How to Play Guitar Bar Chords: Technique, Barre Shapes, Power Chords

1. Learn to Play Guitar Bar Chords Intro: This course is about bar chords and how to play them. And being able to play barcodes opens up a whole world of the fret board. And if you can't use bar codes, then it seriously limiting your abilities. Typically a person learning barcodes might, might look at a sheet and just struggle to try and put those chords down. So my cos, I'm going to show you a different and more effective approach. Now I don t think anybody is going to disagree that you have to walk before you can run. Likewise, instead of starting with difficult chords, I'm gonna guide you through a series of exercises starting with just two string bar chords and building on that until you can eventually do with those four bar chords. So what the method does is it trains your fingers and you'll do some exercises where you incorporate other finger movements too. Now there are actually three parts to the course. The first part is gaining the ability to play the bar chords. The second part is learning the chord shapes and how to recognize the names of the chords that you're playing all over the fretboard. And the third part is doing some exercises so that you will have the confidence that you not only know the chords, but you can actually play them. So if you've had trouble playing barcodes, are you just getting into them? Take my course. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. 2. Prepare to Play Bar Chords: What we're going to talk about now a two things. One is how to physically hold the guitar so that you're in a good position to play barcodes. The other thing is how to mentally prepare yourself to succeed at being able to do this. It first of all, is the playing position. I always emphasize this that you want to have your guitar so you lift your arm up comfortably and that neck is right there so that you can reach all of the threats. Now, I'm holding this in a classical guitar position. It's fine if you do this. Usually when you see people with an acoustic guitar holding like this, because that gives, actually brings this part of the neck closer to you. The other thing is your hand position. You want to make sure that the back of your hand is kind of parallel with your forum. Not too much like that. Not too much like that. That's hopefully going to prevent you from getting any kind of injury. Now when you're trying to do barcodes, you've got to realize that it's not an easy thing. To get your hand in the right position. You need a certain amount of strength. But it's not all about strength. So it's important to try to stay relaxed and only put the pressure on where you need it. For example, if you putting your fingers on for a bar, the other fingers should stay fairly relaxed. And it's good to try to practice that technique. Next, let me just prepare you for the exercises. You can either use a pick or fingers. The exercises that I'm showing you, I'll show you both ways. And what I suggest is get a metronome, get a metronome app on your phone, or a separate metronome, whichever you wish to do. And then when we do the exercises, don't worry too much about perfection in the beginning, focus on keeping time and try and play as best you can and why are you repeating, you know, just keep trying to improve it. And then of course, keep stopping and analyzing and seeing what you can do to fix your finger position or whatever is causing the trouble and then try again. Now what we're gonna do now is a third fret exercise. All I'm going to ask you to do is take the index finger and keep the index finger extended and then hold it down. Hold this down against the first second string on the third fret. And then you're going to hold it down and see if you can play, seeping in, play those two notes and just keep repeating them. So what you want to strive for is to build a nice clear ringing sounds without any buzzing. So once you've done that, move on to the next and then we're going to start and use that same exercise, an extended a little bit. 3. Barre Exercise 1 Demonstration: For this first exercise, I'm going to take a sheet from this book which is guitar lessons in real-time level three, is on 23 string barring exercises. And this, this is a sheet right here. So what we'll be doing is the first exercise, and I'm gonna be using a metronome. I have my trusty old metronome here that I like to keep by the music stand these days it's very easy to download a metronome on your cell phone. We just need this simple, simple beat that you can be able to adjust the speed for. So as always, I recommend you start slow and, and build up speed. The best speed to play out. It's a speed where you can play everything cleanly and accurately. This is the exercise and the way this is written, it's written then finger style. I'll just play through it quickly just so you can see the exercise and it's 22 lines, the first two lines on the sheet. So what I'm doing there is holding one finger across two strings and then placing the third finger on two frets above it. So you can do this with a pig. The way I suggest doing it with a pig is strumming for the first, for the first note. Then play the middle string, and then play the string by itself, then the middle string. So this is also, if you want to develop your picking technique, this might be a good exercise for that he finding this difficult. So it's like this. 4. Barre Exercise 1: So after 41234, three. Okay. I hope that went well. Keep trying that and become very comfortable with it. And then once you're ready, once you feel comfortable with that, let's move on to exercise too. 5. Barre Exercise 2 Preparation: So what we're going to take a look at right now is a preparation for being able to play exercise too. The reason I wanted to do a preparation is because you're going to be playing bar chords along with another finger. So I just want to show you what, what you're going to have to do with your left hand for this. Presumably you've got some level of success with the two strings. So doing three strings, we're going to have to hold down and have that little bit extra precious. It goes like this by the way. So again, you can play that with, you can strum that with comply with the pink. I'm using my thumb right now. So the important thing here is to be able to hold down three strings. The first thing you need to do is hold down one finger on the third string, first fret, and then that will be the first chord playing that second string in-between. So the next, the next one is going to be playing a bar across three strings on the second fret. So there you want to be able to hold each one of those down. Now if you're getting you're getting these kind of buzzy sound. Don't worry about it right now, just try your best. And as I mentioned before, get close to the fret, that close you are to the fret without being too far over the top of it. The less pressure you're going to need. And also try to turn your finger in into a place where the hard part of your finger is going to be pressing up against and holding those strings down against the threat. That's going to be the second position for this one. Then it goes up another two frets to the fourth fret. And then it's gonna go up to the fifth fret. And you can hold down with the second is going to hold down the third string on the sixth fret with, with the second finger. So it's going to be like that. So you're playing, you're actually holding down the bar. Your Br is going across three strings. Don't move that. And you should be getting three strings ringing there. And then it goes back down again. So just before we get into the exercise, go through those positions and make sure that you're gonna be comfortable playing those. Once you're ready, then try the next video. 