4. Bar Chords

Things You Need:

Core Topics:

The open chords you have learned are generally played towards the end of the neck, close to the “headstock”. You can use a capo to shift this around (see the previous page to get a refresher), but bar chords allow you to play chords up and down the neck without a capo. A warning: these can be frustrating to learn, since they take more hand strength. If you have trouble pulling these off, look into the setup of your guitar – having a well set up guitar, particularly the string height, will make a big difference. I personally still find playing bar chords on many acoustic guitars quite difficult. Don’t get frustrated, do some searching online for bar chord techniques and you will find lots of approaches for different sized hands and tricks for playing them. If you feel pain, take a break – this is your body telling you to stop for a bit.

Below is my approach for learning bar chords. Do some searches for “learning bar chords” and see if you can find a better way.

  1. The Chromatic Scale: before you learn to play bar chords, you need to learn the “chromatic scale”. This will allow you to know where on the neck to play a particular chord. THEORY WARNING: unfortunately it is important to memorize this, or know how to figure it out using a tool such as the Guitar Board we provide. The chromatic scale is simply a list of all of the notes that are available on the guitar neck, and where they are. Like all scales that we will learn, the chromatic scale starts and ends on the same note (an octave higher or lower). Here’s a good explanation of the chromatic scale for guitar: Chromatic Scales for Guitar. The Guitar Board tool will also show you the chromatic scales for the low E and A strings if you click the “Show Notes” button on the “Bar Chords” section.
  2. Em form – my approach to bar chords is to view each one as an open chord that you have moved up the neck and used one of your fingers as a “bar” to do the work of a capo. The simplest form to do this with is probably the Em open chord form. Play an Em open chord:

    Now slide both fingers up one fret and use your pointing finger to play all of the notes on the previously open strings (E, G, B, E) on the first fret:

    If you find this difficult, you are not alone. Relax, practise and you will find the strength. Find good tips online from other players who have had to figure this out too. You can continue to slide this bar chord form up the neck, and each time you slide up a fret you will be moving through the chromatic scale from above. So moving an Fm up one fret with produce F#m, one more fret goes to Gm, etc. The Guitar Board tool shows each form of bar chord for each note in the chromatic scale.
  3. E form – this takes the same approach as for the Em form above, but starts with an open E chord instead. As you slide up the neck you again will move through the chromatic scale.
  4. Am form – sliding this form results in a minor chord moving up the chromatic scale starting at Am. Remember to mute the low E (6th) string all the way up.
  5. A form – like the previous forms. This one is often played with just 2 fingers as bars, leaving the 1st and 6th strings muted and playing only the middle 4 strings.

Deeper:

  • Power Chords – if you are playing rock music you need to explore the “Power Chord”. These are bar chords that have been simplified to be faster to play and to sound better with distorted sounds. If you’re having a hard time playing the full bar chords you will want to look into this too. There’s a ton of online content about “Power Chords“, go find the approach that works for you.
  • Coloring Tones: this is the same concept as was explored with Open Chords – – adding further notes to supplement the sound of the chord. Do some searching, you may find that you have some favorites, and that these tones can move in patterns just like the basic bar chords do – learn a coloring tone you like in a particular form and you can play it in all keys.
  • Funk Grips: funk players use particular chord forms that are similar to the bar chord forms above. These “grips” are easy and fun to play. Here’s a great introduction to playing funk by a highly recommended online guitarist, JustNickMusic.
  • Patterns/visualization: by now you should be noticing that there are patterns of notes that look and sound similar to each other played in different places on the neck. Building your own patterns in your mind is key to mastering the instrument. How you visualize the fretboard will determine the type of player you are. There is lots of content online about fretboard visualization, dig into it for some inspiration.

< Previous   Next >

More links for Bar Chords: