How to Read a Guitar Chord Chart

By Steve Stine Guitar Lessons

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Chord charts are read completely differently from tab — instead of left to right, you're reading top to bottom, looking at your fretboard exactly like it's standing up in front of you. The top of the chart is the nut, the horizontal spaces are your frets, and the vertical lines are your strings — thinnest string on the right, thickest on the left. The numbers you see aren't fret numbers like in tab; they're finger numbers, showing you which finger goes where. An X over a string means don't play it. An "O" means play that string open, even if no finger is on it. I walk through reading a C chord chart as the example, including a version where the first string is intentionally left out — not because it's wrong, but because that particular voicing doesn't want it. Between tab and chord charts, you've now got two completely different ways to read the same information — and knowing both means you're never stuck if a lesson, a book, or a bandmate hands you one format instead of the other.

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