Basic Guitar Chords For Beginners

In this short lesson I present to you some of the commonly used basic guitar chords for beginners as well as their fingerings (finger numbers). The basic chords listed here should be enough to get you started playing most of the easy songs you find elsewhere online. See this huge list of songs with 4 chords as an example.

What are beginner guitar chords?

Beginner chords are those that should be relatively easy to play yet still provide a enough of a challenge to help the beginning guitarist build finger strength and dexterity. For this list of chords I chose the following types: Major, minor, 7 and Major 7. I chose these chord types because most popular songs use them. I also chose a variety of shapes that occur around the first position on the guitar.

I also list multiple chord fingerings where possible (the fingerings I know of) so that you can find the fingering that suits you best.

It's impossible to list all guitar chords that should be classified as beginner chords. If you think I missed a chord that should be in this list, feel free to contact me and let me know at

Learn more about Guitar chords

If you are an absolute beginner with guitar chords try reading this How to play guitar chords for beginners lesson first. Learn how to read guitar chord charts. Learn about chord construction. An even bigger guitar chords chart.

A chords

A Major, A minor, A7 and A Major 7 chords.

B chords

B Major, B minor, B7 and B Major 7 chords.

C chords

C Major, C minor, C7 and C Major 7 chords.

D chords

D Major, D minor, D7 and D Major 7 chords.

E chords

E Major, E minor, E7 and E Major 7 chords.

F chords

F Major, F minor, F7 and F Major 7 chords.

G chords

G Major, G minor, G7 and G Major 7 chords.