DG Guitar Chords - How-to

The DG Guitar Chords Android application is very easy to use.

The screen is divided into 4 regions, as shown in the following figure:

There are four regions: 3 button grids, and one central graphics frame:

• The blue button grid contains the 12 keys, or roots, on which you want to create a chord;
• these are labelled C, C#, D, etc. Notice that B is placed next to E, for space considerations.
• The red button grid contains 3x7=21 chords that apply to any chosen key;
• the list includes the main chords used in modern classical, folk, and jazz music styles.
• The green button grid contains three alternative chord positions (three ways of doing the same chord);
• usually the first one is the most commonly known "open string", or "root" (R) position; positions 1 and 2 are alternative positions on higher frets.

When you are operating the application, all you have to do is to chose one button from each of these button grids.

Immediately after, the chosen chord is displayed on the central frame, the yellow area on the figure shown above.

The central frame displays the chosen guitar chord graphically, and also by name (on the right).

The graphical image displays only four frets of the guitar, which is sufficient to display all chords.

When the chord is close to the head, or nut of the guitar, it shows a double vertical line, as in the figure above.

When the chord is on higher frets, it shows a number on top of the first fret; all subsequent fret and number positions are relative to this fret number. This is the standard way of representing guitar chords.

We are assuming a right-handed guitar, with chords made with the left hand. This covers 99.9% of the guitar player population.

The author is left-handed, but learnt to play with a right-handed guitar, so he can grab any guitar and play.

The strings are positioned from the viewpoint of a guitar player, with the guitar on its lap, (guitar head on the left, body on the right) looking down at the fretboard, with first string on top of the image (bottom of the guitar, further away from you), and sixth string at the bottom of the image (top of the guitar, closer to you). Other books and charts represent the chords in different orientation, but we find this way very intuitive.

On the left of the nut, small "o"s or "x"s represent the strings that are played open ("o"), or, not played at all ("x") on that particular chord.

On the example shown above, there is an "x" on the 6th (E) string, because it is not part of a D major chord.

The circles with numbers represent the fingers, as they are placed on the fretboard.

The numbers represent the fingers of the left hand, in the following way:

• 1: index,
• 2: middle finger;
• 3: ring finger;
• 4: little finger;
• no number: optional/alternative finger.

If you are a newbie, we suggest you learn all the major (M) and minor (m) chords first, followed by the 7ths, 6ths, dim, and aug. This covers 80% of the music available, and then gradually, you may learn the most sophisticated chords 9ths, sus4, etc, as you need them.