This is the 13th exercise from the Core Skills section on Picking.

Now we shall use another new chord and pick across it. This time we will start with a C major chord. This is another very common guitar chord, and you should definitely learn it! Like the A major chord in the previous example, we will not be playing all 6 strings. The Low E string is often not played when playing a C major chord, and we will not be playing it here either.

Here we will pick using downstrokes until we reach the high E string, then we will return back down the strings using upstrokes.

We repeat this picking pattern once again - but this time we remove our first finger from the fretboard. This is a variation of a C major chord, called a C major 7th chord. It is an easier chord to play than the C major chord because it only requires 2 fingers on the fretboard and not 3. To do it, keep all your fingers in place, just remove your first finger when you see the red dot disappear from the ActionTab fretboard. Notice that the new open B note that you play instead gives the chord a slightly different sound.

There are variations of all chords. Each variation or 'altered' chord gives a different feel or flavour. You can learn more about this in our theory section. A great thing about guitar is that there are many different approaches and ways to playing chords. Not only can you vary how you pick and strum chords, you can vary the feeling of each chord you play just by slightly altering the notes like we did in this example. Learning to adapt common chords like this gives the guitarist an almost unlimited range of freedom for expressing different feelings in their music.

The 3 notes for the C major chord are C E G

In this exercise we are playing the notes in this order:

C - E - G - C - E

Then we pick back down those notes.

Now, C major 7th has 4 notes: C E G + B. It is the same as the C major chord, just with an extra note (B) included:

C - E - G - B - C

...and back down again.

On completing this exercise and the previous ones, you should now be able to play the E major, A major, C major and C major 7th chords - and be able to pick each one!