Basic Open Position Guitar Chords

Sometimes referred to as cowboy or folk chords. These chords are played in the fret one, two, and three are of the guitar neck and include at least one open string. Technically the open position is includes the open strings and frets one, two, three and four.

These are typically the first chords anyone learning to play the guitar learn. There is a set list of basic major, minor and seventh chords that need to be learned. These basic chords will form the foundation for derived chords and there movable forms along the guitar neck.

From a few basic chord shapes and a understanding of how chords are constructed your chord vocabulary can be dramatically increased without memorizing countless more chord shapes. There are too many chord shapes to memorize.