The C chord is an absolute classic. Many guitarists learn the C chord before they learn anything else on the instrument, and it becomes a kind of home base. Even advanced players probably can’t fret an open C chord without feeling a bit nostalgic about their own beginner days.

We may go on to learn many other chords, but the C chord never becomes irrelevant. We might be playing jazz, blues, folk, pop, or classical, but at the end of the day, we’ll probably find ourselves making the C shape more often than we realize. Especially since so many of our favorite tunes are in the key of C major!

One of the best (and worst) things about the guitar is that we can play the same chords in many different ways up and down the neck. Naturally, this applies to the C chord as well. It’s always fun to explore new shapes and sounds, and the guitar is a great instrument for that.

If you’re looking to expand your fretboard knowledge a bit, as well as your chord catalogue, this post is for you. You’ll find all five C chord shapes below, which should be convenient for anyone using this post as a reference. Continue reading to find an explanation of each chord, as well as some basic chord theory!

If you’re new to guitar chord charts, the 5 different C shapes above might be confusing for you. Let’s clear that up.

Basically, each diagram represents a section of the fretboard. The vertical lines stand for the 6 strings (thickest to thinnest from left to right) and the horizontal lines indicate the frets.

Each dot you see is a note that should be fretted on the corresponding string and fret. The numbers inside the dots (1-4) tell you which finger I recommend you use to fret the given note. If you see multiple 1’s, for instance, that means you’ll be using a barre chord technique, laying your index finger across multiple frets.

If you’re new to barre chords or need to work on them, you’ll find this post extremely helpful.

The number to the right of the diagram shows the starting fret. For instance, the C major on the very bottom has you barring the 5th fret, with your pinky fretting the 8th.

Finally, the X’s and O’s you see at the top of certain diagrams tell you whether a string is to be played. As you might guess, an “X” above a certain string means it shouldn’t sound, while an “O” means you should play the open string. (It goes without saying that each fretted note has an imaginary “O” above it).

A chord is a harmonic set of notes that are heard as if sounding simultaneously. Although chords can have as few as two notes, the most common type of chord you’ll encounter is a triad, which is a group of three notes.

In the case of a C Major chord, it contains three notes: C, E, and G. C is called the root note and it defines the chord. Most of the time, you can expect C to be the lowest note in the chord. E and G are a musical third and fifth above C, respectively.

You can think of E and G as the most important notes besides C in the C Major scale. If you’re not already familiar, here’s that scale for you to reference: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

As you can see, when you select the third letter of the scale, you get E, and when you select the fifth letter, you get G. That’s where the terms “third” and “fifth” come from!

Musicians came up with the idea of using these intervals to create chords hundreds of years ago, mostly because the first, third, and fifth notes of a scale sound great when played together.

If you’d like more information on chords, you really can’t do better than this website. If you’d like to learn the basics of music theory in a more structured way, head to my recommendations page to see the books I’d have you check out.

Now you might be thinking: How can I be playing a C Major chord—which contains only three notes—when I’m strumming four, five, or even six strings at once?

Well, the answer is quite simple. You may be strumming more than three strings, but all the notes you’re playing are still either C, E, or G.

Let’s take the classic open C Major shape as an example:

Your third finger on the fifth string plays a C; your second finger on the fourth string plays an E; you let the open G string ring out; your first finger on the second string plays another C (an octave higher than the first); and finally, you’re playing the open E string.

All told, you’re playing C, E, G, C, E, from the lowest strings to the highest. Only three distinct notes are represented!

Remember, if we added any other scale tone into the chord, we’d no longer be playing C Major. Throw a B in there, and suddenly we’re dealing with a seventh chord; throw an A in there, and we’ve got ourselves a sixth chord.

I really like this version of the C chord. First off, this shape is great for anyone who needs to expand their fretboard knowledge. Beginner and intermediate players often spend most of their time in first position (first finger lined up with the first fret), avoiding the higher reaches of the neck.

Your pinky finger on the sixth string plays a C (the same pitch as the C on the third fret of the fifth string), your third finger plays an E on the seventh fret of the fifth string, your first finger plays a G on the fifth fret of the fourth string, and the open G string rings out.

Going from the low to high in terms of pitch, we’re playing C, E, G, and G again. As you might imagine, the G’s sounding in unison at the top of this chord give it a distinctive sound.

The one thing to watch for here is that the B and high E strings shouldn’t ring out.

If you’re playing fingerstyle, you might play the top four strings as a block chord. Your thumb strikes the sixth string, your first finger strikes the fifth string, and so forth.

If you’re playing with a pick, you should practice strumming just the top four strings; the key is to practice slowly!

Bad news: this version of C major is actually a barre chord. That means you need to lay your first finger across the bottom five strings on the third fret while your second, third, and fourth fingers grab the notes on the fifth fret.

I know barre chords can be challenging to many players. They’re particularly difficult on steel-string guitars, mostly because the steel strings need to be stretched at a much higher tension than nylon strings, plus they bite into your flesh.

If you need help with barre chords, I highly recommend this post!

Another barre chord. This time we’re barring the entire eighth fret, but we only need the sixth, second, and first strings to sound.

The key here is to concentrate on applying pressure on each end of your index finger while relaxing the middle of it. If you force all six strings down when you don’t need to, you’ll end up with unnecessary tension in your finger.

One awesome thing about barre chords in general is that they’re moveable. Basically, you can shift this exact shape up and down the neck, starting at any fret, and you’ll always be playing a major chord. The note on the sixth string determines the name of the chord.

In this case, we’re playing a C (sixth string, eighth fret), but if we move the barre up to the third fret, we’ll be playing a G in the bass, and thus a G major chord.

This chord is somewhat unusual because it’s actually the second inversion of C major. Inversions happen when a note other than the root of the chord (which is C in this case) is the lowest note.

Here, we have G as the lowest note, which means we’re playing the second inversion of C major. As you might guess, an E as the lowest note would give us the first inversion of C major.

Finally, the chord most of us already know and love, the open C major shape in first position.

Here’s something you might not know: you can play a simpler version of C major just by playing the fifth, fourth, and third strings together. You’ll be playing C, E, and G, which makes for a perfect triad. Who needs the B and high E strings anyway?

Another thing you’ll encounter frequently if you play fingerstyle is the fifth string and second string played together in this shape. Those strings together make an octave, since the C on the fifth string is exactly one octave lower than the C you play on the second string.

Octaves sound great on the guitar; in fact you can make another octave by playing the E on the fifth string (with your second finger, as above) at the same time as the open first string.