What are Guitar Chords & How Card Chords Can Help You Learn Them

The building blocks of songs, combinations of specific notes, or a harmonic set comprised of frequencies. These are some of the many ways in which a guitar chord can be described. Even if you don’t know how a chord is called (or even how it’s performed), you’re likely to “accidentally” play at least a few since thousands of unique combinations of notes exist.

You’ve probably heard guitar players describe the melodies they’re playing by calling out the names of the chords these notes belong to.

If you wondered how a person can memorize dozens if not hundreds of different sets of notes, you’re not the only one. Many guitarists, even experienced ones, struggle to memorize the names of all guitar chords, especially the ones as unnecessarily complicated as “D9/F#” or “Bbmaj7”.

To help guitarists who are having a hard time with the basic chords, Mike Grande, an experienced guitar coach and innovator has created Card Chords. In this article, we’ll give you a brief tour of what Card Chords are and how they are helping guitar players of all skill levels, ages, and backgrounds keep the basic chords etched deeply into their memory.

A Simplified Explanation of a Guitar Chord

There’s an almost infinite number of “pitches”, and since all of us have different hearing capabilities (and training), it’s easier to assign them names than trying to describe sounds as “lower than this but higher than that”, and such. The reason why chords exist is similar – just say the name of the chord, and whoever knows it will immediately recognize the notes that belong to it.

The latter part is a bit of a problem, especially for beginner musicians. How do you remember dozens of combinations of notes when most of them are more alike than different?

While all people use different memorization techniques (e.g. some people use visual cues, others are better at reading, etc.), there is a universal way to remember all basic chords – the guitar-learning tools called Card Chords.

What are Card Chords?

After more than 30 years of teaching guitar to people of all ages, Mike Grande noticed that most of his students needed at least a few months to understand the main differences between basic chords. He then designed a deck of perforated tabs that would feature the name of a chord being played, as well as enumerated finger position markers so they can always be reminded of which frets to press and which notes to play.

Card Chords are smaller and more portable than the average printed tablatures. They can be inserted under the first three frets so that the player can continue strumming even in the middle of the learning process.

The most important benefit of Card Chords is that they are remarkably simple to use. Whether you’re a beginner self-taught guitarist, a student of a music school looking for extra help with guitar chords, a guitar instructor searching for innovative teaching tools, or a parent who wishes to teach their child how to play guitar, Card Chords will be able to help you out.

Portable Perforated Tabs

The best way to describe what Card Chords are would be “a deck of card-shaped insertable tablatures”. All Card Chords come in a deck of cards, which can easily fit into your guitar bag or backpack.

Since they are so transportable, you can practice and learn guitar chords virtually anywhere. As soon as the lunch bell rings in your school, you can pick up Card Chords and study the connection between each note, or even between chords.

If you’re allowed to bring a guitar to your school, you can jam and practice chords during recess. Alternatively, you can also go to a park, in your backyard, or to a local music center to resume your learning with Card Chords.

Play While You Learn

In a common scenario, a beginner guitar player holds their guitar on their knees, opens up their browser, searches for a chord, and then alternates between plucking a string and looking at the screen again. The situation with reading guitar tabs is almost identical.

With Card Chords, everything you need is right on your fretboard. The tabs are under the frets and are not touching the strings. The position markers tell you precisely which frets to play while the numbers tell you in which order.

As soon as you’ve learned one chord, simply pull that Card Chord out and insert a new one. Best of all – you can jam or play any riffs or songs while the Card Chords tab is still attached to your fretboard.

Accelerate the Learning Process

What separates Card Chords from contemporary guitar learning tools is that these tabs are meant to help you master basic guitar chords within minutes. Simple to use and compatible with all guitar models, Card Chords will tell you how to play the desired chord, and all you need to do is simply place your fingers above the blue-colored markers.

After giving it a couple of tries, your fingers will automatically revert to the designated positions. What pros refer to as “muscle memory” is a process of learning by repeating the same thing over and over. With Card Chords, you’ll never need to worry about whether you’ve learned a chord properly or not.

You’ll gain confidence in your ability and have a simple reminder in case you make a mistake or two; this enables people who’ve never played guitar in their life to quickly learn how to play the basic guitar chords.

Card Chords – Begin Your Learning Journey Today

You don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars on music school fees or a private instructor. Card Chords have everything you need to master fundamental guitar chords as quickly as possible. These guitar learning tools come in three editions, so make sure to pick the one that fits your guitar’s fretboard.

If you are ready to begin learning how to play the guitar, tap on this link, and we’ll guide you to your first Card Chords deck.