The grid: strings and frets
Picture a guitar standing up on its end, headstock pointing at the ceiling, and looking straight at the fretboard. That is exactly what a chord diagram shows.
The six vertical lines are the strings. The string on the far left is the thickest, lowest-pitched string — the low E (6th string). The string on the far right is the thinnest, highest-pitched string — the high E (1st string). Reading left to right, the strings are E, A, D, G, B, e in standard tuning.
The horizontal lines are the metal frets. The space between two horizontal lines is a fret position where you press the string down. The top of the diagram is closest to the headstock; as you move down the box, you move up the neck toward the body.
The nut and fret numbers
If the chord is played near the top of the neck, the diagram draws the very top line as a thick bar. That thick bar is the nut — the strip at the end of the fretboard that the open strings rest on. A thick top line tells you the chord lives in open position, starting at the 1st fret.
When a chord is played higher up the neck, there is no nut to show. Instead the diagram prints a fret number next to the top row — for example a small "5fr" or "5" beside the box. That number tells you which fret the top row of the grid represents, so a dot in the first row sits on the 5th fret, the next row on the 6th, and so on. Always check for this number before you assume a shape starts at the nut.
Dots: where your fingers go
The filled dots inside the grid mark exactly where to press a string down. A dot in the second fret on the A string means: press the A string at the 2nd fret. You hold each marked note while you strum.
Many diagrams print a small number inside or below each dot. These are fingering suggestions, not fret numbers:
- 1 = index finger
- 2 = middle finger
- 3 = ring finger
- 4 = little (pinky) finger
- T = thumb (occasionally used to fret the low E)
Fingering is a recommendation. If a different finger lets you switch chords more smoothly, that is fine — the dots that matter are the fret-and-string positions.
Open and muted strings (O and X)
Above the grid, right at the top of each string, you will often see an O or an X.
O — open string
Play this string without fretting any note. It rings open and is part of the chord. An open D chord, for example, uses the open D string as its bass note.
X — muted string
Do not let this string sound. You either skip it when strumming or lightly touch it to deaden it. In an open C chord the low E string is usually marked X.
Reading the row of O and X markers across the top is the fastest way to know which strings to strum and which to avoid.
Barre lines
A curved or straight line spanning several strings at the same fret is a barre. It means one finger — almost always the index — lies flat across all those strings at that fret, pressing them down together. Barre chords let you take a familiar open shape and move it up the neck to play any chord with the same fingering.
If reading a barre line is new to you, work through the dedicated guide to playing barre chords, which breaks down the technique string by string.
A worked example: the open C chord
Putting it all together, here is how a typical open C major diagram reads, string by string from low (left) to high (right):
- Low E (6th): X — muted, do not play.
- A (5th): dot at the 3rd fret, ring finger. This is the C root note.
- D (4th): dot at the 2nd fret, middle finger.
- G (3rd): O — open.
- B (2nd): dot at the 1st fret, index finger.
- High e (1st): O — open.
Strum from the A string down and you have a C major chord. Every other open chord reads exactly the same way — once you can decode one box, you can decode them all.
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Now put the diagrams to use, and learn the theory behind the shapes.