Fretboard diagram - GCEA
Pic 2

This will be handy if you are learning your way around the fretboard.

You can use this to work out notes to accent existing chords, or to play those fingerpicking songs if you are more adventurous.

Click the image for a larger size diagram, or download a PDF here.


For the adventurous, what follows may be a useful reference for chord inversions. Inversions are just different ways of playing chords. All you are doing is effectively moving the chord up the fretboard. Take an 'A' shape - 2100. If you move the whole thing up a fret (3211), you will get an A#. Up another fret (4322), and you get a B. And so on. The strings that were previously open are covered by 'barreing' the fret with a finger. Simple chord shapes to do this with are A, C and F as they only use one or two strings, so the barreing finger is easier to deal with.

Chord Shape / Barred fret 1 2 3
.
4 5
.
6 7
.
8 9 10
.
11 12
.
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F


An Introduction to barre chords.
Don't forget,
C#=Db, D#=Eb, F#=Gb, G#=Ab, A#=Bb.

Looks a bit complicated, but I'm sure it's worth learning.