Guitar Bar Chords for Beginners

1. Guitar bar chords - Intro: In the following few videos, I want to make you familiar with bar chords. These types of chords are very useful to play major and minor chords in different positions, and also to easily change songs or riffs into different tonalities. Let's say you have a simple chord progression with two Chords. Let's say an, a major chord in the open position and an E major chord in the open position. And with bar chords, you can simply change the tonality of that chord progression without using an IPO, which is a topic for another video. So maybe if you are in a band and the singer can't sing in that formality, he wants to have it higher. So let's say he wants to have the progression one full step higher. So instead of this, we play it like this, or even higher. So that was all the same chord progression just played in a different tonality. And for all that bar chords are really useful. And in the next few videos, I want to make you familiar with them. I will show you how the whole concept works and most importantly, how to play them 2. Simplified bar chords: Alright, so before we jump into actual bar chords itself, I want to show you how to master the pre-stage of these chords. And this will help you to understand the whole pattern and it is much easier to get started with the whole topic. Let's start with movable major chords based on the low E string, we take the extended power chord shape for unmovable A5 power chord on the low E string, which is here. Okay, and now it is pretty simple to change this a power cord into a major chord. For that, we simply have to add one more node. This is called the major third. And for that we simply put our middle finger on the sixth fret, G string. So we have the power chord notes, and then we add the G string with our middle finger on the sixth fret. We only play the lowest four strings. So the low E string, a string, the string and G string. Now we have a major chord and you have to be careful with your wing finger and with your pinky. So you really have to use your fingertips when you grab this chord because you don't want to touch the G string with these fingers so that the G string is ringing. So if you do something like this, it won't work. So you have to hear the note on the G string. Okay? And since this shape is pretty similar to the power chord shape, we can also move it up and down the fretboard along the low E string. Okay, so this isn't a major chord because the index finger is playing the anode. If we want to play a G major chord, we simply have to look for the G note on the low E string, which is the third fret. And then we build up the shape and we can play an G major chord. The major would be here on the seventh fret, C major, one fret higher. You can also play all the chords in-between, like eight sharp, G sharp, F sharp. So you can basically play every major chord with that. And what is really interesting to know and to understand the whole thing is at this shape based on an E major chord and open chord like this. So the nodes on the a string, D string and G string have the same shape. When I move it up here to the a major chord. Just use different fingers. So if I would use the same fingers here and don't play the open E string. Of course, it's all the same shape. The only difference is when I move the ring, pinky and middle finger one fret higher. I also have to hire the node on the low E string at one fret. So from an open eNode, too afraid at first fret. So it makes much more sense if you have the basic understanding of that from where these chord shapes coming from. So it's all like an E major open chord shape. Okay, So that was the first simplified version of a bar chord, which is a major shape. And now I also want to show you a minor shape, but this time based on the a string. So let's go back to the a major chord which replete before. And then you move this exact shape, one string down, so each finger goes down one string. Then we have this. Okay, it sounds a little bit sad. And this is because this is a minor chord. Okay, So if you move to shape from the E string, which is a major chord, down to the a string. You have a minor chord with the same shape. So this would be in D minor chord because this node D, and it works exactly like the other shape or power chords. So we can move along the fretboard as long as you stay on the a string with that same shape. So C minor chord would be this B minor chord, E minor chord, and so on. So you'd have to know where the root nodes are on the a string. And then you can simply play F minor chord. And this shape is also based on a very common open chord. And if we again take like the ring finger, middle finger, and the pinky, and remove it down to the open chord position. We have this. If we then add the open a string, we have our a minor chord, which we usually would crap like this. The same as Thrifty E major. So if we move higher, we also have to increase the node on the a string. And if we go one fret higher like this, we have to put it on the first fret, a string. Okay, I really hope you get that because it's much easier to understand the whole connection between these chords if you know on which chords, these bar chords or simplified bar chords are based off. Alright, so that is the pre-stage of bar chords, since the real bar chords are not really easy to do for Beginners, this is a great way for you to get started. 