Barre Chords | Free Online Guitar Lesson

lesson summary

Lesson 9 of 19 in our Basic Guitar Series: Barre Chords

Steve gives an in depth explanation of what a barre chord is. He explains the practical purposes of barre chords and how to play them. Steve also covers how power chords relate to barre chords.
Chapter 1: (0:56) Introduction Welcome back for lesson 9 from Steve Eulberg. Grab your guitar, warm up, and get ready to Jam! Chapter 2: (6:45) Barre Chords In lesson nine we are going to focus on barre chords. "G" is an open chord. You are only fretting a few of the notes. The rest of them are the open strings. With a barre chord, there will not be any open strings. Since there are not any open strings, the chord becomes completely movable. You can go up & down the neck without ruining the chord because there are not any open strings.

With the basic guitar, the lowest possible note is held by the nut of the guitar (an open string). If you were to hold the first fret on the �E� string, your �E� has just become an �F�. If you were to hold the first fret on your �B� string, your �B� has just become a �C�. You get the idea. If you hold the first fret for every single string, you�ve moved every string up a half step.

Let�s take a look at the �E� chord. Typically you would fret the guitar for an �E� chord like this:

• �A� string � 2nd fret
• �D� string, 2nd fret
• �G� string, 1st fret
• �B� string, open
• �e� string, open

Now let�s try that same chord with the first fret barred. Move the rest of the shape up a half step; move each of your three fingers you fretted the �E� with towards the bridge of your guitar. You have effectively moved the nut of the guitar up one fret (your barred finger). Instead of playing an �E�, you are now playing an �F�. Move everything up another half step and you have an �F#�. Another half step and you have a �G�. Get it? This is why barre chords are referred to as movable chords.

With barre chords, action is very important. The action, as you remember, is the distance from the strings to the frets. If the action is too high, it�ll be very difficult to play barre chords. Your hands will physically have a tough time because you have to press the strings down so far. Beyond that, this extra �flex� in the strings shortens them that much more. Essentially, you are changing the tone of the guitar. Instead of playing an �F� you will now be playing something closer to an �F#�. If high action becomes an issue for you, don�t fight it � go to your local guitar shop and get it fixed! Chapter 3: (16:38) "E" Shape Barre Chord In the �E� shaped barre chords, it is very easy to figure out what chord you are playing as you move up the neck of the guitar. As you know, the notes in the diatonic scale (what we�re using for playing guitar) go in the following order: A, Bb/A#, B, C, Db/C#, D, Eb/D#, E, F, Gb/F#, G (�b� means flat, �#� means sharp). To figure out which chord you are playing, simply look at the note being played on the �E� string by your barred finger. In the case of an �F� barred chord (using the �E� shape), your barred finger on the �E� string is on an �F� note. If you move the �E� shape & barred finger up two more frets (so that you are barring the 3rd fret), then your barred finger on the �E� string will be on a �G� note. Guess what? This is now a �G� chord!

Inlay Helpers
The dots on your guitar (on most at least) will really help you to see what chord you are playing. Here�s a quick list of the notes on the �E� string (excluding sharps / flats):

• �E� � open
• �F� � 1st fret
• �G� � 3rd fret (single dot inlay)
• �A� � 5th fret (single dot inlay)
• �B� � 7th fret (single dot inlay)
• �C� � 8th fret
• �D� � 10th fret
• �E� � 12th fret (double dot inlay)

The �E�, �G�, �A�, �D�, and �E� (an octave higher) are all very easy to see because the frets are labeled by the dots. However, deductive reasoning easily tells you that one fret above the 7th inlay is the 8th fret which is a �C�. Two more from that is the 10th fret, which is a �D�. Basically, you should pay attention to the inlay to help you with your positioning on the fret board.

Barre Chord Exercise Barre chords can be very difficult to play when starting on guitar. This is the first time when you are really going to be testing the strength in your hand. Your �barred� finger is required to push down across all six strings & hit every single note clean. This is easier said than done as you�ll find out. Regardless, one way to practice barring is to try out this exercise.

Everything in this exercise is going to be in the �E� shape. First you will play the �C� (8th fret barred) eight times. Then you will play the �F� four times. Then the �G� four times. Now back down the �F� two times. �G� two times. Now back up to your �F� again to start over!

