If you have ever opened a song page and seen little boxes full of vertical lines, horizontal lines and dots, you have met the chord diagram. It is the shared language guitar and ukulele players use to show exactly where your fingers go. The good news is that it is far easier to read than it looks, and after a few minutes you will be able to read any chord.
A chord diagram is the neck standing upright
Picture holding your guitar straight up in front of you, with the headstock at the top and the front of the instrument facing you. What you see is the chord diagram.
- Vertical lines are the strings. A guitar diagram has six: the far left line is the 6th string (low E, the thickest) and the far right line is the 1st string (high E, the thinnest).
- Horizontal lines are the frets, the metal bars across the neck. The spaces between them are where you press your fingers.
- The thick line at the top is the nut, near the headstock. When you see it, the chord is played in the first few frets.
What the dots, numbers, X and O mean
- A dot shows where to press a string, in that fret.
- Numbers inside or under the dots tell you which finger to use: 1 is the index, 2 the middle, 3 the ring and 4 the little finger. Some charts use T for the thumb.
- An O above a string means play that string open, without pressing it.
- An X above a string means do not play it, or mute it lightly with a finger.
- A curved line or long bar across several strings is a barre: one finger, usually the index, presses several strings at once.
- A number beside the diagram, such as 3fr or 5, tells you which fret the diagram starts on. You will see this on chords higher up the neck, and those diagrams have no thick nut line at the top.
Reading a C chord on guitar
A C major diagram shows an X on the 6th string, a dot on the 5th string at the 3rd fret (ring finger), a dot on the 4th string at the 2nd fret (middle finger), an O on the 3rd string, a dot on the 2nd string at the 1st fret (index finger) and an O on the 1st string. So you strum from the 5th string down and skip the 6th. That is all there is to it: you have just read a chord diagram.
How ukulele diagrams differ
Everything works the same way, except there are four vertical lines because the ukulele has four strings. From left to right they are G, C, E and A (strings 4 to 1). The ukulele C chord, for example, has a single dot on the A string at the 3rd fret, played with your ring finger, while the other three strings ring open. Am is just as friendly: one dot on the G string at the 2nd fret, with your middle finger.
One thing to watch: do not mix up guitar and ukulele charts. Count the vertical lines first. Six lines means guitar, four lines means ukulele.
Tips for reading chords fluently
- Start with a handful of basic shapes, such as C, G, Am and F on ukulele, or C, G, D, Em and Am on guitar, and add more over time.
- Place your fingers from the diagram, then pick each string one at a time to check that every note rings clearly with no buzz or dead notes.
- Press just behind the fret, on the body side. You need less pressure and the note sounds cleaner.
- Lift your fingers off and place the same chord again and again until your hand remembers it without looking.
- Pick an easy song on Chordcafe that uses three or four chords and play along with the original recording.
In short
A chord diagram is a map for your fingers. Vertical lines are strings, horizontal lines are frets, dots are where you press, O is an open string and X is a string you skip. Once these symbols click, you can open any song's chords and play along straight away. Grab your guitar or ukulele and start with your first chord today.
