Welcome back to Rock Dojo guitar lessons for kids. During the first three installments of this series, Your First Five Guitar Chords for Kids, you learned how to read chord diagrams and play the E & A major chords in open position. In today’s lesson, you’ll learn the D major chord. Ready? Okay, let’s get started!
Guitar Lessons for Kids: The D Major Chord
The D major chord in open position is perfect for kids because it’s found in hundreds—if not thousands—of popular songs and it’s fairly easy to learn. If you recall, a chord is a group of three or notes played together at the same time. The D major chord is built from the root, the third, and the fifth of the D major scale. The D major chord contains the notes D (the root), F# (the third), and A (the fifth).
Why Should I Learn the D Major Chords?
As atoms are the building blocks of all matter, chords are the building blocks of all songs. In fact, every song you can think of from Taylor Swift to Imagine Dragons is built around basic chord progressions. For that reason, you can play hundreds or even thousands of songs on the guitar with just a handful of chords. Pretty cool, right?
What’s the Best Way to Learn Chords?
There is only one time-tested, guaranteed way to learn how to play guitar chords: practice. Lots and lots of practice. Fortunately, there are a few basic principles you can leverage to maximize your practice time. For today’s lesson, let’s focus on the principle of growth and development. How do baby’s learn to run? First, babies learn how to turn over. Then, they learn how to crawl. Next, they learn how to walk. Finally, they can learn to run. Can you imagine a baby running before it could turn over? It’s absurd!
Well, the guitar is no different. When you’re learning any chord on the guitar, practice it in stages. First, learn how to finger the chord grip first. Second, practice the chord grip in time. Then, take your hands off the guitar. And repeat many, many times. Third, try strumming whole notes in time with a backing track. I recommend removing your hand from the guitar fretboard every other measure. Once that’s easy, try adding a strum pattern to the chord.
By now, you probably have the idea. The key is to practice guitar chords it in stages!
Next week, you’ll learn how to switch between the E, A, and D major chords. That’s when things start getting really interesting! In the meantime, you can contact us on the Rock Dojo Facebook page if you have any questions!
Free Backing Track Provided by Band-in-a-Box
Click on the play button below to jam along with the free guitar backing track. This guitar backing track for kids is provided by Band-in-a-Box, an incredibly powerful backing track generator! Learn more at Band-in-a-Box.
GET A BLACK BELT IN ROCK!
The Rock Dojo offers award-winning, introductory-level guitar lessons for kids after-school in Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Lake Oswego. You can check out the Rock Dojo FAQs to learn how our colored-belt systems works (hint: it’s like karate. As your students improve on the guitar, they graduate belt levels just like the martial arts). Do you have a specific question about our guitar lessons for kids? Drop us a line at (503) 484-6417 or contact us on the Rock Dojo Facebook page.
