If you are really new to Cigar Box Guitar, you will want to learn these 3 chords as soon as possible because with these chords you can play literally thousands of songs. They are G, C and D power chords and the chord charts are shown below:
If your guitar is tuned G D G, the above chord charts show you how to play G, C and D power chords. Other tunings are available and you can check out some alternate tunings at the bottom of this page. However I recommend that you start out with G D G tuning as a beginner as you will find it much easier to find chord charts, TABS and YouTube videos in this tuning.
Check Your Guitar Is In Tune
It can be hard to tell if your guitar is on tune if you don’t know what you are listening for.
I like to use a Snark clip-on tuner to check my tuning. Even if you have a piano to tune your guitar, you will find a small clip on tuner invaluable. It works by measuring the vibrations of the guitar. In fact this kind of tuner works for any instrument, just by clipping onto the instrument itself. This is a link to Snark clip on electronic tuners available on Amazon . There are a range of colors. I have the black super-tight one.
The trouble with these tuners are they they don’t tell you if you are in the correct octave.
I have a YouTube video that you may find helpful the first time you tune your guitar, or the first time after changing your strings. Once it’s roughly in tune, the clip-on tuner makes it really quick to tune accurately.
New guitar strings will not stay in tune well so be prepared to keep tuning your guitar frequently, even every few minutes when the strings are really new. You can stretch them and this will help.
If your strings are going out of tune because of cheap tuning heads, this is another matter. If the gears are slipping ( the peg will turn by itself in this case) you may need to replace the heads. If you’ve recently bought your guitar, I would ask the seller to replace them.
Play Your First Chord On Cigar Box Guitar- G Power Chord
With your guitar tuned to G D G, strum the 3 strings starting with the thickest string which should be nearest the ceiling but is actually the lowest note. This will play a G power chord.
A power chord is a really useful chord. 6-string guitarists use them by playing 2 or 3 strings but with a 3-string guitar in open tuning ( like G D G ) they are super easy to play. We’ll look at 2 more power chords in this lesson, chords that are related to G that make a little group o chords that go together.
Power chords can stand in for Major chords, minor chords, even 7th chords meaning that you can find chord charts for your favorite songs and play a G power chord instead of any G major, G minor or G7 chord and it works. This makes it much quicker to learn to play your favorite songs than if you were learning on a 6-string guitar or even a ukulele which has slightly simpler chord shapes.
Strictly speaking, they aren’t chords because you only need 2 notes- the note that is the same as the name of the power chord and another note a 5th above. You don’t need to worry about what that means but if you want to know a bit of theory, I have written this article: basic-theory-for-cigar-box-guitarists/
All you need to know for now is that D is a fifth higher than G so strumming the open notes plays a power chord and because the bass note is G, it’s a G power chord!
Your Second Chord on Cigar Box Guitar- C Power Chord
Now you’ve learned your first chord, it’s time to learn your second and this is going to be a bit harder because you will have to use your left hand to press down on the strings. We call this fretting.
Beginner Cigar Box guitarists often use 1-finger power chords as they are easy to remember and once you can move between the different chords easily, it will open up 1000s of songs to be played easily.
Before we look at playing this second chord, I want to let you know a few things that will hopefully encourage you because although a 3-string guitar is easier to play than a 6-string, you will encounter some of the same problems as6- string players.
If you come from a background of 6- string guitars you may want to skip this section.
Starting out playing any guitar is a bit tough on your fingers, especially if the strings are metal ( and even a classical guitar has some metal strings) so here are some tips to help:
- Try to practice for a few minutes each day rather than a couple of hours all in one go. This will help your fingers to toughen up and make it easier to play for longer regularly.
- Keep your left hand finger nails short- you need to get used to using your fingertips and longer nails will make this harder.
- Using your finger to fret across all 3 strings at once ( this is called a barre chord) can be really difficult at first so you can either use a slide or line all 3 fingers up, one on each string.
- Alternating barre chords, finger chords and a slide can help you to practice for a bit longer.
Bearing in mind these tips, let’s have a look at how to play the C power chord.
This chord chart shows how to play a C power chord. Each of the strings needs to be fretted at the 5th fret.