6. Barre Exercise 2 at 50 bpm: Alright, so we're gonna do exercise two now at a speed of 50. After 41234. Repeat. 7. Barre Exercise 2 at 75 bpm: In this video, we're going to play the speed of 75 beats per minute. And 12342. Ready go. And again, 34. Two, one more time. 34, scalp. Okay, So that's 75. In the next video, once you're comfortable that speed will be playing at a speed of 100. 8. Barre Exercise 2 at 100 bpm: Now this time we're playing at the speed of a 100. Now what I want to say here is that you may not want to go up to a speed of 100. Maybe you prefer to go onto the next exercise following this one. If you feel comfortable and you can do it, then fine. If not, don't worry too much about it. The important thing is that you keep practicing barcodes and getting used to more and more variety in the way that you use them. So let's do this one now at a speed of 100. So after 41234 For 234. Time, Here we go. Okay, congratulations if you can do that. In the next one, we're gonna be trying a little bit more of a challenge using three strings again, coming up. 9. Barre Exercise 3 Preparation: In preparation for exercise three, I will just wanted to go through the positions that we're going to be playing. And these are extending were going up now toward the 12th and the 13th fret. We're playing a scale actually, and we'll be playing some of the time. We'll be putting the second finger on the third string. And sometime we were putting it on the second string. So this is how it goes, is kinda playing an E scale. But we're, we're harmonizing that with the other notes. So it goes like this. So there we've got, we've got straight across all three strings. Here's like before where we put the second finger on the third fret. And then we go, go one more, moving up two frets again. And now when we get to the ninth fret, but the bar across the ninth fret would be putting the second finger on the second string. So it's going like this. And then move up again with the same position. Then when we get to the 12th fret, we're replacing three fingers across on the 12th fret, but the second finger will be playing the 13th fret on the third string. So it's like that. And then it goes in reverse. So before we try this exercise with a metronome is really good for you to go through. Make sure that you can play all of those different positions and make those changes. Especially when you having to move this other finger. You wanted to try to keep this barfing, constantly pressing down in the same position and not let the other finger interrupt that holding down of those nodes. So once you're comfortable with that, try the next video and we'll do exercise three, barring three strings again. 10. Barre Exercise 3 at 50 bpm: Alright, here we go. Exercise three at a speed of 50. So one after 4234, again, Coming down. One more time. Coming down. 11. Barre Exercise 3 at 75 bpm: Now let's play exercise three at a speed of 75 beats per minute. After 41234. Coming down. Coming down. Once you comfortable at that speed, the next video will be at 100, coming up. 12. Barre Exercise 3 at 100 bpm: Now we're doing exercise three at a speed of 100 after four. So 1234, coming down and coming down one more time. So in the next exercise is going to be exercise four. And we'll be playing strings 234 together. 13. 8 Tips To Play Perfect Bar Chords: Let's talk now about eight tips to play. Perfect bar chords. Number one, apply the least amount of pressure to play clear sounding notes. Now, when you're pressing down, if you're applying too much pressure, it's the least, It's going to make you tired. And it's gonna be hard to get through the music that you're getting through. And worse than that is that you might actually feel some pain. And that could even get worse than that. It causes some injury which you would have to spend some time to recover from. Number to keep the bar finger in line with the fret. If you're not paying attention, your finger may not be straight, which means that you're not getting as close to the fret as you might need to. Third, is to be aware of which strings you're holding down. Let's say for example, you're holding down a big sixth string bar chord. Now, your first finger might only need to hold down two or three fingers because your other fingers are actually threatening the other strings. So it's good to be aware of that so that you can just focus your energy on being able to hold down the strings, which matter, number four, players close to the fret as possible. Now this ties in with number two, keeping the buffering are in line with the frets. If you play close to the fret, that's where you're going to be most effective in applying the force. Number five, use the weight of your arm. Even if your arm is not very heavy, it still has an effect. And if you relax your arm and shoulder muscles, then that means that you're gonna be able to use that force to apply force to the guitar without having to use extra energy to squeeze down on the frets. Number six, turn the finger slightly to find the best position. When you're playing a bar chord. Just a slight movement to the right or to the left can make a big difference. So just experimental little bit and try and find out where your finger is most effective than holding down the strings against the frets. Number seven position the guitar neck in the best position for your hand. Make it easy for your hand. Number eight, while you are learning, don't fret. I say that because when you're playing something, you want to get into the habit of playing along with the music. So don't worry too much that you're getting bars here and there. Allow yourself time to work up and be able to become good at playing bar chords. 14. Barre Exercise 4 Preparation: So now we're going to take a look at exercise four, and hopefully you've done very well with those other exercises. What I'm going to show you now is playing a bar across three strings, but it's now the inner strings. And he'd be playing a bar across strings, 234. So in this case, it doesn't matter if you're pressing that first string can be a dead note. So the importance is being able to press your finger down on those three strings that were playing. And I'll show you how this goes. I'm just going to show you the chords first. Because it's going to be like that. It's going to move up two frets and other thread, two frets and finished there. Now what I'm going to suggest to you is another way that you can use this to develop not only the first finger bar, but use another finger also. What I suggest is the third finger. So if you go from go from the first finger, then put down, put down the third finger for that next one. Then perhaps you can go back to the first one and then the third finger again. And then you might want to just play the third finger by having all of your fingers able to play a bar is a big advantage and you will find cause they're going to require all of the fingers. So this is an ascending and descending arpeggio. So it goes like this. Now in addition, there are also dynamic markings. There's a crescendo on each one of the lines. So once you get used to this, you can also practice using those barcodes with some dynamics and this is kinda how it goes with the crescendos. So once you feel comfortable just placing those barcodes, move on to the next video and we'll go through this slowly. 15. Barre Exercise 4 at 75 bpm: So for this video, since you've already had some experience playing the bar chords up to exercise three, I'm going to skip the 50 beats per minute and go straight to the 75. Since this is in 34 time, I'm going to count in eighth notes. I'm going to count four or 56. Here we go. 456. Again. Okay, and in the next video, we'll do a speed of 100. 16. Barre Exercise 4 at 100 bpm: Alright, so hopefully you did well so far. Now we're going to do a speed of 100, playing that same exercise four, Here we go. Ready? 4563. 17. Barre Exercise 4 at 200 bpm: So in this video, I left the metronome said a 100. And what I'm gonna do is play two notes for every one-click. And this time I'm going to count 123 and comment. So 123. Alright, so if you've done well with that, then congratulations. The next video coming up, we'll be looking at barcode ballad. So take a look at this next one. Once you feel comfortable and ready for it. 18. Preparation to Play "Bar Chord Ballad": So now that you've done those exercises, hopefully you've done very well. This exercise now is going to play some real chords. And it's going through a chord progression using arpeggios. And this is from my level two book of guitar in real time. And I'll play, I play through this first of all, just so you can hear it. And then I'm going to show you what, what's involved. So this is how it goes and it repeats. Okay, So this is based around an F chord, and it has a descending baseline which takes it through from the F chord, the F major seven chord, to the F6 chord, back to the F major seven. So what's involved there is your holding down two fingers in a bar and then you placing two other fingers on, and then you have to move this third finger around. So this is a little bit of a new challenge if you've been working your way through these other exercises. So that's the first part and that part repeats. And then it goes to a G minor chord. And then it goes to a G, G minor major seventh, G minor seven, G minus six. So this involves placing a finger across three strings, and then you have to deal with these other notes with the other two fingers. Now when you get to this, this code here, the G minor seven chord, what's happening is you can place, you can place a finger across four strings. Are an alternative way is to, is to put the third finger across three strings and play the second finger, play that note with a second finger. Then it makes it easy to go to this note here or there. There's another, even another way which is going from this one. You might take this finger down and keep that first finger on three strings. So there are, there are alternative ways to do this. Not one is, there's not one that's more correct than the other. It just depends on personal preference and sometimes it depends on what's, what you're going to play afterwards. But what I suggest is use the one we placing offerings across or off or one finger across four strings. And then use this one where you're placing the third finger across three strings. So that's, that's essentially the, the difficult part. The last part actually is kinda the same as the same as the first part. Then what it does, it does something a little bit different to come up with an ending. That's essentially what, what you're playing. So what I'll do is in the next video, we'll go through this at a slower pace. 19. "Bar Chord Ballad" More Tips Before You Play: So what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to play at a speed of 35, but I'm also playing triplets and I'm adding a triplet function on the metronome, so which essentially is tripling the rate of the speeds. So if you multiply 35 by three is gonna be what's a hundred and one hundred and one hundred and fifteen, I think. Is that correct? So it's basically playing at a 115. If you want to slow this down, best thing to do is use a metronome. Now I do want to just emphasize with this that it's really good if you can try to let all of the notes ring. So when he played that note, that bass note, stay alive. Why are you playing the rest of the notes? And it's going to force your technique to become better by doing that. So I'll do that for the whole thing. I played the, play, the G minor there, but I'm going to set this going at the rate that I mentioned, 35 with triplets. So you'll hear there's a strong beat on each, on each three notes. And this is written in 68 times. So I'm going to count 123456 to comment. 20. Bar Chord Ballad L2 Playthrough: 123456. The next section. But that's that. Okay If you did well with that, congratulations. And of course you can work this up faster than this. I'm gonna leave this as it is. And I think this is a good target to get to if you can get beyond that. Fantastic. There is one more version of this that I'm going to show you. And this is kind of a challenge because it involves playing a barcode across to the sixth string. So we'll take a look at that in the next video. 