3. The four main bar chord shapes explained: Alright, so in this lesson we will dive into the actual bar chords. In total, there are four basic shapes for major and minor bar chords you can learn. We will start with the two shapes we already did in the previous lesson. So let's start with the easier one, the minor shape on the a string. So we go back to the D minor chord again. And to make this an actual bar chord, we have to add one more note, and that is the fifth fret on the high E string. And to get that node, you have to lay down your index finger down the whole fifth fret above all strings except the low E string. And so you're pressing down the high E string there. So you press the a string and the high E string, and then you have the other fingers on the other Fred's in-between. And that is really hard thing to keep your index fingers straight and press down all the strings. The first thing you have to learn is that you shouldn't use your flat finger like this. Because then it can happen that the grooves of your finger joints are getting exactly in-between the strings. That you have to put a lot of pressure on your fingers and on your hand to be able to hear the note. And because of that, you have to turn your finger a little bit and grab more with the side of your finger. The next tip I can give you is to move your finger near to the fret. So like this. And not like this, because it makes it much harder. So try to go as near as possible to the fret. Then you also have to keep in mind your thumb position. So make sure your thumb is more in the middle of the neck and not too far up or down, so that you can really press against your other fingers, especially your index finger. You will get the most amount of strength in your fingers to press down all the strings. And it is also really important that your shoulder of your grabbing hand is very relaxed and also your arm in general. So don't make something like this. Because it makes it very hard to grab the chord in a comfortable way. For practicing the bar chord in general, it makes sense to first try to press down the index finger only. And try to make all the strings ring. Also don't put too much pressure on the fingers just enough that the nodes are ringing. Then you can add the other fingers for the chord shapes. Okay? And again, you can move the whole shape, which is the minor shape based on the a string, are around the neck. So D minor bar chord, you can make an E minor bar chord like this, C minor, and so on. So I guess you will get that. And that is the benefit of bar chords in general. So now let's move on to the next shape and we will take the major shape on the low E string, which we had before with the simplified version. And we start with that, a major chord again, which goes like this. And I guess you know what to do next. And yet, you have to put down your index finger on the whole six strings of the fifth fret to get a bar chord out of this. This one gets a little bit harder because you have six strings to pull down. And we have two additional strings which have to be winging on that chord with the index finger. Okay, So you still have to keep the same important things in mind like using the side of your index finger than the thumb position in the middle of the neck, and also no tension in your shoulder and in your arms so that you can grab these Chords comfortable. And since we have major chords on the low E string, we also can play minor chords based on the low E string. And for that we simply release our middle finger, which is on the sixth fret, G string when we play the A major chord. We release it and then our index finger has to grab another string, that G string. Then we have a minor chord. I think this one is the hardest to do with the index finger. And what I sometimes do is lay my middle finger on the index finger a little bit to give it a little bit more pressure. So to present down a little bit more. But you don't have to do that. I just do that automatically. And this whole shape, which you can, of course move, is based on an E minor chord. So this one, if you played like this with the ring finger and the pinky, that you move it up one fret and then at the index finger, and then you have the minor version of every chord you want. So it is based on the E minor chord. The last shape is simply playing major chords based on the a string. So we already had the minor chords based on the a string. And to play a major chord based on the a string, we have to play this note one fret higher to come from minor to major. So this is minor. This is major. You have to move all your fingers except of the index finger. So you have to put them all on the seventh fret if you're here on the T-shape. So middle finger on the D string, ring finger on the G string, pinky on the B string. And then you have to add the index finger. And it is also pretty hard to lay down then as well. But you only have to get the high E string. And what I figured out on this chord shape is that it makes sense to place your index finger like slight angle. So this would be normal if I play minor and four major, I kind of lay it down a little bit in an angle like this, but still with the side of the I'm index finger. And that is mainly because the other fingers here are also in that kind of angle. K. Same thing here. Relax your