Here are the guitar chord charts for the basic guitar bar chords. Included are major, minor and dominant guitar bar chords.
The Guitar Chord Charts:
Barre chords (also known as barré chords and bar chords, but more commonly spelled as “barre”) are a type of guitar chord where one or more fingers are used to press down multiple strings across the guitar fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strings). Barring the strings enables the guitarist to play a chord not restricted by the tones of the guitar’s open strings. Barre chords are often referred to as “moveable” chords, as they can be moved up and down the neck as needed.
Barre chords are some of the mostly commonly used chords in music today. The only problem with them is that they are really hard to play cleanly at first. (I had a heck of a time with these as a beginner) I’ll give you a few pointers that I learned the hard way.
1. Hold your guitar in the classical position. ( guitar resting on the left knee) Now; with your index finger, barre the 1st fret on the neck. I’ve found that this is the easiest place to start, although you may find otherwise. You will have to curve your index finger into almost a “C” or half-moon shape. With your pick, strum it, making sure each notes ring cleanly.
The index finger is used to temporarily retune the guitar
E||–1—-||
B||–1—-||
G||–1—-||
D||–1—-||
A||–1—-||
E||–1—-||
2. Now, lets add the ring and pinky finger into the equation. Put your pinky on the 3rd fret, D string. Ring finger on the 3rd fret, A string. Now strum it.
E||–1—-||
B||–1—-||
G||–1—-||
D||–3—-||
A||–3—-||
E||–1—-||
3. Now we will add the middle finger on the 2nd fret, B string. Strum it cleanly, You’ll need to press real hard. What you will hear is the F Chord. If it doesn’t sound good at first, keep trying, these are hard to do. Again, you will need to curve the index finger.
E||–1—-||
B||–1—-||
G||–2—-||
D||–3—-||
A||–3—-||
E||–1—-||
Okay, now that you’ve got that down, lets get a little technical. A barre chord is essentially an E chord moved up and down the neck. Here are the notes on the Top E string (6th string)
E ||-F-|-F#-|-G-|-G#-|-A-|-A#-|-B-|-C-|-C#-|-D-|-D#-|
If we move the barre chord to the 5th fret on the E string, we will have an A barre chord. Very simple. Lets look at the variations of the A barre chord.
A Chord
A barre chord ("E Major shape"), with the index finger used to bar the strings
E||–5—-||
B||–5—-||
G||–6—-||
D||–7—-||
A||–7—-||
E||–5—-||
Am Chord
To form a minor chord, play the barre chord with the middle finger removed.
E||–5—-||
B||–5—-||
G||–5—-||
D||–7—-||
A||–7—-||
E||–5—-||
A7 Chord
To form a seventh, lift the pinky off the neck
E||–5—-||
B||–5—-||
G||–6—-||
D||–5—-||
A||–7—-||
E||–5—-||
Am7 Chord
To play a minor seventh chord, play the barre again, this time with the middle and pinky finger removed.
E||–5—-||
B||–5—-||
G||–5—-||
D||–5—-||
A||–7—-||
E||–5—-||
These techniques apply all across the neck. However, if we move the barre chord down one string, these patterns change. Lets move down to the A String.
A ||-A#-|-B-|-C-|-C#-|-D-|-D#-|-E-|-F-|-F#-|-G-|-G#-|
Barre chords on the A String are simply the A chord moved up and down the neck. Lets move to the 5th fret on the A string and play a barre chord. That is a D barre chord. Here are the variations of D. Notice how they differ when barring on the E string.
| D | Dm | D7 | Dm7 |
| E||–5—-|| B||–7—-|| G||–7—-|| D||–7—-|| A||–5—-|| E||——-|| |
E||–5—-|| B||–6—-|| G||–7—-|| D||–7—-|| A||–5—-|| E||——-|| |
E||–5—-|| B||–7—-|| G||–5—-|| D||–7—-|| A||–5—-|| E||——-|| |
E||–5—-|| B||–6—-|| G||–5—-|| D||–7—-|| A||–5—-|| E||——-|| |
Remember, barre chords played on the E string is simply an E chord moved up and down. Barre chords played on the A string is an A chord moved up and down.
