Learn Canon in D on Guitar (Chords, Arrangement with Tabs)

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Canon in D is a piece written by Johann Pachelbel in the 17th century and is often played in wedding ceremonies and graduations. An interesting feature of this piece is that the repeating bass line and series of chords create a foundation while the melody develops and changes throughout.

In this lesson, we’ll cover the guitar chords, learn the progression and finally look at the finger-style guitar arrangement for this song.

Grab your guitar and let’s get started!

How to read the guitar chord charts

To clarify how to read the chord charts, the top horizontal line represents the high E string and the bottom horizontal line represents the low E string. The vertical lines separate each fret. The numbers in the blue dots tell you which fingers to use on the fretting hand.

For example, on the D Major chord, you use the:

1st finger on the 3rd string, 2nd fret
3rd finger on the 2nd string, 3rd fret
2nd finger on the 1st string, 2nd fret
4th string is open (circles represent open strings)
X means to avoid a string

You can check this link for more on how to read guitar notation symbols.

Canon in D guitar chords

The basic chords for Canon in D are D Major, A Major, B minor, F# minor and G Major. You can click on these chords with links to learn different ways of playing that chord on guitar.

Try the following chords one at a time until you feel comfortable switching between them.

By the way, you can get the PDFs of this song below.

Canon in D – Get the PDFs

Here are some other resources on chords:

Canon in D chord progression

Canon in D is based on the following chord progression which repeats throughout the piece: D Major, A Major, B minor, F# minor, G Major, D Major, G Major, and A Major.

See the progression below which includes a chord analysis (a written number above each chord to shows its relation to the key center of the song).