Guitar Chords In 'G' (Chord Trick)

The guitar is an ideal accompanying instrument, and the easiest and most satisfying manner in which to begin learning to play is to take advantage of this fact. In this section I shall show you how to use your guitar to accompany a number of well-known folk songs, and you should be able to start making satisfying musical sounds within a very short time.

These sounds will be chords- which are defined in my dictionary as 'a simultaneous and harmonious union of sounds of different pitch'. In guitar terms this means simply three or more strings played at the same time. Chords are the basis of all guitar technique, and they are praticulary important in accompaniment playing because of the fullness of the sound they provide. So you must begin to learn chords and the chord symbol system, which is a very useful form of musical shorthand with many uses.

In every musical key there are three principal chords, which are known as the tonic, the dominant and the sub-dominant. In the key of G these three chords are G. D7 (pronounced D seventh) and C, and you will find them used in different permutatios and with additions throughout the accompaniment of any song written in this key. It follows logically that the more complicated the harmony of a song, the greater the number of additional chords requried, but most folk songs have a simple harmonic structure and in many cases they can be accompanied quite satisfactory by using nothing more than the three principal chords mentioned above.