The Easiest Way To Play Basic Guitar Chords

I really like it when someone asks me to play my guitar while he or she sings. It feels great! And being able to provide an accompaniment to someone is no small feat. Sometimes, even though my voice doesn't sound that good, I try to sing my favorite songs and play my guitar at the same time. And what I found out is that, one of the best ways to pickup basic guitar chords is to play while someone sings.

A girl singing accompanied by a guitar. Photo Credits

The very first chords that I learned to play were the major chords D, A, and G.
Do you know any song that uses the chords?
Are you familiar with The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars?
Or Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles?
Both of these songs use the D-A-G chord pattern.
Actually, there are a lot of songs that use this chord pattern including the song by Alison Krauss, "When you say nothing at all",  and I bet most of you know this song.


One afternoon, I saw my sister Karen practicing this song with our guitar back at home while reading a song-hits. She slowly strummed one chord after another while singing this wonderful song. As a very young boy that time, I wanted her to play with me and my robots.
And so I asked her, "Ate, can we play?"
She usually can't resist her cute younger brother but at that time she did while saying, "I can't right now ban, I'm busy."
But because she didn't want me to throw tantrums at her, she asked me to sit in front of her so we could sing the song together while she plays the guitar. It was very fun singing with her although I still didn't know the actual lyrics of the song. I was just sure about the last line of the chorus which was also the title - "When you say nothing at all"

Practicing Guitar. Photo Credits

The next day, she did the same. I don't know if she was preparing for a concert or anything else. She practiced this song every afternoon in order to master it and only stopping to check the food she's cooking for our dinner. Whenever she stops playing, it'll usually take time before she gets back. And I was tempted to play the guitar while she's on our kitchen cooking our food.

I already had a background at that time on how to play the guitar but only picking single notes at a time with my tiny fingers. I could play nursery rhymes like "marry had a little lamb" and "old MacDonald had a farm". Luckily, the chords D, A , and G were graphically illustrated in her song-hits and I simply followed it. And so, few weeks later, the scene turned the other way around: I was the one playing the guitar and she was the one who sat in front of me singing the song.

A boy with his guitar. Photo Credits

Isn't that cute? :)
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From here onward, we will be learning the basic major and minor chords.Chords that are very simple yet very essential because you'll be using them most of the time.

Sounds exciting, right?

There are a lot of approaches that can be used to teach these chords but the way I teach it is by grouping/organizing them into chord families. A family of chords is simply a group of related songs because you often use these chords together to play songs. Remember the chords used in the when you say nothing at all song? Well, we can consider it as a D-Chord family. The technical term for a family is key. So you can say something like “This song uses D-family chords” or “This song is in the key of D.” Along the way, we will be expanding your vocabulary on guitar-notation as you start to develop your chord playing and strumming skills.

So, let's get started...