C Chord Guitar 6 Easy Variation

C Chord Guitar Chords Variation

How to Play C Chord on Guitar

Want to learn How to play C Chord on Guitar and C Chord Guitar variation?

YES, you are the right place!!!

In this post we are going to learn C Chord guitar finger position, variation and how to play C Chord on Guitar including C Chord with G bass, C add 9 Chord, C 5 Chord or C power chord, C chord bar shape and C7 Cho.

Generally people are playing only one pattern of C chord on Guitar which is the most popular and very easy to play on Guitar. But there are other C Chord Guitar positions also available which are best suitable at many other places and also sound well in different scales.

You may have faced incidents when in any chord progression you know that this is C Chord but that sounds little different from the standard C Chord on Guitar you know. At least that’s irritated me multiple times in past especially in the case of B chord or G chord. But we should understand that there are multiple ways or chord positions to play any of the Guitar Chords. You will check my complete blog ‘How to Play Guitar’ as I have already covered most of them.

C Chord | Guitar Chords Variations:

1.    C Chord | Guitar Chords variation Standard:

Let’s first discuss the Standard and most popular C Chord Guitar variation.

C Chord Guitar Finger Position:

Fig. C Chord Guitar Standard Shape Guitar Chords

Place your Index finger on 2^nd string 1^st fret, your middle finger on 4^th string 2^nd fret and your Ring finger on 5^th string 3^rd fret to play this C Chord Guitar variation.

How to play C Chord Guitar variation:

1.       Once you grab the C Chord position on Guitar fretboard, first quickly pluck and check if all strings are sounding clear and clean.

2.       Start with slow motion down strum and up strum, then strum for 4-5 times and release you finger from the fretboard.

3.       Again try to grab the position and repeat from point 1.

If in case you are facing issue in stretching your finger while playing C Chord then you should learn to twist or roll your wrist to little left and try to get the shape on fretboard. Also you can try some good finger stretching exercises. 

These exercises on daily basis will help you to get and play more difficult chord position easily on Guitar whether its C chord or F chord. As there are different type chords you are going to learn next in future such as C Power chord, sus2 chord, sus4 chord (Suspended chords), C7 chord and C9 chord etc. So only these finger picking and stretching exercises are going to help you.

Make sure your palm is not touching 1^st string while playing this C Chord Guitar variation.

Let’s move to another C Chord Guitar Variation.

2.    C Chord | Guitar variation with G bass:

Here is another C Chord guitar variation with a little add-on. Why this is with G bass is because we are addition G note on Low G bass string (6^th string) to play C Chord on Guitar.

This C Chord Guitar variation sound little more melodious, deep and give a G chord touch on the bass string. Personally I like this one.

C Chord Guitar Finger Position:

Place your Index finger on 2^nd string 1^st fret, your middle finger on 4^th string 2^nd fret, your Ring finger on 6^th string 3^rd fret and your smaller finger on the 5^th string 3^rd fret to play this C Chord Guitar variation.

Fig. C Chord with G bass on Guitar Chords

This position looks like F chord shape and little starchy and i believe that practicing this C Chord pattern you will start playing this one correctly. Just one tip to keep doing Guitar finger stretching exercises on a daily basis, these exercises not only help you to get the shape correctly but also helps you to remember all Notes and play different Notes from different finger quickly and correctly.

How to play C Chord Guitar variation:

1.       Once you grab this C Chord shape on Guitar fretboard, first pluck all string one after another to check if all strings are sounding clear and clean.

2.       Strum the C Chord for 4-5 times and release you finger from the fretboard.

3.       Again try to grab the correct C chord position and repeat from point 1.

This way you are releasing and forming C Chord shape frequently which will help your fingers habitual of getting into this C Chord shape quickly, correctly and easily in a couple of days.

Let’s move on to next C Chord Guitar shape.

3. C Chord | Guitar variation C add 9 Chord:

Next C Chord Guitar variation is C add 9 Chord. Shape of this C Chord Guitar variation is like G Chord on Guitar.

This is a very helpful C Chord most of the times when you need to play G chord, D chord and C Chord very frequently. Most likely you just need to keep last 2 fingers steady while switching in between G chord and C chord and D Chord Guitar shapes.

This is one of the popular shapes of C Chord Guitar Chords variation and hence is important as well as easy to learn.

C Chord Guitar Finger Position:

Fig. C Add 9 Chord on Guitar Chords

Place your Index finger on 4^th string 2^nd fret, your middle finger on 5^th string 3^rd fret, your Ring finger on 2^nd string 3^rd fret and your smaller finger on the 1^st string 3^rd fret to play this C Chord Guitar Chords variation.

How to play C Chord Guitar variation:

1.       Firstly try to place your ring finger and smaller finger on the 1^st and 2^nd string on 3^rd fret and then place your index and middle finger on the concerned strings to get the C chord Gutar variation. Once you grab this C Chord shape on Guitar fretboard, first pluck all string one after another to check if all strings are sounding clear and nice.