21. Bar Chord Ballad Level 3 - Lesson: Alright, so now if you're up to the challenge, what I've done is I've included barcode ballad from my level three book, guitar, guitar lessons in real-time. And this book incidentally is really focused on playing barcodes. And there are a number of pieces in this booklet can help you to develop your skill in bar chords. So this one, I'm going to show you it's very similar to the last one. But you're going to have to be able to play across six strings with a bar. And I'll show you what's involved in this, and then I'll just play through it. So the first byte goes like this. You're playing, you're playing across six strings, holding down that note over there on the first fret. And then it goes through the similar routine to the other one. There's one more note here is a little bit different than the next part. You can play it like there's several ways you can play this. Here's one way where you can play across. You could play it that way across all six strings. Same semicolon there. I'm, I'm playing the third fret on the third fret. So there are several ways you can do that. And I do suggest that you try to do them all because you want to be able to have this skill available for playing anything. But just do whatever works first and then try to use this as a, as a way to develop those skills that you, that it's really good to have. Okay? And then it goes into the next part, which is using open strings. Okay? And then after that there is some, some diminished chords in here. So that's how that goes. And this is, like I said, this is a really a challenge. If you're really new to barcodes, then, then you would need to work up to this, I believe. And the more you play, playing a single notes is really a benefit because what you're doing is you're allowing yourself to hear all of the notes. And especially when you're playing barcodes in the beginning, you want to be able to hear that every note is coming out nice and clear. Alright, so that's barcode valid. 23. CAGED Bar Chords: In this next set of videos, we're gonna be taking a look at bar chords in terms of cage chords. Now, cage codes represent the seed, the a, the G, and the D chords that we find in the open position. And the idea is that we're going to take those chord shapes and move them up the fretboard using a bar. So what I'll do is I'll take each one of those chords in turn, and I'm going to use a bar at the third fret just so that you can see what the shapes look like. So let's take a look. First of all, the C chord. So now C chord as three fingers down, and basically you have three open strings. So in order to do a bar will need to rearrange the fingers a little bit. And what I'm gonna do is put the fourth, third, and the second finger down for that cord. Now this is not the easiest chord to play as a bar chord, but it does have its uses. Here's how it looks as a bar chord. You could also, I guess, you could also put that note in the bass. Okay, so that's the C chord. Incidentally, we're gonna go through each one of those, these chords one-by-one and take a closer look at them. Just for now, I'm just going to go through the quad. So C, a will be the next one, the a chord, like this. And we have a chord which has three frets press down on the second fret. So what we need to do now is leave that first finger up so we can play a bar chord. Now, can do it like this. Put a bar down here. Now this one, since the root node is on the fifth string, we only really need five strings. So you just pressing down on the, on the fifth string and the first string. If you want to play that as a bar chord like that. So that's the a CAG. Now the G chord. Here's another one that's not particularly friendly in terms of playing it as a bar chord, but this also has its uses. So we've got the G chord like that. So I'm going to replace those fingers with these mangoes. And I'm leaving that one open. So if I take that up to the third fret, but I'll need to do is press down on the sixth fret, the fifth fret, and the sixth fret over here. So again, it's not, it's not the most friendly cord. But incidentally, you can use parts of that like this. You may want to use that code like that. You might not want to just use the lower part of it that does have its uses. So CAG, next one is E, here is the core that that I certainly used a lot when I was playing. A lot more rock type things. Hidden that with some distortion and you get a really very recognizable sound. So, so that is, so I'm just taking that U-shaped and replacing those fingers, taking that up here. So CAG, The next one is D. But this, this poses, this poses a problem in that you're only playing for strings here. So if we take that one up the fretboard, then it's not really a barcode. So if I take that one up to here, I can play that like that. But there's not actually a bar. I'm just kind of having to put that first finger down there. The play that D chord. Now, if I wanted to extend that coordinate and do two strings on that, which those are all chord tones at the D chord, then that would be classed as a bar chord. So try each one of those chords yourself and see if you can make those sound the way that they should sound, which is without any, any buzz. If you're new to backwards, the likelihood of that is very slim. So don't worry about it because it's going to take time to get used to playing these shapes. I just want to introduce them to you just so that you're aware that they exist. And we'll take a look at each one of the cords coming up in the following videos. 24. C-Shaped Bar Chords: Now let's look at the C shaped barcode. So if you look at the C chord, we're holding down three strings. And what we need to do is switch these fingers around, which is a little bit of a stretch if you're not used to doing this. And when we take this up, that means that you're going to have to hold those down as well as at the bar to this. So that's what it looks like. Now, if you look at this from the point of view of how many strings you need to hold down with the first finger. You find that it's actually, it's only two strings because you're holding down in this position. Just those strings, 13, which are the open strings. So in reality, when you take this shape up here, you only need to hold down string one and string three. So if you bear that in mind, you can actually achieve this C-shaped barcode with just a bar across three strings with the first finger. Right? Now, if you want to use this together with other quads, might find that this is useful to actually have the finger go all the way across. For example, if I do something like this, right? So there is an advantage that you can hold it like that. And then this first finger will be in place for, for doing another backwards. So that is the C shape. Now, one way that you could get used to doing this is by leaving out one of the fingers. So you might find that in the beginning, just leave off this second finger and play a major seventh chords. And then once you're comfortable doing that, you can add this other finger on the second string. So that's the C-shaped barcode. 