The theory is quite simple, but the technique can be difficult. Just keep practicing and you will master the barre chord in no time.
Major Scale Patterns
When learning the major scale, players break up the notes into positions or patterns. Usually this is done with five pieces but there are other ways to do it. It really doesn’t matter how the whole major scale template is broken up as long as the pieces are put together to cover the whole guitar fretboard. Also, different major scale patterns are not to be thought of as different scales. They’re simply the same notes in different positions.
To see the major scale patterns illustrated on a neck diagram readers can go to Google.com and search “major scale patterns.” Several web sites will come up that post versions of the patterns for free. Major scale patterns are also drawn out in many instructional guitar theory books such as Fretboard Theory.
Memorize Scale Patterns
As guitarists learn major scale patterns they should focus on only one at a time. Players should visualize the pattern on the fret board and play up and down it until it’s completely memorized. It’s not necessary to start or end on the root, but rather players should touch on every possible note available in a given position.
Major Scale Fingering
There are no correct or perfect ways to finger major scale patterns, but there are some bad habits that should be avoided. Good players would never do something silly like play through a whole pattern with only one or two fingers. This will make any guitarist look and sound like a hack. Instead, players should try to get three or four fingers involved. Positions should be covered by setting the hand in place and then reaching with the fingers. It’s good to settle on a set fingering and then be consistent throughout practice, but players will no doubt use other fingerings when they start actually playing music especially when techniques such as slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs and bends are involved.
Alternate Picking
While guitarists are learning and rehearsing major scale patterns they should alternate their pick. Scale patterns require a lot of practice time. Negative habits, like plunking through everything with downstrokes, should not be reinforced during this time. Wise players can kill two birds with one stone by developing alternate picking technique while they learn scale patterns. To do so, guitarists should choke up on the pick, keep their hand planted on the guitar and alternate continuously without skipping or repeating any strokes. The right hand should rest just above the string being picked. As the right hand moves across the strings, it should slide over and rest upon the strings that are not being played to keep them quiet.
Reference Chord
source: Basic Chords
Every time guitarists learn something new on the fret board they should try to peg it to something familiar. This is the key to developing a good working knowledge of music theory especially when applying guitar theory to the fret board. This pegging idea can be applied to major scales by associating patterns to reference chords. For example, pattern one (as it’s usually taught) can be played right around an “E form” barre chord. Pattern two fits together with a “D form” barre chord. Pattern three with a “C form” and so on. If a player knows how to navigate the fretboard with chords, and they associate them to major scale patterns, then they’ll be able to instantly jump into the major scale in any position.
Connecting Major Scale Patterns
After a pattern is completed, one can move to the next position and repeat the whole learning process with the new pattern. After the new position has been memorized, one can go back and review the others before it. This process should be continued until the whole fretboard is covered. Then, guitar players should practice connecting the patterns in both directions across the neck. In other words, pattern one connects to pattern two, two to three, three to four, four to five, and visa versa pattern five connects back into pattern four, four into three, three into two, and two into one. There may even be room to move backward from the pattern one that started everything.
As guitar players move from one pattern to the next, they should notice how a portion of each is reused in the new position. Visualizing how these pieces connect is the key to navigating the fretboard, understanding how music elements are combined, and developing a solid knowledge of guitar music theory.
Transposing Major Scales
Once the whole major scale template has been completed in one key it can be transpose by simply shifting it to a new starting position. Guitarists should be careful not to let the fret numbers throw them off. Instead, they should focus on the shape of the pattern and the feel of the fingering. These patterns should be connected in this new key until the fretboard runs out or it’s not possible to play any higher. The area before pattern one begins needs to also be covered. This process should be covered through all twelve keys. When guitar players do this, they’ll surely have the patterns down pat!
