Oct 30

E Chord Guitar Chord

How to Play E Guitar Chord

You wanted to learn how to play Nirvana’s ‘’About a Girl’’ but you figured out you don’t know the E chord?

Well, you have come to the right place!

First things first, let us just make clear that the E chord and E major chord are the same thing.

Today, we will be showing you two different versions of the C major guitar chord shapes.

One will be the standard E major open chord, and the other one will be the barre chord on the 7th fret.

So, without any further ado…

Watch this video to learn How to Play E Guitar Chord

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Easy way of playing the E major guitar chord

The E chord guitar players tend to learn first is the E open chord.

Since some of you may be total noobs, let's first define what an open chord is. An open chord is a chord that features one or more open strings and is usually played on the first three frets of your guitar’s neck.

For this one, put your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 5th string. Your ring finger goes on the 2nd fret of the 4th string. Finally, put your index finger on the 1st fret of the 3rd string.

As far as your picking hand goes, you should strum across all 6 strings.

Advanced way of playing the E major guitar chord

The E chord guitar players tend to avoid at first is the barre chord on the 7th fret.

In general, there are not that many things that tend to scare off beginners such as barre (barre = bar) chords. Take it step by step. We’re gonna help you with that. With a little bit of patience, you will be playing these like Hank Williams III in no time!

To play this one, barre your index finger across the bottom 5 strings on the 7th fret. Use your ring finger to bar across the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd string on the 9th fret.

As far as your picking hand goes, you should play the bottom 5 strings.

E Chord Guitar practice tips:

  1. While playing the open E major guitar chord, make sure that all your open strings ring. You have to make sure that your fingers are not brushing up any unwanted strings, and thus muting them. Pick all the strings in succession, to make sure everything is ok. You may need to adjust your fretting hand’s angle

  2. When reading the E chord diagram, you should know that ‘’X’’ signifies a string you do not want to play.

  3. When placing your fingers to play this E chord, make sure that you are behind the fret wire. Also, barre’s aside, make sure that you are pressing the strings with your fingertips.
Pro-tip: There are many different ways of playing the A major chord on the guitar. Do you want to learn other versions of this chord? Other chords in A major scale? Or like, literally everything guitar-related? If the answer is - yes, to any of the above, make sure to join the GuitarZoom membership!