Basic Chords For Playing Guitar

(Playing Guitar For Beginners)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of three or more notes that's heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords. Chords and sequences of chords are frequently used in modern Western, West African and Oceanian music, whereas they are absent from the music of many other parts of the world.

The most frequently encountered chords are triads, so called because they consist of three distinct notes: further notes may be added to give seventh chords, extended chords, or added tone chords. The most common chords are the major and minor triads and then the augmented and diminished triads. The descriptions "major", "minor", "augmented" and "diminished" are sometimes referred to collectively as chordal "quality". Chords are also commonly classed by their root note so, for instance, the chord C Major may be described as a triad of major quality built upon the note C. Chords may also be classified by inversion, the order in which their notes are stacked.

Playing Guitar For Beginners -  C Major

A series of chords is called a chord progression. Although any chord may in principle be followed by any other chord, certain patterns of chords have been accepted as establishing key in common-practice harmony. In order to describe this, chords're numbered, using Roman numerals, upwards from the key-note (See diatonic function). Common ways of notating or representing chords in western music other than conventional staff notation include Roman numerals, figured bass (much used in the Baroque era), macro symbols (sometimes used in modern musicology), and various systems of chord charts typically found in the lead sheets used in popular music to lay out the sequence of chords so that the musician may improvise.

(From wikipedia)

* Other definition 

The simplest definition of a chord is three or more musical notes played at the same time.

The most common usage of chords occur in popular music, usually played on a guitar or on a piano. Most songs you hear on the radio have some sort of repeating chord structure to it – it's part of what makes it appealing to the human ear. In fact, combining a chord progression with compelling lyrics and an interesting rhythm is usually what makes the most popular of all the music today: the hit song.

Whether a song is rock, classical, jazz, or some other form of music, the chord structure is the backbone that gives the melody strength. Without chords, a song becomes unmelodious and discordant, almost atonal, lacking any harmony, figuratively and literally. Indeed, it is the pleasant, structured harmonies of a musical phrase that makes music, well, music.

This is basic chords for playing guitar