This can be written either with a 5 to show it’s the 5th fret( the 1st example) or by actually showing the line on the 5th fret from the nut.( the 2nd example)
Use your first finger pressed down across all 3 strings onto the fret board just behind ( i.e. towards the neck end of the guitar ) the metal fret wire. Alternatively, line up your 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers in the same place, with one finger on each string. You can also use a slide( a metal, ceramic or glass tube which fits over your finger). If you are using a slide it needs to be placed directly above the 5th fret wire (or fret line on a fretless guitar)
You will probably struggle to get a good clean sound on this chord when you start out but it will not take much practice to get better at this so persevere ( just remember not to play for too long at one time when you first start out)
Make sure that the joints of your 1st finger are not lined up so that the strings cannot be pushed down to the fret board.
Some people find it helpful to roll their finger slightly so that the edge of the finger nearest the thumb is facing down slightly but I don’t find that helpful. But it’s worth trying if you are struggling to get a clean sound.
Moving From The G Chord To the C Chord
When you have learned to play the C chord and get a passable sound, you’ll need to practice moving between chords. Practice putting your finger straight across all the strings or putting all 3 fingers down at once. If you are using a slide I have some tips in these articles:
how-do-you-begin-to-play-slide-on-a-cigar-box-guitar/
slide-on-acoustic-cigar-box-guitar/
Try not to get into the bad habit of placing each finger separately when you learn chord shapes as this will make moving between chords much more difficult later on.
Play Your Third Chord On Cigar Box Guitar- D Power Chord
This 3rd chord is played in exactly the same way as the C power chord but on the 7th fret rather than the 5th. Remember all the points that helped you to get a good sound on the C chord.
There is another way of playing the D power chord that you might find easier. This is shown below:
This is played with your first finger on the 2nd fret of the thickest string and your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the thinnest string. This plays the same notes as fretting all the strings at the 7th fret, but in a different order. A D A in this version instead of D A D in the 1- finger barre version. These 2 chords are called inversions and you will come across other ways of playing chords, other inversions, as you progress in your playing.
Sometimes you will choose a particular inversion because it is easier and sometimes because it sounds better.
Putting The First 3 Chords Together- G,C and D
Remember that these power chords can stand in for Major, minor and 7th chords so now find some songs in the key of G and practice playing them with these 3 power chords. There are 1000s of songs you can play with these chords. Here are a few:
Brown Eyed Girl
Sweet Home Alabama
Paperback Writer, Twist and Shout and many other Beatles songs
Knocking On Heaven’s Door
Spirit In The Sky
Rock Around The Clock
Where To Get Chord Charts For Cigar Box Guitar Legally
I really like https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ and actually have a paid subscription. There are chords for all kinds of songs and these chords will work for Cigar Box Guitar as well as 6-string guitar ( and ukulele) The TABS are not available for 3 ( or 4-string guitars) but I know enough theory to alter the TABS to play on a Cigar Box Guitar. Alternatively you could get a 4-string Cigar Box Guitar and tune it to G C E A and use the ukulele TABS.
Ultimate Guitar pay the license fees so these are legal to use for your own use but I won’t be posting any copies of their chords or TABS on this website.
Playing Songs By Ear: A Beginner Guitarist’s Guide
It’s a really good idea to try to play songs without having chord charts in front of you, but when you are a beginner guitarist that can feel really difficult, so here are some beginner tips:
- There are groups of chords that go together, just like you’ve learned that G, C and D go together.
- For each of these groups, the main chord is generally, but not always, the 1st chord played in the song. It is however practically always the last chord of the song.
- Think of this chord as the home chord. It is the chord that is the same as the key of the song. We are using G as this chord.
- The last chord of the group, in this case D, is the chord that really pushes the song back to the home chord and is often the chord that is played nearly at the end of the song.
- The other chord, the C chord, is somewhere in between. After playing the home chord for a while, your ear may tell you it’s time to change chords. Try the C chord to see if it sounds correct. If not, you can try the D chord. If that doesn’t sound correct, it may be that the chord required is a minor chord. That is beyond the scope of this article, so try a different song or read my article /beginners-guide-to-one-four-five-chords-on-cigar-box-guitar/ which will help you to get started.