The last exercise was in the key of �C�. Now let�s try the same progression in the key of �G�. As you know, the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords in the key of �G� are �G�, �C�, and �D�. So we will start barring the 3rd fret, your �G�. Then move up to the �C� on the 8th fret. Lastly the �D� on the 10th fret. Now use the same picking pattern as before: eight on �G�, four on �C�, four on �D�, two on �C�, two on �D�, back to �G�. Not too shabby, eh?

Key of �Gb� (�G Flat�) & �G#� (�G Sharp�)
Let�s say you�re asked to play in the key of �Gb�. Instead of starting on the 3rd fret, you will simply drop a half step down (flattening the �G� to a �Gb�) and play on the 2nd fret. Instead of hopping up to the 8th fret �C�, you will go to the 7th fret �Cb�. Instead of the 10th fret �D�, you will simply play the 9th fret �Db�.

The exact same thing applies if you want to play in the key of �G#�. Instead of starting on the 3rd fret, you will start on the 4th. The �C� would then be on the 9th fret as a �C#�. The �D� would then be on the 11th fret as a �D#�. Look at that. You�ve just learned this basic riff in four different keys!

Key of �F�
Now let�s try the same pattern in the key of �F�. You will just drop a half step lower than the �Gb� (or �F#�) to the �F� on the 1st fret. If you use the �hand trick� you will see the that the 4th chord is a �Bb� and the 5th chord is a �C�. So you will start on the 1st fret (�F�), move to the 7th fret for your �Bb�, then the 8th for your �C�. Try this with the picking patterns used in the previous few exercises.

By now you should have a pretty good understanding of your options with using barre chords in the �E� shape. You can apply this same technique to any chord shape. Steve shows a quick example of the �F� shape. If you�re feeling confident, experiment around and see what you can figure out. Chapter 4: (9:22) "A" Shape Barre Chord The �E� shape barre chords are a bit challenging to move quickly up and down the neck. The �A� shape barre chord is used more towards the end of the neck. You don�t have to slide as far for a lot of the ifferent chords. Since you don�t have to move as far, you can use slides more effectively. It also offers the ability to play in different keys (�Bb for instance�) which is very difficult in the �E� shape.

Identifying the Chord
With the �E� shape, you were able to identify the chords by the note being played on the �E� string. If your barre was on the 5th fret, you knew that the note on the �E� was an �A�. Ta-da � you were playing an �A� chord.

A similar technique is used on the �A� shape. Except instead of identifying the note on the �E� string, you will be identifying the note on the �A� string. Coincidence? I think not. Let�s look at the �major� chords in the �A� shape:

• �B� � barred 2nd fret
• �C� � barred 3rd fret
• �D� � barred 5th fret
• �E� � barred 7th fret
• �F� � barred 8th fret
• �G� � barred 10th fret
• �A� � barred 12th fret

You can also obviously play an �A� without any barre. This is just your basic �A� chord.

Chords Across Shapes
Try to play different chords across both the �E� shape barre chord and the �A� shape barre chord. Play a �G� in the �A� shape and then play a �G� in the �E� shape and compare the difference in sounds. Mess around a little bit amongst these two shapes and see what you can come up with! Chapter 5: (4:53) Intro to Power Chords A ton of modern music (rock, punk and alternative especially) uses a type of barre chord called power chords. These are basically a smaller partA ton of modern music (rock, punk and alternative especially) uses a type of barre chord called power chords. These are basically a smaller part of the full barre chord. Instead of playing a full �A� shape, you remove your finger from the �G� string and just play the lowest three strings (�E�, �A�, and �G�). Do not pick anything above those strings (the �D�, �B�, or �e�).

As you can tell, these sound a lot deeper and meaner than the full barre chord. This is because you are not hitting any of the higher sounding strings. This is why this technique is a favorite for the �heavier� styles of music.

These are often referred to as �5� chords because you are only playing the 1st and 5th notes in the chord. You are no longer playing the 3rd degree note. We won�t go into the power chords too much more now. We just wanted to make you aware that they were directly related to the barre chords you�ve just learned.

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