The D Major guitar chord is a great chord for beginners just starting out to learn for a few reasons:
- It only requires 3 fingers to play
- You’re fretting the thinnest and easiest strings to press down
- It sounds great and is very commonly used in popular songs
- It can introduce you to muting techniques once you get a little more advanced
In this lesson, you will learn how to play the D Major guitar chord, some popular chord progressions and songs based around D Major, as well as all the chords in the key of D Major.
How to Play the D Major Guitar Chord
D Major Guitar Chord Fingering:
- First (Index) finger frets the Second fret of the G string
- Second (Middle) finger frets the Second fret of the High E string
- Third (ring) finger frets the Third fret of the B String
- (Optional): Mute the Low E string with your thumb by wrapping it over the top of the neck
Common D Major Chord Progressions
Progression | Chords |
|---|---|
I-IV-V | D-G-A |
I-V-vi-IV | D-A-Bm-G |
I-IV-I-V | D-G-D-A |
I-ii-IV-V | D-Em-G-A |
Popular Songs to Practice D Major
Song | Chords | TAB |
|---|---|---|
What I Got - Sublime | D-G | |
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley | A-D-E | |
Knockin On heaven’s Door - Bob Dylan | G-D-Am-C | |
Shine - Collective Soul | D-C-G-F-Ab | |
Love Me Do - The Beatles | G-C-D |
Chords in the Key of D Major
- D Major
- E Minor
- F# Minor
- G Major
- A Major
- B Minor
- C# Dim.
What to Learn Next
How to Play the C Major Guitar Chord
Hey!!
Thanks for explaining how to play the D chord so easily. I had been trying for a long time but was not successful and thought it is really hard.
This is really helpful!
Hi Girish, thanks for the comment! I’m glad you found the lesson helpful. Cheers!
Thanks so much for sharing a good article to learn more about how to play the D Major Guitar Chord, as my grandson is learning to play guitar and he knows I studied how to play guitar when I was younger, he asked me for some help, but I decided to look for some help on the internet and I’m glad I found your website, as I forwarded your article to my grandson and he told me it was a great help and he’s also happy to have found your website as he told me it has lots of great content that will help him to learn more about how to play a guitar!
Hi Alejandra,
Thanks for the comment! I’m glad your grandson found the lesson helpful! I hope to see him on the site soon! Cheers!