What is a chord?

A chord is three or more notes played together. On guitar, you usually play several strings at once to form a chord. The most common chords use three notes: the root, the third, and the fifth.

Chords are named after their root note (e.g. C, G, Am) and a quality (major, minor, seventh, etc.). Learning chord shapes and how they relate to the fretboard is one of the first steps in playing guitar.