How Many Chords Are There?

Guitar chords posters and wall charts.

In the studio I have a guitar chords poster and am frequently asked if that's all the chords. When I say no, they ask how many chords are there? 1000s! Then they ask how many I know.....1000s. How often do I use that many? Never. Once you have an understanding of music theory and how it relates to the guitar fingerboard, you can not only play lots of chords you can even make up your own. The number of chords you learn isn't nearly as important as knowing what to do with them.

The number of chords you use depends on the style of music you play.

A lot of beginning guitar students as well as more advanced players really only use a relatively small number of chords. For instance, if you play and sing, your chord playing will be somewhat limited by your vocal range. If you like Americana, Folk, Bluegrass or Irish music you'll be able to play using a handful of chords most of the time. Jazz, ragtime, classical and some rock music styles require more chords. I have students who play in jazz band in high school and they are usually pretty much shocked by how many different chords they have to know.

How many chords should you learn then?

Everyone should learn the basic, open position chords. There are many places to find them and that's really the first step. Being able to play major, minor and seventh chords is a good place to start. Buy yourself a chord book and experiment. Just because a particular style uses more of one type of chord it doesn't mean other styles won't use them sometimes as well. There are jazz chords that fit well in different types of music, so you just might want to play a few of them and see what you think.