Chords are the basic building blocks of guitar music so beginners really need to bite the bullet and begin to learn how to play them. If you can read music you will have some understanding of the way chords relate to scales and the notes used in the songs you are learning, but it is not necessary for a guitar beginner to know music theory to start playing chords.

You can download chord charts from the internet or buy them in book form from a music store. Chord charts are a pictorial representation of the strings of the guitar with dots showing where your fingers go to fret the notes. Once you are armed with a collection of basic chords that guitar beginners should learn, you can start learning how to play your favorite songs on guitar.

The easiest guitar chords for beginners are the ones that do not require too many left hand fingers to play them. Chords that only need three fingers are G, C, D, and A. Learning songs that contain these chords makes the work of a guitar beginner easier. At this stage of learning how to play guitar chords you can focus on changing between these easy chords and maintaining the beat of the song at the same time.

Some beginner guitar players are bothered by the question of how long to go between chord changes. At this stage the sound of the song does not connect with the chord symbols on the sheet music in the student's head. As a guitar beginner starting out with chords, you just need to listen to the song and count the beats. Nearly every song you want to learn will be in 4/4 time. That means the song is divided up into sections (or bars) of four beats. Listen to the song and notice the number of beats that each chord lasts for. With a little bit of practice, your understanding of how chords fit into songs will improve.

When it comes to the physical work of playing guitar chords, there are a couple of things you need to remember. First, your left hand fingers do not go on top of the frets as you see the dots on the chord charts. You must place your fingers a little behind the frets so the string comes in contact with the fretboard to produce a clean sound. When you play chords or single notes you need to press the strings down with the tips of your fingers. This is the area immediately behind the nail. If you relax your arm and hand as you finger the chords, your fingers will have a natural tendency to curl so that the tips touch the strings without any effort.