2.       Strum the C Chord for 4-5 times and release you finger from the fretboard.

3.       Again try to grab the position and repeat from point 1.

4. C Chord Guitar variation C5 Chord or C Power Chord:

This C chord Guitar variation is also popular in Power Chord, we will discuss this C Power chord shape. Basically there are 6 different shapes to play C Chord as Power Chord but we will discuss only one as other are at higher Note and are not so popular among C Chord family.

C5 Chord name itself confirms that it’s a C Power Chord, here C represents C Chord and 5 represent the Power Chord. E.g. A Power Chord is A5 Chord, B Power Chord is B5 Chord, G Power Chord is G5 Chord and so C Power Chord is termed as C Power Chord.

C Chord Guitar Finger Position:

While playing C Power Chord and any other Power Chord your middle finger always sits ideal.

Fig. C Power Chord or C5 Chord on Guitar Chords

Place your Index finger on 5^th string 3^nd fret, your Ring finger on 4^th string 5^th fret and your smaller finger on the 3^rd string 5^th fret to play this C Chord Guitar variation.

How to play C Chord Guitar variation:

1.       To play C5 Chord or C Power Chord always remember to mute 1^st, 2^nd and 6^th Strings mute. Now there is a small trick to play C5 chord or C Power Chord, If you have already gone through power Chord training then you know how to mute first two strings with the help of Index finger but to mute 6^th string on Guitar you need to pick 5^th string from a little lower part of your index finger is that it just reaches and touches the 6^th string to mute it.

2.       Once you grab this C5 Chord or power chord shape on Guitar fretboard, first pluck all string one after another to check if all 1^st 2^nd and 6^th strings are sounding mute and 5^th 4^th and 3^rd strings are sounding clear and nice. Also try to strum a lower part or try to skip the 1^st and 2^nd strings while strumming to play C 5 Chord or C Power Chord.

5. C Chord Guitar variation C Chord Bar Shape:

C Chord as a C Bar chord is another C Chord Guitar Variation that we are going to discuss. There are multiple shapes and positions to play the C Chord as C Bar Chord but here we are going to discuss the only one shape. Reason behind this is that you can play this shape in lower frets and so easy to play. And YES this is the correct C bar chord shape so you can starts from this one.

Bar is actually called as Barre, but in this post I am calling it Bar to just simply represent the shape pattern and if in case you have heard this name first time so it will be easy to remember.

Bar Chords are gives chord sound more quality and also gives more control to the Guitarist on the sound it generates. E.g. Muting and buzzing effects.

C Chord Guitar Finger Position:

Fig. C Chord bar shape on Guitar Chords

Put Bar on the 3^rd Fret from your Index finger, Place your Middle finger on 4^th string 5^nd fret, your Ring finger on 3^rd string 5^th fret and your smaller finger on the 2^nd string 5^th fret to play this C Chord Guitar variation.

How to play C Chord Guitar variation:

Only putting Bar is the little tricky part, Once you grab this C Chord bar Guitar shape and place your Index finger on Guitar fretboard, first pluck all string one after another to check strings are sounding clear and nice without any mute.  Let’s discuss how to put Barre correctly.

6. C Chord Guitar variation C7 Chord:

C7 chord is quite similar to standard C major chords per pattern. It has the same three notes as a C major chord i.e. C Note, E Note, and G Note and in addition of this C7 chord has one extra note and that is A# Note.

As C7 chord is a different from C major Chord so it sound bit different. But there are places when you can use C7 chord as a alternative of C major chord but every time this is not going to happen. So be careful and inventive.

How to play C Chord Guitar variation:

Fig. C7 Chord 

Place your index finger on 2^nd string 1^st fret, middle finger on 4^th string 2^nd fret, ring finger on 5^th string 3^rd fret and smaller finger on 3^rd string 3^rd fret to play C7 Chord.

Also don’t play 6^th string to play C7 chord perfectly.

How to put Bar (Barre) correctly on Guitar (C Chord):

To play C Bar chord on guitar follow the procedure given below,

1.        First of all place your left hand thumb at the down side of the back of fretboard and then put your index finger on the fret to place bar so that it can reach to the last thick string, this will form C Chord position.

2.       Put little pressure on the entire strings and place bar just besides (left) the fret separator.

3.       Now twist your finger a bit to the left side and then apply small pressure again.

4.       This twist or roll is required since your finger front is always soft and so you cannot put bar from the fleshy part of the finger. Finger side is harder than the finger front and hence we always putting bar from the side of finger.

5.       After following above given procedure make sure that your index finger is positioned at just left side of the Fret separator now.

6.       Pluck all strings one by one and check if they are sounding okay.

Remember, you don’t need to overlap the fret wire (Fret separators). Index finger should be placed near fret separator to close all loops correctly.

I believe you have enjoyed the lesson on C Chord variations and it helps to build your basics on C Chord Guitar variations including C add 9 chord and C 5 chord or C power chord and helped you understanding different C Chords Guitar shapes their different positions and relevance. hope you will be able to play all of them correctly and easily.

Just visit my complete Blog ‘How to Play Guitar’ to learn easy and interesting different techniques, methods and guitar concepts and to know more all about How to play Guitar Chords and things.

There is lot more to share, Keep in touch and stay happy.

Happy C Chord Guitar Chords Variation Learning!!!