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Introduction

If there’s one thing guaranteed to take your songwriting skills to new heights, it’s arming yourself with a bunch of new chords. Develop your own voice on the guitar with our tutorial on creative chord shapes.

Open chords

If you've recently starting playing guitar you’ve probably already tried some of the most common open chords (so called because they include un-fretted or ‘open’ strings), such as C, A and Em.

If you’ve got the basics covered, the variations shown here should inspire you with some new sounds without being too much of a challenge to play. Em7 and Cadd9 are widely used, Em9 and A6sus2 are rarer - and both have a lush, bittersweet sound.

 

Sus chords

The two most important chord types in music are major and minor: generally, major chords sound bright and happy; minor chords sound dark and sad.

Sus chords are a special kind of chord that are neither major nor minor and, with their neutral character, they can inject sparkle and movement into otherwise simple chord progressions.

Have a go at these shapes and try alternating between the sus chords and more basic major and minor chords.

 

Blues chords

In blues ‘dominant’ 7 chords (A7 or D7 for example) are more common than basic major, minor and sus chords.

The A7, D7 and E9 shapes shown here are all you need for a 12-bar blues improv in the key of A. A13 and E7#9 have an edgier sound and work in jazz just as well as blues.

Bm7 is just the ticket for a moody minor blues; if you improvise around this chord, try using the D7 shape four frets higher to create a Bm7 and F#7 progression.

 

Mid-neck open chords

You already know your open chords, right? We’re talking about C, A, G, E, D and their minor variants at the headstock end of the fretboard.

Well, adapting and moving those shapes around the neck with one, two or even more strings kept open is a great way to create new chords and new sounds. Try out the chords we’ve chosen for you and then experiment by moving the shapes around the fretboard.

 

DADGAD tuning

It's the daddy of altered tunings, favoured by singer-songwriters and folky fingerpickers alike.

Sure, new tunings can be a challenge as you learn the relationships between the ‘repositioned’ notes. But it also means you’ll be surprised, and hopefully inspired, by what you play, and DADGAD is surely unrivalled for its sheer user-friendliness.

The chords shown here should be enough to get you started, but experimentation is the name of the game.

 

CGCGCD tuning

A staple Celtic tuning, open Csus2 tuning (CGCGCD) is the lesser known cousin of the Dsus4 tuning of DADGAD.

Providing excellent scope for drone-like strumming and deep, resonant bass notes, we struggle to see why this tuning doesn’t share the popularity of DADGAD (although you may need a set of heavy-gauge strings to reach those lower notes). Try moving the C chord around the fretboard for instant, rich chord-melody ideas.