When you’re first learning guitar often the first chord taught is the D major chord. Why is that? The D chord only uses three of your four fingers on the fret board and they’re all relatively close together so you don’t have to stretch your fingers too far to play it.

If you use a learn guitar dvd or guitar lessons online for your instruction then you’ll probably find that a visual explanation to go along with this article will help a lot.

For those that aren’t familiar with the numbers or names of the strings let’s recap. You have six strings and the numbers of those strings is one through six starting with the bottom string as number one and then counting up to six with the top string closest to your head if you’re holding your guitar. The corresponding names of the strings starting with the first string are: e, B, G, D, A, E.

To create the D shape you will be using your first three fingers starting with the Index.

Place your first finger on the second fret of the G string.

Place your third finger on the second fret of the e or sixth string.

Place your second finger on the third fret of the B string.

When playing chords and making shapes such as these you must remember to only use the tips of your fingers when pressing the strings down on the frets. Strive to keep your thumb parallel to the back of the guitar neck and only use those finger tips to press on the strings. This will ensure your fingers don’t mute or muffle any other strings on the neck.

Strum all six strings starting from the low E string at the top and you’ve now successfully played the D major chord. As mentioned before if you’re someone who enjoys visual explanation then a guitar course with either DVD or online videos could be very helpful.