It is better to learn chords first. This creates dexterity in your hands and serves as a kind of roadmap of the instrument itself — plus, scales are more complicated and it takes a bit of learning before you can use them in music. Chords, on the other hand, allow you to create music right away and have fun doing it. Whether you sing along to them or begin playing a melody as well, chords are the perfect starting point for a beginner musician. They allow you to get comfortable with rhythm and see patterns in the instrument. Moving on to scales will make more sense after you’ve learned basic chords. For instance, a G major scale moves through a G major chord, touching on all notes in the chord. You will also begin to understand chords better at this point and learn how to invert them, alter them, and create different colors with different notes from the corresponding scale.