25. A-Shaped Bar Chords: In this video, I want to take a look at the, a shape cord. And in the open position, this chord has three frets press down on the second fret. So we got second, third, fourth string. Now, another way to play this is actually as a bar chord. You could, you could actually use a bar, a one finger straight across those three strings. And in fact, if you have one of those big charts of chords, you're going to see this chord is actually an A7, right? So that's, that's actually a variation of the a chord. You're adding the seventh on the third fret of the first string. Now I didn't mention this before, but when you play this chord is a bar, actually. There's another way that you could play this note just like this. You could actually play this with a bar using the third finger. And in fact, when I first came across this, I thought, No way, that's ridiculous. But actually it's a very useful cord if you can get used to it. And it's actually, it's actually very useful and quite fast to use. So I want to introduce that to you because in the next video, I want to do an exercise which uses that. You don't need that first string and that string can be a dead note. So if you happen to be strumming, if I pick that note right there, that's dead. Because, because this finger is actually only pressing down on those three strings and it's kind of, it's just kind of going over the top of that other string. So that's how you can make this work. Of course, if you depress on, you get the extra note, which is fine if you want to play a six chord. But it's not fine if you just want to play irregular major chord. For the exercise, I'm going to use a Beatles song, very famous Beatles song called here, there and everywhere. This song is originally recorded, I believe in the key of G. I'm going to show you the chord progression in the key of a, and we'll use this code. That will be the first chord I'm finger picking. So you could just arpeggiate this would, if you're playing with a pick. So I'm playing the fifth, fourth, third, second, the following codes, I'm going to move up. So this would actually be a, a B minor chord and then move up to more threats than this. This would actually be a D flat minor chord. Then the next chord would be B, a D. Because they know right there is a D. And this is the shape that I would, I would like you to try and use. So basically, but going through the chords like this, using this bar chord shape, these are not barcodes. But the next one is, so that is the chord progression. The first part of, I think it's the corresponding, doesn't add a couple of times. You recognize that. And in the next video, we're going to use a metronome just to go through that slowly to see if you can see if you can get those cords together. 27. G-Shaped Bar Chords: Let's talk now about the G shaped bar chord. Now this is probably the most awkward and least used. However, there is a way that it is useful to play a G chord with a bar chord, a G shaped chord with a barcode. You going to have to reposition your fingers. And it's gonna be something like this, which is doable, but it's kind of awkward. Now, there may be circumstances where it's, you know, where you might want to do that. However, all the times, you know, using one of these might be the better alternative if you're playing in a particular key. Also, if you look at this shape, you also have this shape in here. So it's good to be able to recognize that this note right here, it's going to hold that right there is going to be the root of the chord. And likewise, you might be able to use it like that. Right? So there are cases where this can be useful. So that's the G shaped barcode. Now since I mentioned root notes here in a following video, we're gonna be taking a look at the root notes of all of these chords and how we can use that note to be able to identify the name of all of these cords, no matter where we play them on the fretboard. 28. E-Shape Bar Chords and Power Chords: Let's take a look now at the ear-shaped bar chord. Now the E chord is like this, and you're holding down three strings. So of course, to play a bar chord, you're gonna have to shift your fingers around instead of fingers 123. I'm going to be used in fingers 234. Now when you're playing a bar chord, you need to hold down strings 126. If you're going to do is sixth string bar chord like this. Now that you're aware of that and hold down that sixth string and then let the bar layer cross strings 23. So you don't need to worry about the three in the in-between. So that's the goal. So you might find that if you move your finger one way or the other, that you can avoid the joint and your finger, depending on your finger length. And you know, everybody is different. You have to find that position where you can make this work. And it's a matter of once you have, once you have success with this and you practice it, then you automatically sense and feel where you need to put your finger down. But in the beginning, you kind of have to find that position. And sometimes you find that if you can rotate the finger a little bit, that hard part of your side of your finger might be able to successfully hold those strings down. So once you've got those held down, try putting the other fingers so that you can so that you're able to play all of those strings without hearing any buzz. And also being careful not to have the other fingers or interfere with the other strings. So, so it's, when you're first trying this, It's easier said than done. I understand that. Now I do want to talk here about a little bit about power chords. Because when you play, when employing these E chords, if you're familiar with power chords at all, you might know that a power chord is basically a first fifth. Now, if you're playing the bottom three strings here, you got the first fifth, and then also another first day. So there's actually only two notes that you're playing because one of them is an octave. Now when you hold him down barcodes, the lowest strings are actually just by themselves create a power chord. So one way to kind of learn these chords is to do some power chords. And then gradually, when you get used to your fingers being in this position, all you need to do is be able to add this extra finger. And then I'm playing actually four strings right there. And then you can lay the other two fingers down to play. So those power chords can really help you as a bridge to get into being able to play those full sixth string chords. Now we will do some exercises using these codes, but for now, just try being aware of the fingers you're pressing down. Also try to use the power chords to as a means to the plane all the way across. 29. How to Name Bar Chords Using Root Notes: So now that we've gone through all of these caged bar chord shapes, how do we know what chord we're playing when we take these shapes up and down the fret board? Well, the answer is by knowing the root nodes. If we know where the root notes are on each of these caged chords, then we can identify what the coordinators. So let's just go through these one by one. The C chord we play from the fifth string. Typically we would play that as the lowest note. And that is the note C, which is on the fifth string. The next one is a, the a chord. Typically we, we play the fifth string as the lowest note of that chord. That's also a fifth string root chord, and that is a CAG, G, the G chord. Usually we play G. The third fret of the sixth string, as the lowest note in that chord, and that is the root note of the G. Incidentally, it's also, it's also on the first string. Next chord is E. So E, typically where we play that open E string right there. The lowest note of that chord, that's the root note of the chord. One more is the d. Now, d is the