Here at Fret Lessons, we feel that guitar chords offers more of a creative approach to playing an artists' song. It gives you the power to Ad-Lib! Unless you are a symphony orchestra strictly reading the sheet music and following the lead of your maestro, you will never play a song the same twice. So rather than reading the sheet music, you will find that guitar chords will give you the structure that can enable you to freely play around with notes while producing roughly the same sound as the artist.
Let's look at Amazing Grace:
......D...........G..........D....
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
............A7.........................................
That saved a wretch like me.
............D................G.................D....
I once was lost, but now im found,
.........................A7......D.......................
Was blind, but now I see.
We'll be using three chords(D, G, A7)in this song. We don't always have to play a chord the same. You can choose to strum just a few of the strings instead of all, you pick just the root note, or you can manipulate the chord(Ex. diminshed, suspended, etc...).
Make sure you become familiar with a few chord variations so that you can add your own touch to the song. Check out chord shapes.
You may notice that many songs may share the same chords. Why don't these songs sound the same? It is because the artist is playing a variation of a chord. But it can also be because they change the chord progression. What is chord progression?
If you refer back to "Amazing Grace," you will see that the chord progression is D, G, D, A7. Chord progression is simply the order of which chords are in. Check out more on chord progrgessions.
