The guitar is the universal musical instrument. No other instrument fits into so many different styles of music. If you learn to play guitar chords you make practically any kind of music accessible to your creative impulses.

There are many exotic chords, particularly in jazz music but the building blocks of guitar music are the common open chords played at the first position on the guitar fretboard which can be learnt by anybody.

If you are able to learn to play a few basic guitar chords you can play the rhythm for any song you hear. For some guitar students learning those first chords is quite intimidating, fortunately you can still make a start with guitar chords using two- or three-note chords. These chords are not as versatile as the fuller chords but they are a great start to the practical work of getting the fingers working and the musical mind and feelings expressing themselves.

To start to play guitar chords, pick up your guitar and hold it in a playing position with your left hand thumb touching the back of the guitar's neck. You've seen guitar players at work, hold your fingers in some imitation of how you have seen guitarists' fingers ready to press down on the strings. You don't need any musical knowledge to get a feel for guitar playing. Just play a scale starting with an open string, then going on to playing the notes at the first, second, third and fourth frets.

When you are reading chord charts you will see that the fingers are referred to by numbers. The index finger is 1, the middle finger is 2, the ring finger is 3 and the little finger is number 4.

Now let's play a guitar chord:

This is the A major chord in the first position. In this chord you will be making use of open strings, so this is called an open chord.

Step One: Put your little finger on the second string at the second fret. This sounds the note C sharp (written as C#).

Step Two: Place your ring finger on the third string at the second fret. This is the note A.

Step Three: Put your middle finger on the fourth string at the second fret. This sounds the E note.

The open fifth string sounds the A note and the open sixth and first strings sound the E note.

Using your thumb or a plectrum, strum the strings from the sixth to the first. You might need to make some adjustments to get all you notes at the second fret sounding clean. Okay, that's your first chord.

To make fingering guitar chords easier, keep your left hand fingernails short and practice for at least half an hour every day, preferably an hour. Get together some sheet music or guitar tab for some songs that you would like to play. You will be surprised how many songs you can play using a few chords.