exception because when we play a D chord, typically we're playing the fourth string as the lowest note of the chord. Now, we can kind of ignore that just for our purposes right now, because it's probably the least used in terms of bar chords. So if we just focused on the CAG and the E chord, then what we have is we've got 2 fifth string root chords and to six string root chords. So if we know the name of the notes on, on the sixth string and the fifth string. We can actually very easily name any of those chords up and down the fret board, for example, take the E shape. If I know that the fifth fret on, on the sixth string is a, then I know that that is an a chord. Alright? Likewise, if I play, if I'm playing this G shape, if I play that in this position. And I know that, that note right there is a C. I know that, that is a C chord. Those are the six string root chords, the g and the e. Now on the fifth string, we've got the a chord. We've got the sink, which are both fifth string root. Cause now if I know that, that note right there is d, I play this chord, this, this H shape cord. Then that is a D chord. And likewise, if I play this, I know that this is a G right there. From the 10th fret. I know that he is a G chord, right? So this is how we can identify any of these cars up and down the fretboard. So of course you need to, you need to memorize the names of the notes on the sixth and the fifth string. If you still haven't done that, I have a course called guitar fretboard secrets, which can help you to do that not only on the fifth, sixth strings, but on all of the strings. So those are the root notes of our cage cords. And that is how we identify the chords up and down. The fret board. 30. D-Shaped Bar Chords: Let's look now at the D chord. Now as I mentioned before, this, you take this D chord like this and then you move it up into what would be a bar chord position. It's not really a bar chord because you actually have only one finger pressing down there. However, as I also mentioned before that you take that fifth string, which is also a chord tone in that chord. You could do this. Alright, so that's, that's one way that you could do a bar chord with this. Now the other interesting thing here is that if you, if you play a variation of this chord, instead of playing just a straight D chord, if you play a major seven, the way you play a D major seven is you, Fred. Instead of reading the third frame, you fret second fret on the second string. So that would be a D major seven, the major seven chord. Now that one, if you take it up into a barcode position, then you have a bar across the first three strings. So this is how you play major seventh chords, right? So you could play that down there. And interesting thing is, if we go back to thinking about the C-shaped core, right? We did the C major seven like that. Well, if you play like this, if you move that C-shape up here like that, you're actually playing that D major seven, which is actually D major seven. Right? So you can see how the shapes of these chords connect along the fretboard and how they can help you to visualize what the quads are. So that's basically the D shape. Of course there are other variations of that, which we'll go into later on in another video when we go over the minor and the seventh chords. So that's the d bar chord shapes. 31. Minor CAGED Bar Chords: So far, we've looked at major chords in terms of bar chords. And now we're going to take a look at minor chord. So let's go through the, the cage chords again and take a look at the possible candidates here for four good bar chords. Now, how you play a minor chord is instead of using the major third, such as. So she's in this C code here. We take that third and we move it back a half-step. So the C chord would be like this. If you can see my fingering here, i'm I'm I'm not, I'm no longer putting a finger on the second fret of the fourth string and putting a finger on the first fret of the fourth string. And that's which is not the easiest to finger. Now, if you're going to take that up as a bar chord, then that makes it even more tricky. Because what you'd have to do is something like this, right? Which is not impossible. But it's not the, not the easiest one that you would want to choose. There's another, another problem there that with both of these causes. This one is that if you play the first string, you've got that major third right there, which does not sound good at all. So the C-shaped cord is not a good candidate for playing minor bar chords. So let's take a look now at the a shape chord. Shape cord is like this. Now again, what you wanna do is take the a major third and turn it into a minor third by moving it back a half-step. So there's a major third. And here's an, a minor chord which you're probably already familiar with. So that is a good candidate for a plane as a bar chord. You can take that, take that chord, usually a baffling. I can move this up here. There is actually a C minor chord which has a lot easier than, than, than that one. So the ACA Code is a good candidate for playing minor backwards. So let's go through the sequence again. Cag, so the G chord is like this. So here you have the first, the root note, the third, and the fifth right there. So we take that third note, we bank a half-step. Sounds nice. Now the problem here is that you've got that be a B-Flat second string. Makes it sound really awful if you put that, if you put that in there. So what you could do actually, if you want to play a minor, G minor chord in this open position, which I think sounds quite nice. But it's gonna be very difficult to move that up the fretboard, what you'd have to do is you could put this on like this. If I can do this. I'm actually putting a bar on with this, with the pinky finger. And so really that's not a good choice for playing minor bar chord. So, so far, the C and the G are not good candidates. So CAG, the E chord. If you know your basic chords, you more than likely know this quarter ready? So instead of putting them, the first finger on, the first fret of the third string, leave that finger off and there's your minus shape so that when you can take up easily into a, into a bar chord shape and there's, there's a nice minor chord. Alright, so the E chord is a very good candidate. And the last one is the D chord. So the D chord, you probably already know the D minor shape, which is taking that third, now. Moving that back a half-step. And there's the D minor shape, which, which you could just take up. And you could play like that and you could even play this what would actually be a bar across two strings there. So that would work also, although it may not be your first choice. So really, the best choices for minor chords are the shape and the shape. And those are the shapes that we use for, for the rest of this course, for the exercises. 