How to read a guitar chord diagram in two minutes
A chord diagram is a photo of the fretboard taken facing you. Once you can read one, every chord chart on the internet opens up. Here is the whole system.
C
- Vertical lines are strings. Left to right: low E, A, D, G, B, high E. The thick top line is the nut, the plastic strip at the top of the neck.
- Horizontal lines are frets. The window shows four of them.
- Dots are your fingertips. The number inside says which finger: 1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring, 4 pinky.
- O above a string means play it open. X means do not play that string at all.
The two extras
- A long bar across several strings is a barre: one finger, usually the index, pressing multiple strings at the same fret. This is what makes F hard, and why capo detours exist.
- A label like 4fr beside the top of the grid means the window starts at the 4th fret instead of the nut, for chords that live higher up the neck.
Try it
Open any chord in the library. Under each diagram there is a written finger-by-finger placement, generated from the same data as the picture, so you can cross-check what you think the diagram says.
Let the app do the sequencing
PickMyPath is free and runs in the browser. Mark your chords, get your path.
Open PickMyPath