More to Come
Future guitar lessons will featured great ways to practice and helpful ways to begin applying the major scale to music and songs. This information is needed in order to complete the major scale learning process, and moreover to develop a good knowledge of guitar theory. Play Until Yer Fingers Bleed!
By Ed Kopp
When you think of the blues, you think about misfortune, betrayal and regret. You lose your job, you get the blues. Your mate falls out of love with you, you get the blues. Your dog dies, you get the blues.While blues lyrics often deal with personal adversity, the music itself goes far beyond self-pity. The blues is also about overcoming hard luck, saying what you feel, ridding yourself of frustration, letting your hair down, and simply having fun. The best blues is visceral, cathartic, and starkly emotional. From unbridled joy to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion.
The blues has deep roots in American history, particularly African-American history. The blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th Century. Its inventors were slaves, ex-slaves and the descendants of slaves - African-American sharecroppers who sang as they toiled in the cotton and vegetable fields. It’s generally accepted that the music evolved from African spirituals, African chants, work songs, field hollers, rural fife and drum music, revivalist hymns, and country dance music.
The blues grew up in the Mississippi Delta just upriver from New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. Blues and jazz have always influenced each other, and they still interact in countless ways today.
Unlike jazz, the blues didn’t spread out significantly from the South to the Midwest until the 1930s and ’40s. Once the Delta blues made their way up the Mississippi to urban areas, the music evolved into electrified Chicago blues, other regional blues styles, and various jazz-blues hybrids. A decade or so later the blues gave birth to rhythm ‘n blues and rock ‘n roll.
No single person invented the blues, but many people claimed to have discovered the genre. For instance, minstrel show bandleader W.C. Handy insisted that the blues were revealed to him in 1903 by an itinerant street guitarist at a train station in Tutwiler, Mississippi.
During the middle to late 1800s, the Deep South was home to hundreds of seminal bluesmen who helped to shape the music. Unfortunately, much of this original music followed these sharecroppers to their graves. But the legacy of these earliest blues pioneers can still be heard in 1920s and ’30s recordings from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia and other Southern states. This music is not very far removed from the field hollers and work songs of the slaves and sharecroppers. Many of the earliest blues musicians incorporated the blues into a wider repertoire that included traditional folk songs, vaudeville music, and minstrel tunes.
Without getting too technical, most blues music is comprised of 12 bars (or measures). A specific series of notes is also utilized in the blues. The individual parts of this scale are known as the blue notes.
Well-known blues pioneers from the 1920s such as Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson usually performed solo with just a guitar. Occasionally they teamed up with one or more fellow bluesmen to perform in the plantation camps, rural juke joints, and rambling shacks of the Deep South. Blues bands may have evolved from early jazz bands, gospel choirs and jug bands. Jug band music was popular in the South until the 1930s. Early jug bands variously featured jugs, guitars, mandolins, banjos, kazoos, stringed basses, harmonicas, fiddles, washboards and other everyday appliances converted into crude instruments.
When the country blues moved to the cities and other locales, it took on various regional characteristics. Hence the St. Louis blues, the Memphis blues, the Louisiana blues, etc. Chicago bluesmen such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters were the first to electrify the blues and add drums and piano in the late 1940s.
Today there are many different shades of the blues. Forms include:
- Traditional county blues - A general term that describes the rural blues of the Mississippi Delta, the Piedmont and other rural locales;
- Jump blues - A danceable amalgam of swing and blues and a precursor to R&B. Jump blues was pioneered by Louis Jordan;
- Boogie-woogie - A piano-based blues popularized by Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, and derived from barrelhouse and ragtime;
- Chicago blues - Delta blues electrified;
- Cool blues- A sophisticated piano-based form that owes much to jazz;
- West Coast blues - Popularized mainly by Texas musicians who moved to California. West Coast blues is heavily influenced by the swing beat.