32. CAGED 7th Bar Chord Types: So far in this course, we've looked at major and minor barcodes. Now let's take a look at seventh chords. There are basically three types of seventh chords that we're going to take a look at. The major seventh, what we call the dominant seventh, and then a minor seventh. I'm going to use the EE core to show you what the difference is, just in the open position chord, right? So that's, that's our E major chord. Vi play an E scale. It goes like this, 123456. So that note right there is a major seventh of that scale. So if I add that note to the chord, that's the kind of code that we get, the dominant seventh chord, the one that we just call a seventh chord is actually, you move that note a half step back. So it's basically a flattened seventh. Then, then that's the kind of core that we get. The minor seventh is taking the minor chord, that note to it. If we take the C code, we already looked at this other code before I leave that finger off, and that's it. That's a major seven chord, which if you move that into a bar shape, is like that. Just kind of a nice chord. Then to do a dominant seventh. Typically you play a C7 shape like that where we got that seventh note. That the flat seventh note right there. So that one you could actually just move up on its own. You don't even need to, you don't even need the bar chord. And this is if you, if you **** near the notes, that could be played just by itself without having to worry about bar chords. That's the major and the minor. Now, again, if we go to this minus shape, play this shape like that as a, as a minor. Seventh. Could play like that if you skip that. The first and the sixth string. So we've got the major seventh, we've got that. We've got the dominant seventh, omega. Now let's take a look at the a chord. A chord is a little bit simpler. Alright, so we've got the a chord. That's a major seventh, which you may already know. And then the dominant zap. Those chords you can play. We move that shape up into a bar chord, major seventh. And then we just leaving, leaving that under the bar. So that will be your dominant seventh chord. And then for the minor, you could just move. Instead of having their third right there. You could play that that minor seventh, which is a very common, nice, and useful cord, which is just taking that one and playing it with a barcode like that. So that's the shapes I see, the G. We're going to just forget that one. The ER already showed you. And then the d is we can do that one very easily. We got there. The D, I think already, we're already mentioned this one earlier in the course. We can play the major seventh right there. And then you could, you could play the D, the dominant seventh shape like that, which is a very common cold and you probably already know that. So those you can move into these positions. This one is a bar chord. And then this one. That could be a barcode, But those, those two fingers again. So that's your dominant seventh. And then the next one will be the minus 7th. So the minus 7th is kind of interesting chord, which is now this one. We're getting into another type of type of bar chords. So this one, I typically play like this with a bar using the second, second finger. And I add the third finger like that. So it's kind of, uh, this May 1 take a little bit of getting used to. And you could play that with three separate fingers, but I tend to play like this. So this is something you can try. Second finger across. The first two strings. Hold down the one fret above it, hold down the third string, and then put, put the first finger on the fourth string. So that is a C minus seven that we have our seventh chords. 33. C-Food Bar Ex.1 Explanation: I'm going to talk now about seafood bar. So this is a group of exercises that I came up with the reason I call it seafood bars because it's like, you can imagine, it's like I'm using the C chord shape. And, um, you know, we're, we're playing like different variations of how we can use parts of that. So it's just a play on words. But anyway, so the first exercise uses three shapes. Actually for what we want to do is to ease into using this shaped like this, which I still remember that being awkward. But with time, of course, you get used to play in a certain way. You don't even think about it. So the first exercise uses part of that chord. So using the fourth finger, third finger, and the first finger, so without the bar chord, so it's just, and then it goes down to now this is a bar chord. So this is, this is actually more like the G shape. So you take in that part, but we're just, just the third finger on the fifth string there. On the fifth fret, I have a bar across on the third fret of the fourth and the third string. And then the next chord moving down plane. Just kind of a triangle shape here, I'm playing the third fret of the fifth string. First fret of the fourth, and the third fret of the third string. So then backup into the bar across two strings. That repeats. And just the ending changes little bit when we get to this line cord. Now, you could play this last chord line like this. But I encourage you to put this finger down and just use, use the third finger as a bar across these two strings on the third fret. So barcode and other backboard here. Then a bar chord at the end. That's exercise one. Give it a try. 35. C-Food Bar Chord Ex.2 Explanation: Now in seafood bar chord exercise number two, we've got the same chords as number one, and this time we use in different strings. Here's how I suggest you play this. It starts out with, you know, we're still using this, the same C chord shape, but instead of using these three fingers now we're using fingers 23 along with the bar. So it's like that. Then the next chord is going to be a bar. I suggest you could do that with three fingers, but but I suggest strongly that you use a buffer that then the next one. We're going to down to a chord like that. Now what I recommend here is using the third finger, just like we did last time. So with this exercise, you're actually practicing using fingers 31 with bar chords. So again, bar chord with first finger and third finger. First finger. Finger. Give it a try. 37. C-Food Bar Ex. 3 Explanation: Exercise three does something a little bit different. We've got a little bit of a different rhythm going, which is a 123123123, kind of a, kind of a rhythm. So what we're doing here is actually using a C major seven chord shape, which is, which is like that. But actually because of the way it's played, playing that part first, it starts out in a minor key. So that's the, that's the opening chord. And then there is a barcode across, across those two strings, strings 23, together with a note on the fifth fret, so fifth fret and then bar across the third string. There's the 332, and then it switches to fingers 431. So you don't need the bar anymore because you're, you're doing arpeggios on strings 543, right? So you're playing those and then it moves up two frets. So what this does is it, it helps you to it helps you to strengthen that ability to reach out for those, those threats. And then it goes back to the first chord. So