Take a look at what I’ve learned from my students who have all gone through the stage of learning guitar chords, I present their struggles so that you can learn from them and hasten your own success in this area.

1. Giving up too soon

Like anything you learn you’re going to suck at it when you first start out, and this goes for everyone, I don’t care if you’re Jimi Hendrix or Joe Blow from down the street, you are going to have a hard time when you try to learn guitar chords but you absolutely have to stick to it.

The critical time is when you’re almost there, you know how to make the shape of the chord, and can sometimes strum it cleanly and you’ve been practising for the past 7 days but haven’t seen any improvement… well that’s the worst time to give up because you’re so close, you just need to get over that next rise and you’ll see how it all comes together.

2. Not visualizing success

When you are forming a chord it’s really important to visualize where each finger is going to move to, and how it’s going to happen. I guarantee you will speed up your chord changes if you follow these simple steps:

Look at where your fingers are now, visualize where they need to be and figure out the shortest distance you need to move them in order to form the new chord.

Sometimes you won’t have to move half your fingers because they’ll be used in the other chord. Keep looking for these ways to speed up your playing

3. Making it too hard for yourself

Changing from one chord to another is without a doubt the best way to learn guitar chords. However if you make it too hard and pick some nasty chords it can really put you off the idea. Make sure you pick some easy ones like G to A, E to A, D to G.

4. Not working on your fingers

It seems really obvious to me that you use your fingers to form these chords and to strum them, so you need to exercise your fingers and build up some finger strength. This can be done using little finger weights, pushing down hard on the strings, doing wide scale exercises (stretch those fingers and use that pinky!), and doing good old finger press-ups (not so popular).

5. Looking at your hands too much

I always say you should be wearing a blindfold once you can play each chord. You need to be able to form the chord without looking at it. You can drive a car without looking at the steering wheel and foot pedals all the time… as the saying goes ‘practice makes perfect’.

6. Only practicing one chord at a time

This is a bad habit some people get into, and it’s not really their fault, it’s just they way their tutors have been teaching them or that they’re reading a book or tutorial that doesn’t really convey a solid learning process.

By practicing 3 chords at once you’ll find you learn the fingerings for each of them a lot faster than if you learn just one at a time. It has to do with how your brain works,  giving your brain 3 different patterns to memorize in varying orders strengthens the pathways in your brain so that when it comes to remembering that chord your brain is able to bring up the information a lot faster.

Just try it! It works.

7. Leaving your pinky out of sight

This is a weird one, but I see people doing it all of the time! Your fingers should be hovering over the strings of your guitar ALL OF THE TIME. Meaning that when you form a D chord your pinky finger should be hovering somewhere over the high E string or B.

A lot of the time people will tuck their pinky fingers under the fret board or some other weird place, and it really makes it difficult for them to learn more advanced chords later on.

8. Not understanding to root note

The root note of a chord is its bass note, it determines which string you should start strumming or picking from. An E chords root note is an E which is played as the open low E string on your guitar, this means you start strumming or picking from that note.

9. Not picking the chord

Sometimes by strumming the chord you will notice you are hitting a lot of dead notes, however most beginners will stop there and keep strumming until they get it right. It’s kind of like a brute force way to learn guitar chords.

As a more learned student (and reader of my blog) you will know it is better to pick each note separately so you can quickly analyze what string is giving you the dead note. You can then apply more pressure or move the finger slightly to get it into a better position. This can save you a lot of time and heartache.

10. Not using all your senses

I believe the best way to learn is to engage all your senses in the activity, you should be seeing the guitar chord in a photo (of someone playing it) in a diagram (of where your fingers should be) and even in a video so you can see how the person gets their fingers into position.

Although sight is a great way to learn, when trying to learn guitar chords you can’t get very far without being able to hear the guitar chord being strummed or picked so you can compare yourself to a professional. Getting information into your brain from every angle is the best way to succeed at learning how to play guitar chords in the shortest amount of time.

Look for tutorails and courses that use a multitude of ways to teach you, not just text!

Conclusion

I haven’t put these tips in any particular order; they’re all solid gold tips to being able to learn guitar chords faster than anyone else. I’d suggest writing down each method onto a piece of paper and start using it in your daily practice, you’ll be surprised at how fast you can see results.

Check out my full guide to learn how to play guitar chords.

The B power chord – properly referred to as a root-fifth chord – represents the starting point for most power chord progressions.

