Piano Guidance
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What is the easiest chord to play on A guitar?

Basic Em Guitar Chord (E Minor Chord) Em is the first beginning guitar chord you should learn. It's one of the most basic guitar chords not only because it's easy, but because it's used all the time in a lot of different songs. The small m after the E means minor. Think of minor as a flavor of sound.

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In this guitar lesson you’re going to learn 7 of the most basic guitar chords for beginners. These beginning guitar chords are the first ones every guitar player should learn. They are sometimes referred to as open position chords, because they are played in the first few frets of the guitar and all contain at least one open string. If you are looking for easy guitar chords for beginners, these are the ones to start with.

Basic Em Guitar Chord (E Minor Chord)

Em is the first beginning guitar chord you should learn. It’s one of the most basic guitar chords not only because it’s easy, but because it’s used all the time in a lot of different songs. The small m after the E means minor. Think of minor as a flavor of sound.

Basic C Guitar Chord (C Major Chord)

The 2nd basic beginner guitar chord you should learn is C, or C major. You don’t have to say “major” in the name of the chord. If you just say C chord it’s assumed that it’s a major chord. You only want to strum the top 5 strings (that means the highest sounding 5 strings, not their relationship to the floor) The X in the guitar chord chart means not to play that string, or to mute it. For some more help on getting the right hand position for these basic guitar chords, check out my Guitar Chord Help lesson.

Practicing Beginning Guitar Chords

There are 2 things you should practice as you learn these new basic guitar chords. 1. Play the notes of the chord individually making sure that all of the notes are sounding. 2. Practice switching between different chords keeping a steady beat. Try not to stop, the goal is to learn to switch between the chords getting the best sound possible (without stopping). Fix any problems as you are strumming.

Basic Guitar Chord Progressions

The best way to practice these beginner guitar chords at first is with some basic chord progressions. A chord progression is just a common combination of chords. With all of the basic guitar chord progressions in this guitar lesson, do the following. 1. Strum only on beat 1 of each measure. This gives you plenty of time to get to the next chord.

2. Next try strumming only on beats 1 and 3.

3. Finally strum on all 4 beats.

Try practicing these with a metronome to help you keep a steady time. There are many free metronome apps available for your phone. My Rhythm Guitar Mastery course also has a ton of full band jam tracks for you to practice with as well.

Basic Guitar Chord Progression #1

Guitar Lesson Navigation

Page 2, Basic Guitar Chords – G & D >>>

Page 3, Basic Guitar Chords – Am >>>

Page 4, Basic Guitar Chords – E >>>

Page 5, Basic Guitar Chords – A >>>

Page 6, All 7 Basic Guitar Chords for Beginners >>>

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What is Motley Crue's tuning?

Many of Motley Crue's songs were played in D standard tuning; however, we'll be using E standard tuning here so you don't need to worry about altering anything on your guitar.

“Home Sweet Home” by Motley Crue is considered to be one of the greatest power ballads of all time. In this guitar lesson, we’ll be learning to play an acoustic version of the iconic song. Since we’ll be playing the piano part on our guitar as well, you should be prepared to use both strumming and fingerpicking techniques throughout this song. Many of Motley Crue’s songs were played in D standard tuning; however, we’ll be using E standard tuning here so you don’t need to worry about altering anything on your guitar. As you move through the lesson, you might find a few new chords and shapes, so be sure you download the PDF sheet music to help you follow along. Add this version of “Home Sweet Home” to your daily practice time and work towards executing all of the different parts perfectly. If you enjoyed learning this song, you might want to dig into some other Motley Crue tunes as well!

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