shoulder, your arm, and put your thumb in the middle of the deck. And maybe you can guess on which open chord, this one is space of. So if I move down three fingers here, we have a major chord which we usually would grab like this. Okay, so a major. Then everything one fret higher. And then we're adding the index finger like this. Then we have to chord shape, which is movable. Okay, so now you know how to play the four basic types of bar chords, major and minor on the low E string, and also major and minor on the a string. I said it before. It is really not easy to get these Chords done. And for the beginning it is definitely okay to always play like the simpler versions of that. So you don't have to press down your whole index finger at the beginning. So there's nothing wrong with that. So that are still complete minor and major chords. But I can recommend you to practice the actual bar chords as often as possible so that you build up the strength in your fingers, especially for the index finger. And at some point it will get pretty easy for you to play these bar chords 4. A practical example using bar chords: In this lesson, I want to show you how you can implement bar chords in your playing and use it in a practical way. Let's take a simple chord progression, which is really common in many songs. We have willy basic open chords. We have a C major, G major, a minor and an F major. Now we change these open chords into bar chords. Let's start with the C. We have the root node on a string, and with that we can build an A major chord based on the a string like this. It's the same chord just played differently. The next chord is a G major. Since the root node here is on the low East ring, it makes sense to build a major chord based on the low East ring like this. Then we have the A minor. For this one, we also go to the low East ring, and we build a minor chord on that. A on the low east ring is here on the fifth thread. Then we build a minor shape with that. Last one is f. Since this is a very different version of a chord. It's like a basic version of the full f chord. We have to look for an f node on the low East string. It also works on the a string, which I will show you in a minute. But first, we will build the chord on the low East ring. The F on the low East string is here, and then we simply have to build a major shape out of that. And I said simply, but it is not really that simple because I think that's the hardest bar cord to grab. Because you have the most string tension on the first thread, so you have to use a big amount of pressure on your index finger to press down the strings. The alternative for this cord would be on the a string and then F on the a string is here on the eighth thread. Then you can build the major shape like this. But for now, we will stay with this F based on the low East string. So now we have this. So this was it before. And now this The chords are basically the same, so we have the same nodes in it. These are all major and minor chords. But the difference is that you use open strings for the open chords and that mostly sounds a little bit better, especially in a more clean or acoustic setting. But the benefit of the bar chords is that we now can simply change the tonality of that chord progression. The first is that c, Now let's say we want to play the whole progression, one node higher. In guitar language, that would mean two frets higher. We start with a decord instead. We go from this to this. Then we play the same pattern of the chord progression just from a different starting point like this. Okay. So that means we can play this chord progression in any key. Let's say we want to start with an E chord, then we simply go from the D, again, one node her two frets and we are here on the E major. And we can play the same progression. It is very easy to change the tonality of a certain chord progression using bar chords. Let's go back to the first chord progression, starting on the C. I said we can also play the f based on the a string like this. This gives the whole progression a different sound because the f is now one octoper and it sounds like this. It's a different voicing and sometimes it makes sense to give a chord progression a little bit of variety to alternate between different voicings. You can play one time with the f here based on the low string, and at the second run of the chord progression you played up here on the a string. The same also goes with any other of that progression. Let's say we want to take the A minor based on the string. We could play the open. But it's in the same octave as the barcord, it makes sense to put it on a higher octave, which is here under 12th thread. There you have to play this shape. Then it could sound like this. You can see you can give a simple chord progression different voicings just by using different positions on the neck using bar chords. You could also mix in open chords in these progression, like you start with the C and the g in the open chord position, and then you can add bar chords, for example, Or you can play all the bar chords just based on the low string, and you would go like this. You C chord would start here on the eight threads string instead of here on the string. I hope you get that whole concept. Now it's up to you to take some simple progressions or more advanced progressions and transcribe them into bar chords.