The 5th string provides the root note of each succeeding chord. The B chord is among the easiest to fret. There are some ways to compensate for weak fingers and, although they are not proper technique, they can provide a way to get clear tone out of the chord and to provide an extra bit of strength when one has been playing for a while.

Begin by identifying the B note on the 5th string, you’ll find it on the second fret.

Across the strings below the root B, the fingers will form what is called a bar. This simply means that one’s fingers lay across all the strings above the root – remember that the order of strings is reversed compared to what is presented to the eye, the highest and most distant string from the player is the 1st string.

Lucky for you though because for the b chord on guitar it’s not necessary that adequate pressure for clear tone be applied to any string but the 5th string by the first finger.

Go ahead and strum the bar to make certain that the B note is sounding clearly, don’t worry too much about the strings below it.

Quick B Chord Guitar Tip: The ideal position for fretting any note is as close to the higher fret bar as possible. Make certain that the bar finger is as close as it can be to the second fret bar.

If the index finger proves too weak to effectively fret this chord, one may use their second finger to reinforce the strength of the first. Experiment with this technique for a bit to make certain that the correct note is being sounded. If there is buzz in the note, increase the pressure.

If that doesn’t remedy the problem, adjust the position of the fingers relative to the second fret bar, try rolling your fingers back and forth a bit to see how you can apply the most pressure.

Some minor adjustments such as these should help to alleviate any deficiencies in one’s tone. This is a root-fifth chord so it’s time to add the fifth and the octave to the chord to complete the sound. The fifth will be “F#” which is found on the 4th fret of the 4th string. The octave will be B, obviously, and that is found on the 4th fret of the 3rd string. The simple geometry of this chord has a lot to do with it being so popular in rock music.

There are several ways in which one can fret these remaining notes. One may use their 3rd and 4th fingers – ring and pinky – to fret the notes individually. If this method is chosen, use the ring finger to fret the note on the larger 4th string and the pinky finger to fret the note on the comparatively light 3rd string.

Remember to position the fingers close to the forward fret for the best possible tone.

If this method proves immediately fatiguing, try barring the other two notes with either the ring or the pinky finger. The ring finger is stronger but requires more stretching. It does allow for one to trill one fret above the 4th fret which is a common motif in rock music. It’s best to master all three ways to play this chord so that one can adapt their playing style as needed and relieve fatigue by switching techniques.

More Places to Play the B Chord on Guitar

The B root-fifth – which is generally expressed as “B5″ – can also be played on the 7th fret using the 6th, lowest, string as the root.

The position is exactly the same: The first or first and second fingers bar the strings at the 7th fret and the third, fourth or both fingers depress the fifth and the root two frets and one string higher at the 9th fret.

Now that learning the basic B5 chord is complete, it’s time to see why this chord is one of the most valuable to learn and why any aspiring guitarist should learn this chord in both positions.

B Chord Practice

From either location, go ahead and slide the entire chord up one fret. The chord now being sounded is C5. Repeat the process but, this time, slide the entire chord up two more frets from the C5 position. The chord now being sounded is D5.

The B5 chord is a mobile chord. It can be played anywhere on the fret board with the root on the 5th or 6th strings and will always sound a root fifth chord. This is part of the reason that it is so popular. Another reason has to do with the sonority of the chord. This sonority is one of the places where rock, country and other popular musicians are often at odds with classical guitarists where theory is concerned: Moving this chord from one position to the next constitutes a parallel fifth.

The fifth – which can always be found by counting up from the root note with the root note being “1″ – is one of the most consonant intervals in western music. Consonant means that there is little dissonance which is usually heard on an amplifier as a “wavy” sound between the notes. It is for this reason that root-fifths are oftentimes called “power chords”. They’re forceful, consonant and, to use the colloquialism “in your face”.

For classical aficionados, they’re also boring. The lack of dissonance in chord progressions which utilize exclusively root-fifth chords is often the basis for classical musicians referring to rock with such pejoratives as “pedestrian”, “monotone” and “featureless”. Don’t listen to it for a minute!

The root-fifth, whether one learns it from practicing B5 on the 5th or 6th strings or otherwise, is one of the foundational chords for any guitarist. The position is essentially a stripped-down major chord and the barring technique used for the strings behind the 3rd and 4th fingers is an absolute must-have ability for any guitarist. Play with the chord, move it up and down the frets and use it to practice advanced techniques such as trilling and sliding to improve one’s overall ability!

Learn how to play more chords

Check out my guide on how to play guitar chords to learn how to play the rest. It’s really easy… promise!