Having anchor fingers will help you smoothly change between chords. Using the fingerings outlined in the above chord diagrams, you will find that you will have an anchor finger (the index finger) between all three chord shapes. A quick thing to note is whenever the names of chords are just represented by a single letter, you can assume that they are major chords A, E, D majorĪ, E, and D major chords are what we begin with, and just with these three chords, there are dozens of songs that you will be able to play as they will give you the ability to play the simplest chord progression in Western music - the I (A major), IV (D major), and V (E major). Your success with these chords will help keep you motivated to continue learning.
If you’re a complete beginner, you should start with open chords because they don’t require much finger strength or dexterity to execute.
Open chords are any kind of chord that has open strings that are played.