Last Updated on May 12, 2019 by Klaus Crow

There are so many beautiful sounding chords you can play on the guitar. It’s one of the triggers that makes me want to grab my guitar daily. I love sitting in my comfty chair, strumming a couple of those chords, fiddling around with the sounds, adding or lifting some fingers here and there, and see where it takes me and how it evolves into a piece of music.

I couple of years ago I wrote a similar post on this topic 10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes, but today I want to share with you my personal top 12 favourite sounding chords. This top 12 does change from time to time, nevertheless these chords sound amazing, each in their own right.

You can use these chords to add some extra flavour, brilliance or spice to your songs. It’s also nice to end your song with a divine or dreamy chord as icing on the cake.

While strumming these chords, you also want to put effort in making them sound beautiful. Strum your strings delicately, elegantly and skillfully to hear the qualities and bright sparkling sounds of each chord.

Play them in arpeggiated style (down or up strumming, where the strings are played one at a time) or try them with a fingerstyle pattern. Play with them softly with the flesh of your fingers, the attack of your nails or a combination of both. Play them gently or firmly with a pick. Experiment, feel and listen with your ears.

Some of the chords shown here, might already be familiar to you like the G major chord, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a great sounding chord. It’s big, solid, flexible and sparkly. It’s a chord you can rely on.

Also, some chords just sound really great or even better when you play them with a capo on the first, second or third fret. Playing chords like an open C or G major chord a little higher up the neck with a capo, and it will make your guitar (preferably acoustic in this case) sound like a true angel.

The chords shown below are not particular beginner chords, so don’t get discouraged if you can’t play all of these right on the spot. Be persistent and keep practicing.

The E/A chord sounds really nice when you follow it up with an A major chord. Although all the chords sound just great on their own, the trick is to incorporate them into a nice chord progression and make some music with it.

Without further ado,

Enjoy!

So what is your favourite sounding chord? Please share in the comments. Write it down like 320033 (G major chord). I’d love to know.

Have a wonderful day!