A Quick Guide To Learning Your First Bar Chord!

Transcription

1 A Quick Guide To Learning Your First Bar Chord! By Jonathan Boettcher This guide may not be copied in any form. It is for personal use only.

2 Why Learn Bar Chords? Before we dig into learning your first bar chord, I want to take a moment and talk about why it is important to learn bar chords. In my experience, motivated students learn better! Here are a few brief reasons: Bar chords give you access to a wider range of chords than open chords can. You can create different sounds and tones from your guitar. You can access certain chords that aren t possible in open position. By learning bar chords you will be greatly expanding your chord vocabulary, and also your ability to play in different situations. Songs that previously were off- limits because they contained a bar chord, you ll now be able to play and enjoy. Bar chords take more finger strength than open chords to play, and as such your fingers will hurt initially. By deciding now to press through initial discomfort, you ll quickly find yourself on the other side enjoying the benefits of bar chords. When you re ready to take your bar chords to the next level, visit this link: Let s Get Started - Your First Bar Chord The biggest thing to grasp about bar chords is that they are the same as open chords; you re simply changing the position of the nut. The nut is the part of your guitar neck where the strings cross over into the headstock. Normally, the nut plays the role of a bar for all your open chords, without you having to do anything at all. With bar chords, we re going to simulate that nut with our finger, essentially moving the open position up the fretboard. So grab your guitar, and let s do an example. We re going to work with the Em chord, which is a Root 6 chord. What I mean by that is the root note for Em is found on the 6 th string, the low E string. In the diagram on the right, you can see a normal open Em chord, which you re probably familiar with. The open strings are all played, so you see the green dots resting on the nut. 2

3 In the diagram, the 6 th string is the bottom string. That s the one to watch when we start moving this chord. So play a normal open Em chord, but use your 3 rd and 4 th fingers instead of whichever ones you would normally use. So the two fingers you should have on the 2 nd fret are your ring finger (3 rd ) on the 5 th string, and your pinky finger (4 th ) on the 4 th string. All the other notes are open. Strum through all six strings, that is an open Em chord. Are you ready? Here it comes with your fingers in that position, move your 3 rd and 4 th fingers all the way up to the 7 th fret, holding them together. Now, keeping your fingers there, spread your index finger across all six strings of the 5 th fret. You can see what this looks like in the diagram below. Then strum! Congratulations, you just played an Am bar chord! How To Move Bar Chords You may be wondering how we changed from an Em to Am. The answer is simply that we moved the Em chord pattern to a different root note A. Thus, it became an Am chord, because it is now anchored off the root note on the 5 th fret. To get any other minor chord, all you need to do is move this pattern around to the appropriate root note. For instance, to get a Gm chord, move this whole pattern to the 3 rd fret, like in the diagram below. Or, move it down just one more fret (to the 2 nd fret) and you ll have an F#m, which is a very useful chord. It s also one of the most common chords that you ll come across that needs to be barred. 3

4 Practicing Your Bar Chords Here s a good practice progression for you, to help you work on your F#m: A E F#m D Play each chord for one bar at any tempo or strum pattern that you like. Speed isn t important here, getting a good sound out of your chords is. If your fingers find it pretty hard to get into position, don t be too concerned; that is normal. In the Bar Chords Made Simple course, I go through several different finger exercises that you can use to both stretch and strengthen your fingers, to bring them to the point where you re able to play these new chord shapes more easily. The Bar Chords Made Simple course is a 90 minute video lesson, available on DVD or as a download. In it we ll go through all these questions in much more detail, with nice close- up shots of the finger and hand positions that you ll need to play bar chords. There is also a supplemental guide (available on PDF) to give an even better look at the chord positions. We ll cover topics like these: How to find a note anywhere on the fretboard A simple equation to build a bar chord anywhere you please Bar chords built off the 4 th, 5 th, and 6 th strings Proper hand and finger positioning Exercises for stretching and strengthening your hands and fingers You can find all the details on that course here: If you want to take your rhythm playing to the next level, learning bar chords is an excellent way to do that. Bar Chords Made Simple will give you all the tools you need to learn quickly and efficiently. I ll even guarantee that! 4

5 About The Author Jonathan Boettcher has helped thousands of guitar and bass players understand their instruments better, and as a result, play better. You can signup for free weekly video guitar tips from Jonathan at as well as check out his other lessons at the links below. Unlocking I IV V Understand how and why chords work together! Learn the simple rules that govern which chords belong in each key, and ways that you can quickly them all. We ll also take a look at how you can build your own chords, so you ll never have to rely on chord charts again! Learn more about Unlocking I IV V here: Guitar Scale Patterns This guitar lesson builds on the concepts taught in Unlocking I IV V, and takes them much further into a deeper understanding of scales and how they relate to the fretboard. You will learn how solos come directly from the scales, and how you can play a scale or solo in any position you want on the fretboard. Specific scale patterns are demonstrated in close- up detail and taught in a way that will truly make your fretboard come alive in your hands. Learn about Guitar Scale Patterns here: 30 Blues Jam Tracks This collection of 30 blues backing tracks will seriously spice up your practice time! Playing over jam tracks is an excellent way to develop your ear as you learn to listen to the music and fit your own playing into it. Timing, fluidity and speed all improve as a result. This is a great way to work over new riffs you re learning, or simply to practice your scales! 45 minute bonus lesson included. Download a FREE jam track here: Decoding The Bass Guitar Bass players prepare to play like never before! Decoding the Bass Guitar takes the concepts that are covered in Unlocking I IV V and Guitar Scale Patterns, and applies them specifically to the bass guitar. You will learn how you can truly cover the entire fretboard using only two scale patterns, and furthermore you will learn how you can use the intervals in the scale to create riffs and fills like never before! Learn about Decoding The Bass Guitar here: 5