Learn Electric Guitar Chords

Electric guitar chords are chords that sound good when you play then on an electric guitar. There are no chords specifically designed for the electric guitar but there are chords that have no appeal whatsoever on the acoustic guitar but sound very effective combined with big volume and the effects available to electric guitar players.

First, if you want to play electric guitar do a search for free guitar tabs on the internet and download the tabs for some of your favorite songs. If the tabs have chord names on them, pick the songs that have chords with names like D, C, A, or Am. Just letters with maybe a lowercase m next to them. Do not try to learn songs that have chords with "sus" or "dim" in the names. These are not necessarily hard chords to play but as a beginner you will do better by learning the basic major and minor chords.

When you first start learning guitar chords, whether for acoustic or electric guitar, you will find there are two schools of thought when it comes to guitar lessons. Some people try to learn to play the guitar by themselves, make a little progress and then find that a few lessons with a guitar teacher are much more rewarding than months of learning alone from books or online lessons.

Other guitar players will tell you they were quite happy learning by themselves and even after realizing the benefits of learning with a teacher, still prefer to go solo. It's a matter of personal preference. Learning electric guitar chords can be done alone. A chord chart will tell you where to put your fingers, and once you know that, it's just a matter of practice.

The thing with that is, a chord chart can't tell you the correct angle to hold your hand in relation to the guitar neck. A chord chart can't tell you that if you keep trying to rush chord changes you might damage your hand. And, finally, a chord chart can't answer questions like, "When is learning guitar chords going to get easier?"

Now, a word about a particular kind of guitar chord that is used to great effect by electric guitar players. It's called a power chord. These are basically two-note chords that are used a lot in punk and metal music but can accompany any kind of song on an electric guitar. If you try to play them on an acoustic guitar they might sound too thin but an electric guitar has the power to carry off playing just two notes in a chord.

The notes in a power chord are the root note and the fifth of the scale you are working with, so if you want to play a power chord instead of a C major chord you play the notes C and G. You can play the C at the third fret of the fifth string with your first finger and the G on the fifth fret of the fourth string with the third finger.

You can add octaves to your power chords, for instance you can play the chord I described above plus the open third string which is the note G. Or you can add a C by playing the fifth fret on the third string with your pinky.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.