If you know a handful of chords and you’ve got a houseful of youngsters to entertain, then check this out.

We are going to learn 5 simple chord patterns for nursery rhymes that you can play right away. These are also great to get kids into playing guitar. If they’ve expressed an interest in music, try getting them to join in with the fun.

All the strumming rhythms in this lesson are straight eighth notes - which is two per beat, played as a series of alternate down and up strums. Think of it like:

" 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & "

Don’t forget to check out Part 2 of this lesson to learn the melodies that accompany these chords.

For this lesson we are using 5 chords:

There are also two chord shapes which are a little different - a D7 and a B7 chord. Use the charts to work out how to play these new chords.

This one is a nice simple G and D chord progression. The first and third bars are just straight G chords. The second and fourth bars have a D on the first and second beats of each bar and the G on the third and fourth.

This one is a little busier and is a great introduction to changing chords faster. These songs don’t need to have a set tempo so you can adjust the speed to suit.

There are a few bars in this piece where you change chords on every beat so this makes for a fantastic chord workout.

This song introduces the B7 which is the trickiest chord used in this lesson. While B7 will give a challenge to anyone new to more complex chords, you can cheat by leaving out the note that your little finger would play on the high E string.

You don’t stick on the B7 for long (2 beats in the second bar and 1 beat in the fourth bar), so you can get away with not being perfect.

Here is another one with lots of chord changes in quick succession. This will get you flying between your G and C chords in no time. G to C is a change that a lot of people find tricky in the early stages of playing so this will help speed that change up.

There are a few bars that need you to jump to a C or D chord for a single beat and then back to the G.

The final one in this lesson is a nice simple, casual strum along with a C and G chord. The structure to this is very simple. A full bar of C on the first and third bars. The second and fourth bars alternate between a C and a G chord for two beats each but be careful of the order.

The second bar is C to G and the fourth bar is G to C.

You can keep kids entertained for hours just with these simple chords - but keep going to learn the melodies and really add some wow factor to your playing!