Free Printable Guitar Chord Charts: A Beginner's Guide

Published 24 July 2026

A chord chart (or chord diagram) is the little grid you see above song lyrics or in method books, telling you exactly where to put your fingers. Once you can read one, you can learn any chord from a picture. This beginner's guide explains how to read them, which chords to learn first, when to use blank versus filled charts, and how to print your own for free.

How to read a chord diagram

A chord diagram is a picture of the top few frets of your guitar, as if you stood the guitar up and looked straight at the fretboard. Here is what each part means:

• Vertical lines = strings. Six lines for the six strings. The left-most line is the thickest, lowest string (low E); the right-most is the thinnest, highest string (high E).
• Horizontal lines = frets. The spaces between them are where you press.
• The nut. The thick line or double line at the very top represents the nut (the top of the neck). If the diagram starts higher up the neck, a small number to the side (e.g. “5fr”) tells you which fret the top line is.
• Dots = where your fingers go. A filled dot on a string-and-fret means “press here”. Dots often carry a number (1–4) telling you which finger: 1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = little finger.
• O above a string = play it open (strum it without pressing).
• X above a string = do not play it (mute it or skip it).

So a chord like C major shows an X on the low E, then dots stepping across the middle strings with finger numbers, and O's on the open strings. Read it top-down, place your fingers, and strum only the strings without an X.

The first chords to learn

Almost every beginner song is built from a handful of open chords. Learn these and you can play hundreds of songs:

• E minor (Em) — the easiest, just two fingers.
• A minor (Am) and E major — similar shapes, three fingers.
• D major (D) — a compact triangle shape on the top strings.
• G major (G) and C major (C) — the big open chords that stretch across all six strings.
• A major (A) — three fingers in one fret.

A great early goal is the “G–C–D” and “Em–C–G–D” progressions — between them they cover a huge number of popular songs. Practise changing between chords cleanly, not just holding each one; smooth changes are what actually let you play music.

Blank vs filled chord charts

Both are useful, for different reasons:

• Blank chord charts are empty diagrams for you to fill in. Use them to write out the exact chords in a song you are learning, to build a personal chord dictionary, or for a teacher to sketch a shape for a student. Writing a chord out by hand helps it stick.
• Filled charts already show the finger positions for named chords. Use them as a reference sheet on your music stand, or to look up a chord you do not know yet.

Many players keep a printed sheet of the common open chords taped inside a folder, plus a stack of blank diagrams for working out songs.

Printing chord sheets and tab

Printing your own means you get exactly the layout you want — the right number of diagrams per page, the paper size that fits your folder, and clean, sharp charts that photocopy well. Because printsheet.io draws everything in real millimetres, the diagrams print crisp and consistent at true size.

Three tools work together for guitarists:

• The guitar chord chart maker for blank or labelled chord diagrams.
• The chord charts sheet for laying out the chords of a whole song.
• The guitar tab paper for writing out riffs, solos and full tablature by hand.

Set your print dialog to 100% scale with no margins, and if you plan to write measurements or match string spacing, run the ruler test once so you know your printer is accurate.

Frequently asked questions