- The Texas blues, Memphis blues, and St. Louis blues consist of a wide variety of subgenres. Louisiana blues is characterized by a swampy guitar or harmonica sound with lots of echo, while Kansas City blues is jazz oriented - think Count Basie. There is also the British blues, a rock-blues hybrid pioneered by John Mayall, Peter Green and Eric Clapton. New Orleans blues is largely piano-based, with the exception of some talented guitarists such as Guitar Slim and Snooks Eaglin. And most people are familiar with blues rock.
For a more complete overview of the blues, check out the following books:
- Blues For Dummies by Lonnie Brooks, Cub Koda and Wayne Baker Brooks
- Deep Blues by Robert Palmer
- All Music Guide to the Blues
- White Boy Singin’ the Blues: The Black Roots of White Rock by Michael Bane
How to Learn to Play the Guitar - 5 Basic Steps to Learning the Guitar
By Brian Bonsell
You are wondering how to learn to play the guitar; you can easily pick up this instrument with some basic steps. Please understand that to become an expert will take time but with the following steps and a decent online course you will soon be enjoying your favourite tunes.
1. You can’t Buy Skill - Don’t get caught up in having the best or most expensive guitar. No matter how much you spend you will still need to practice to become proficient. A more expensive amp for example will not improve your sound if you don’t know how to play to begin with.
2. Check your Action: Ensure the distance between the fingerboard and the underside of the string is appropriate for your fingers. Any reputable guitar shop will assist in this.
3. K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Silly. Start with basic chords. Save the more complex chords for later. If you try and get too complicated to fast you will get frustrated and quit. There are many great songs that are comprised of simple chords.
4. Rhythm is Key: To have a consistent flow you need to keep the beat in the beginning, use a metronome or even your foot to keep pace.
5. Simple Songs - To keep from getting frustrated and to build your confidence limit yourself to 2 chord songs, as you become more proficient then you can work your way up to more difficult pieces.
By utilizing these 5 basic steps you will discover how to learn to play the guitar quickly and with far less frustration than without. The guitar is a fun to play and with a little patience you will master this melodic instrument in no time.
Say It Ain't So - Weezer
Cm Gm G# Eb
Oh Yeah.
Cm Gm G# Eb
All Right.
Cm Gm G# Eb
Somebody’s Heiney is crowding my icebox.
Somebody’s cold one is giving me chills.
Guess I’ll just close my eyes.
Oh yeah. All right.
Feels good. Inside.
Flip on the Telly, Wrestle with Jimmy.
Somethin’ is bubbling behind my back.
The bottle is ready to blow.
Chorus:
Cm Gm G# Eb
Say it ain’t so a-wo-a-wo.
Your drug is a heartbreaker.
Say it ain’t so a-wo-a-wo.
My love is a life-taker.
Cm Gm G# Eb (x2)
Cm Gm G# Eb
I can’t confront you, I never could do…
That which might hurt you, try and be cool, when I say:
Cm Gm G# Eb
This way is-a-waterslide-away-from-me-that-takes-you-further-every-
Cm Gm G# Eb
day. So be cool.
Chorus
Bb Dm Eb Ebm
Dear daddy, I write you in spite of years of silence.
You cleaned up, found Jesus, things are good so I hear.
This bottle of Stevens awakens ancient feelings…
Like father, Step-Father, the son is drowning in the
Cm Gm G# Eb
flood! Yeah Yeah-Yeah Yeah-Yeah!
Cm Gm G# Eb (x3)
Chorus
Cm Gm G# Eb
With Or Without You - U2
D A Bm G D
See the stone set in your eyes see the thorn twist in your side
A Bm G
I wait .... for you
D A Bm G D
Sleight of hand & twist of fate, on a bed of nails she makes me wait
A Bm G
And I wait .... without you
D A Bm G
With or without you, with or without you
Thru the storm we reach the shore, you give it all but I want more
And I'm waiting for you
Chorus
D A Bm G
With or without you, with or without you, oh-oh,
D A Bm G
I can't live, with or without you
D A Bm G
And you give yourself away, and you give yourself away
D A Bm G
And you give, and you give and you give yourself away
My hands are tied, my body's bruised
She's got me with nothing left to win
And nothing else to lose
Chorus