspended open A chords

Asus13

D position open chords

Major open D chords

Daug	Daug7
D7add6

Minor open D chords

Dmadd6

DmMaj7

Suspended open D chords

Dmaj7sus2	Dsus2b5
Dsus4add6

C position open chords

Major open C chords

Cadd9b5	Cadd9/6
C9

G position open guitar chords

Major open G chords

Gmaj9

G13

Minor open G chords

Gm11

Gmadd6

Suspended open G chords

Gsus9

Gsus13

Use this chord library for more ideas

Use the chords you've learned in this lesson as inspiration for trying your own ideas. Add/remove fingers/notes to the chord forms you know and hear how it changes their sound.

For more ideas, explore this chord library.

See you soon!

< Back to Guitar Chords Main

footer for beginner guitar lessons page