How to read guitar chord charts: strings, frets, X and O

A guitar chord chart is a picture of the neck seen face on: six vertical lines for the strings, horizontal lines for the frets, dots where your fingers go, an O above a string you play open and an X above a string you do not play. Once those four marks make sense you can read any chord diagram in a book, on a song sheet or in the guitar chord chart I built for this site, which draws every chord type in all twelve keys.

The grid: strings and frets

Imagine standing the guitar upright and looking at the fingerboard. The vertical lines are the strings, with the thickest, lowest string on the left and the thinnest on the right. In standard tuning they are E, A, D, G, B and E, from low to high; many charts print those letters under the grid. The horizontal lines are frets, and the thick line at the top is the nut, where the strings leave the headstock. The gap between the nut and the first line is the first fret, the next gap the second fret, and so on. A dot in a gap means press that string just behind the fret wire that closes the gap.

Left-handed players read the same charts. Their guitar is a mirror image, so on their own neck the low E sits on the other side, but the leftmost line of the diagram still means the low E string.

Dots, X and O

Three marks tell you what each string does:

• Dot on a string: fret it at that fret.
• O above the nut: play the string open, without fretting it.
• X above the nut: do not play the string, either by missing it with the pick or by muting it lightly with a spare finger.

Many sites also write a chord as six characters from low E to high E. C major is x32010: low E muted, A string at fret 3, D at fret 2, G open, B at fret 1 and high E open. Those notes are C, E, G, C and E, which is exactly what a C major chord needs. The chart tool prints this string of numbers under every diagram, so you can copy it into your own notes.

Finger numbers

Some diagrams put a number inside each dot, or under the string, to suggest which finger to use: 1 is the index finger, 2 the middle, 3 the ring and 4 the little finger, and T occasionally means the thumb wrapping over the neck. Fingerings are advice rather than rules. My chart shows plain dots, because the best fingering depends on the chord you are coming from; a sensible default is one finger per fret, using the finger whose number matches the fret position.

Barres and fret numbers

A thick curved bar across several strings is a barre: one finger, usually the index, lies flat and presses all those strings at the same fret. F major in its usual full form is 133211, an index-finger barre at fret 1 with the rest of the hand making an E major shape above it. If a chord sits higher up the neck, the diagram does not start at the nut. Instead a small number beside the grid, such as 5fr, says which fret the top row represents, and the thick nut line disappears.

Barre chords are movable: slide the whole shape up two frets and F becomes G, because every note rises by two semitones. For most chord types the chart tool gives two movable shapes, the E shape with its root on the sixth string and the A shape with its root on the fifth, which together cover any chord without open strings. A capo works on the same principle, acting as a barre that leaves your fingers free; How to transpose chords to another key explains how to rename the shapes when you use one.

Eight chords to learn first

These open chords appear in a huge number of songs and teach every mark on a diagram:

• E minor 022000 and E major 022100
• A minor x02210 and A major x02220
• D major xx0232 and C major x32010
• G major 320003, often also played 320033
• F major 133211, the first barre chord most players meet

Learn the shapes two at a time and practise changing between them slowly; the chord progression generator gives you realistic sequences in any key to drill.

From diagram to sound

A shape only sounds right if the guitar is in tune, so check it with the guitar tuner first. Then play each string of the chord one at a time: a dull or buzzing note usually means a finger is too far from the fret or is touching the next string. Compare with the strum button in the chart tool, which plays the exact notes shown. When the shapes ring clearly, add rhythm with a metronome at a slow tempo. If you also want to know why a shape is called what it is, How to identify a chord from its notes works through naming chords from their notes. One honest limit: the tool shows standard voicings in standard tuning only, not every possible fingering.