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Skateboarding Rained Off?
When you can't get out on your skateboard then the next best thing is stay indoors and practice some cool guitar stuff?
Bar chords are moveable chord shapes where the first finger of the fretting hand takes the place of the nut of the guitar. The first finger is able to play all of the notes required by laying it across all of the strings at a particular fret. Look at the shape below and see how the first finger is responsible for creating a "bar" behind the fifth fret. As with the moveable power chords there are two things we need to know about bar chords
1. How to play them?
2.Where to find the desired chord on the neck of the guitar?
First we are going to look at how to play the chord. Below is the chord shape and correct fingering for a bar chord of A with the root note to be located on the (thick) E string at the fifth fret. Notice how the first finger is pressed behind a single fret (in this case the fifth) leaving the other fingers to fret notes at the sixth and seventh frets.
At first this shape can seem tricky and don't be put off if you are not able to sound all of the notes. Even though there are six notes in the full shape you don't have to sound them all to get the full effect of the chord. This is because some of the notes are duplicated within this shape and so long as you get most of them at this stage it will sound fine.
When you have mastered the shape try moving the whole thing down the neck by a distance of two frets. This will put your first finger behind the third fret and will give you a chord of G. The diagram below illustrates where you should form the chords.
Free Backing Tracks and Printable Chord Sheets
Click the button below for a backing track that moves between the chords of G and A. Each chord is held for two bars (two counts of four beats)
If you would like giant (A4) versions of each of the chords to print and stick on your wall to remind you of how they are formed click on the buttons below to download them.
The G and A bar chords studied above have root (name) notes on the E string (the thickest string). The fifth fret of E string gives us a note of A therefore the major bar chord shape played at the fifth fret will give us a chord of A. It's that simple. by moving the shape to other frets you can sound any major bar chord (for example playing the shape behind the second fret will give us a chord of F#) You can use the chart here to locate the root (name) note of any bar chord to be found on the E string.
Click this button to download a printable form of the root finder