give it a try. 39. C-Food Bar Chord Ex. 4 Explanation: Alright, so in exercise four, as you would expect, it's gonna be a little bit more challenging than exercise 123. So here what we're doing is we use in this major seven shape, which you think of that C major seven shape right there. We're putting a bar across on the third fret. And then reaching out with these frets, 65 with the fourth finger and the third finger. So it goes like this. So you're holding that down for two measures like this. And then moving that shape up two frets, then putting down the second finger to put this C chord shape. Now, these are actually non diatonic chords, but we don't want to get into that right now. Probably paid, played too many of those while I was talking over the top of it. But anyway, that's, that's the next chord. And then going up to the 11th fret. And this one, again, we're playing this, what you can think of as a C major seven shape. But actually the way it feels in this is more like a minor chord. I don't want to get into that right now. Back down to the first chord that we played, which is the C major seven shape again. Then there's a repeat. So you go through the whole, the whole thing again. So this one, you got to hold down that bar as you're moving up. If you got to hold it down there, then you've got heat that shape, adding the second finger. And then you got this one. We take the second finger off again and then back down here with the C major seven shape again. So that's exercise for Have fun with that. 42. Rock-E Lesson: What I'm going to explain now is an exercise called Rock II. The reason I called it Rockies because it's a rock beat and it's in the key of E. Now this uses several types of chords that we've been going through in this course. One is the power chords. We using the a shape chords, the ear-shaped chords, and also we use in both major and minor chords as well as suspended chords. Now this little chord progression is actually in two sections. There's a power cord section and then there's like a chord section. And then it goes back to the, another power cord section. Starting out with the power chords, we have a rhythm which goes 12312312. He can think of this as being in like 44 time, but you're dividing it up into eight and then you're subdividing that up into 332. So let me just illustrate that. Because if I go like this, if I go 123, that would be just a straight beat. But this is actually has an accent on. If you divide this up into 332, you're dividing up and putting an accent on the one of each of each bit. So it's more like 12312312. And that follows through for all of the power cords. So it goes like this. So the cause that we're playing a written down on the sheet as e5, C-sharp five, and so on. And what that means is you're playing the root note together with the fifth of the note. So 12345. So he playing, playing those the first and the fifth of each one of the cords. When it gets to the a chord, what happens is it goes to the E5 power chord. And then There's actually this type of thing which I always think of this as, I don't know if you know Chuck Berry, old rock and roll style, because that kind of beat that always reminds me of Chuck Berry, although it was used by many people. So that's what we've got here. Now, if you're, if you're at the stage where you're learning barcodes, and this may be another little technical challenge. That's all we have to do is there's a little stretch. I'm playing here with the first finger, second finger, and I'm using, I'm using the fourth finger to play two frets higher. I guess you could do it with 134, but I find it easier to use 124. Just let you reach out a little bit more cashier at your second finger. Is there? One thing I didn't mention was that when, when you're doing the power chords, I'm using this palm mute technique. So when I'm playing power chords on strings 54, what am doing actually is I'm letting the first finger, index finger of the fretting hand just extend a little bit so that it stops. It mutes that sixth string. So I'm actually doing two things that I'm letting that one dampness string and I'm also allowing the right hand to do the same thing. So I'm palm muting on that one. And also the promise is also resting on the sixth string. So if I just, if I was a little bit inaccurate with the way I hit that, those two strings there, I'm actually intentionally hitting it. But that's all. It just adds to the percussive sound of this power cord. Now with the right hand also, it can take a bit of practice to get used to playing this, these two strings. So what I'm doing is kinda fitting the strings where it's going to plane two strings. And then I'm landing on the adjacent strings. So I'm going through two and then landing, you're using the string next to it as a stop. So of course you need to practice that so that it becomes intuitive and you just don't have to think about it. Of course, you have to build a switch string. So when he going from strings five and the four to the six and the five, then, then of course you have to adjust the position of your head. So when it gets to the court section, it starts out with a C-sharp Minor, which then changes to a C sharp, suspended second. Now, it's not written in the Cauchy this way, but the way I like to come in with this is, is worth, there's a little bit of a lead in to that first chord. So what you have to do is count 1234. So actually that part is actually a 16th notes you can do, I'm just counting there in eighth nodes, 12341, so that one, those are actually sixteenths. If you've watched the how I played this in the video preceding this where I where I did the play through. You'll notice that I'm getting, I'm getting ready before that to be able to play that rhythm. So what I'm doing there after that leading is I'm going so it's like 12. And then it goes. So again, it's just playing the one and the two. So then I'm using the open chords, which is kind of a nice reprieve after you've been playing those barcodes. That just stays on a sauce to cord before it goes back into another power cord section, which is like this. Now this time the chords are a little bit different, so it goes like this. Then the final chord is what's actually it is a suspended chord. And it finishes on the E like that. So good luck with this. And when you're ready, Try the next video for the slow play through. 43. Rock-E Half Speed Playthrough: Hi. Okay. 44. Bar Chord Course - What's Next: So now we're at the end of this course. And I sincerely hope that this has been a benefit to you and that you've been able to develop your bar chords. And I do recommend a course of mine which is called guitar fretboard secrets. In that course, you'll be able to learn the entire fretboard and name all of the notes. And that's really a benefit to be able to know how to do that, especially if you're now able to play backwards. So having said all of this, I wish you the best of luck. And as always, stay tuned. And I hope to see you very soon.