The Exercise
In this lesson, we’ll be sticking with quarter-note strumming, but we’ll use some fresh chords.
Chords Used
Em
This is a pretty easy chord to play. You’ll strum all six strings.
Am
D7
Many people consider this version of the F chord a fundamental chord pattern and include it in the discussion of the open chord, but the F chord is really a fragment of the E shape barre chord:
Take off the bottom two notes and you end up with what the Mel Bay book suggested was the F major chord pattern. You might not be quite ready for barre chords just yet (it requires hand strength that takes a little time to develop). The abbreviated version will work nicely for now and set you up for learning barre chords later: