Guitar tabs were meant to help immediate beginners understand the basics of how to play a given song or a chord. It’s music theory watered down to the most basic level, and it does the job if you’re a self-taught guitarist who maybe doesn’t want to waste time and/or money on expensive music schools or lessons.
However, guitar tabs rarely give you any insights into “how” you’re supposed to perform a certain technique, which chord you’re playing, and such. No matter how helpful they may be when used as cheat notes, they won’t teach you how to play the guitar.
That’s where Card Chords come into play. Dubbed the most innovative guitar-learning tools in the current market, these perforated tabs are even simpler to use than regular tabs and will help you master the fundamental elements of your instrument in a flash.
In this article, we’ll acquaint you with Card Chords and compare them to regular guitar tabs across various fields of performance, so let’s start from the top.
What are Card Chords?
Card Chords are pocket-sized insertable chord tabs that can be fitted to any guitar’s fretboard. Each Card Chords tab features the name of the chord being displayed, accurate finger positioning matching the exact location of the frets on the fretboard, and numerical symbols showing the player the order of notes that are supposed to be played.
Designed and created by Mike Grande, a guitar teacher who has spent more than three decades teaching children, teens, and adults how to become more proficient on the guitar, Card Chords are engineered to help guitar coaches host simpler and more intuitive guitar lessons while empowering self-taught learners with the tools they need to quickly master all of the basic guitar chords.
Ease of Use
Regular guitar tabs are either scribbled onto a piece of paper or made in a digital format (e.g. in Guitar Pro or similar software). To use a tab, you’ll often need to either put a piece of paper in front of you or turn on your computer to open the file.
Either way, you’ll need to look at the paper/computer to see where you should place your fingers, and then back at the guitar, and so on. This “loop” can be quite long for beginners who’ve just started learning.
Since Card Chords tabs can be placed directly on the fretboard, the only thing you’ll need to look at is the fretboard. This enables you to absorb information and play at the same time.
Unlike paper or digital tabs, anyone can use Card Chords since each finger position matches the actual location of the fret you’re supposed to press.
Durability
Paper guitar tabs can get ruined quite easily. A gust of wind may blow them away, not to mention that they’re highly susceptible to water and tearing. Card Chords are made of top-quality plastic and feature perforations in places where fret bars should fit into.
While you’re almost guaranteed to rip a paper tab if you try to place it under the guitar’s metal strings, Mike designed Card Chords specifically for this very purpose. Aside from being remarkably robust, Card Chords tabs are also highly flexible and are exceptionally resistant to wear and tear.
Chord Memorization
Using a tab to see how a certain part of a song is supposed to be played is why experienced guitarists use tabs. However, beginners don’t know how hundreds of chords are supposed to be played by heart and often think that tabs can help with that.
Standard guitar tablatures, however, make for poor learning tools. They often feature very little information aside from the numbers on six straight lines, and it’s up to the player to figure out what they mean.
Each Card Chords perforated tab has the name of the chord on top of the card to constantly remind the learner what is being taught at any given time. The enumerated positions are distinctly colored in blue, promoting better eye-hand coordination, not to mention that you’ll be able to keep your gaze fixed on the fretboard and the Card Chords tab at all times.
Since you’ll be able to play over the Card Chords, your practicing sessions will be more efficient, you’ll be more confident that you are playing the right notes, and you’ll be able to master all of the basic chords in just a couple of days. Card Chords are also helping to boost your muscle memory.
Practicing with Friends
Let’s say you wanted to form a band, and you invited the other guitar player and the bassist to your place to learn a new chord or a song. If you know a bit of music theory, you can try writing a tab down on several pieces of paper, but this isn’t the case with most beginners. You can also download a tab to your computer.
In that case, you and your friends would need to sit in front of a computer, taking turns on your respective instruments to learn the parts/chord.
Card Chords make learning guitar chords with friends a breeze. With a Card Chord placed on your fretboard, you’ll know which notes to play, and your friends will be able to mimic your playing simply by looking at the fretboard.
When learning an entire song, all of you can grab a different chord, practice for a few minutes, and simply switch your Card Chords up.
Get Your Card Chords & Learn How to Play Guitar Today
Card Chords are changing the way beginners learn basic guitar chords and the fundamentals of music theory. If you’re looking for a tool that can help you master the essentials as quickly and reliably as possible, look no further than Card Chords.
We offer three editions of Card Chords tabs, including the Stratocaster Edition, Les Paul Edition, and Universal Edition. When in doubt, go for the Universal Card Chords deck, since it can accommodate all guitars except nylon-strung acoustic ones. When you’re ready to start your guitar-learning journey, simply follow this link, and we’ll help you through the rest of the process.
