The E Major Chord
OK, we've been fooling around with D and A long enough. Let's learn a new chord.
What You'll Learn
- How to play the E Major chord
- A technique to make sure you keep making progress.
1 Learning the E Major Chord
Let's learn the E major shape. Follow along—it's our first chord to use all six strings.
2 Quick practice with an On / Off drill
As is our way, we'll practice our new chord with an on / off drill.
3 On your own, Part 1
Spend four minutes practicing the E major shape. Take out your phone, set a timer.
- Put your fingers on the strings in the E major shape.
- Strum, slowly, using quarter notes, or eighth notes, your choice.
- After four beats, take your fingers off the strings. Then put them back on.
- Repeat. Don't stop until your timer goes off.
4 Before you go
Before you go, it's important that you do something that might seem a little silly.
Take out your phone. And open up the camera.
You're going to take a video of yourself as a way to measure your progress.
- First, demonstrate how to tune your guitar. Try to remember, and explain it to yourself the way you'd explain it to someone else who was just starting.
- You've learned three chords. Can you remember them?
- How many ways do you know how to strum?
Next Lesson
In our next lesson, we'll put all three chords together.
Anna Freitas holds a B.A. from Berklee College of Music and performs throughout New England as a guitarist and vocalist. She continues to teach students, both in-person and online via Skype.