You only need 8 chords to play hundreds of songs

When people start learning guitar, they may assume they need to memorize 20 or 30 chords before they can play real songs.

But that’s not how it works.

Most popular songs are built from a small group of chords that show up again and again. If you focus on the right ones first, you can start playing real music much faster.

You can play a lot of songs with only 4 chords: G, D, Em, and C.

And almost all chord shapes on the guitar are based in some way on these 8 chords:

C, A, G, E, D, Am, Dm, Em

These aren’t random; they’re the foundation of how a huge amount of guitar music is built.

When you learn these well, something starts to click:

• You begin to recognize patterns across songs
• Chord progressions feel more familiar
• You start to sound like a real guitarist much sooner

Everything starts to connect.

I just released a lesson where I walk through:

• How to play each of these chords
• How to position your left-hand fingers and which strings to strum
• Alternate fingerings you can use for some of these chords

You can watch it here.