I know enough theory to get me around but I am far from being a theory expert. I’m doing a series of guitar lessons for acoustic guitar that shows varied way to play the 15 most common chord progressions. There are two examples for each progression. The first example is with open chords and the second is with chords up the neck. So the progression I am working on now is the iii-iv-ii-V. It is being taught in the key of C so the chords are Em Am Dm G. Here is a image of the chord shapes up the neck:

View post on imgur.com

And only the 3 bottom strings are being played.

This is where I am confused. So the first chord is the Em and the teacher is showing a D shape at the 7th fret. I always thought a D shape at the 7th fret is a G chord. The notes being are G B D and that is a G chord. There is a Em triad at the 7th fret but that is not it so I am lost on that one.

So the next is Am and that is fine. It’s a Dm shape moved up. All good there.

So the next chord is a Dm. But the chord shown is a A shape triad at the 8th fret which is a F chord. A Dm triad whould be all three strings at the 10th fret.

And the next chord is G and it’s the previous shape moved up 2 frets to the 10th fret which does make it a correct G chord.

When I watch the instructor play the progression she is playing the shapes exactly like they are written in the link I gave. I know she is a seasoned pro so I am just wondering what I am missing here? First I thought that maybe the chords shown that I think don’t make sense to me are just labeled wrong but if they were labeled correctly then they would not fit the progression.

So I am confused. I know there are more than one name for many chords. But in this case only the bottom 3 strings are played in all four chords. A D shape at the 7th fret is a G chord and not a Em.

Am I missing something???

Thanks.