Music - Guitar Chords: I have had an acoustic guitar for several decades, but it is only in recent years that I have begun to get to grips with playing it properly. I think I’m a good rhythm player, and I can fingerpick in my own ‘style’, but I have always wanted to play along with my guitar heroes and, although I can still remember the basic chords I learned years ago, there are so many more that I don’t know. I also have an interest into how chords are actually formed. So, I began to search the internet, trying to find the chord information I wanted about those missing chords. Apart from a few examples, the majority of chords shown were illustrated through visual diagrams which were, of course, of no use to me. But there was one site I visited where the author wrote in a particularly friendly manner, so I contacted him and asked if he had ever considered writing out a few chords numerically, i.e. the strings and frets that needed to be played. After his initial amazement at never having thought about this problem, he sent me a test page for a familiar chord, not only showing the strings to be used, but also the fingers needed to play the chord. After many weeks of intense emailing, where I had to check every single note and finger position of every single chord, he eventually created a site which contains all twelve major keys (plus their relative minor keys) and information on chord construction. It is not a chord dictionary or an encyclopaedia listing every known chord, but it is an invaluable learning tool. The site is easy to navigate using a screen reader, but you don’t have to be visually- impaired to use it. It is open to anyone interested in playing the guitar. The site is www.guitar4blind.com “He”, in the above, is Robert (Bob) Craypoe, who hails from New Jersey, USA, and though we had a few tiny disagreements over the layout and positioning of some chords, we are intensely pleased with what we have achieved. The site has now changed in structure, and has doubled immensely in interest, but it retains the essential elements that Bob and I worked so hard to include within it. We believe it to be a unique site and hope it will be of immense use and pleasure to those who wish to play the guitar. <<< BACK TO MUSIC: HOME