As they ring against the fretted notes, the open strings are crucial to the sound and feel of these chords. Practise each chord first by strumming, then picking each string individually to check that ...

If you've recently starting playing guitar you’ve probably already tried some of the most common open chords (so called because they include un-fretted or ‘open’ strings), such as C, A and Em.

A chord is when you play two or more guitar strings at once, either by pressing down on the strings behind the frets or by leaving them ‘open’, ie, un-fretted.

Used by the likes of the Goo Goo Dolls, Open C tuning is a simple way to find fresh chord voicings – here are 5 to get you started ...