And here we are for Part 4,
I haven't even moved yet.
So in this one we're looking
at A shaped barre chords.
And we're going to be
looking at the Minor version,
The Dominant 7 version,
and the Minor 7 version.
So, I think without further ado I'm going to get ready for a closeup.
See you in a sec.
So here we are now, this is
the 3rd fret we're on.
And this is, this would be our C
chord, our C barre chord.
Again, remembering all
of the way through this,
If I tuck that finger
away, you shouldn't do that,
I'm just doing that to make it clear for
you what the chord is.
So, there's your, the good old C chord.
Now if we want to make it a C Minor chord,
if we think back to what we did with
like our regular A chord,
There was our A Chord.
Am chord, looked like that, it's
kind of like E chord isn't it?
But on the wrong strings.
So funnily enough, Cm shape is also.
If we had a G barre chord
with the 6th string group,
Remember we did that
in mastering barre chords 1.
Give me a G chord at the 3rd
fret, if we move everything down a string,
we end up with Cm.
Now this might seem a little confusing, the fact that this was a Major shape here,
and a minor shape on these strings.
But I'm assuming you never got
E chord and Am chord mixed up.
They're the same
shape on different strings.
So all you have to do is
remember what string the Root note is on.
With our E shape, like G Major chord,
the Root note is here on the 6th string.
But now that we're working
from the 5th string Root,
that same, or very
similar shape, looks, or sounds,
rather, looks and sounds
and is, a Minor chord.
This one, we've got 1st finger
now doing the whole barre thing,
so it's barring right the way down,
cause it also needs to hold
down the thinnest string as well,
We've got 3rd finger here,
this is on the 5th fret.
It's on the 3rd fret,
5th fret, 5th fret again,
this is the 2nd finger here,
pressing down on the 4th fret,
and 1st finger is playing also
the thinnest string up there as well.
And of course our 1st finger
is still muting that 6th string.
'Cause we don't want
that, if say for example,
this Cm chord, if we
forget to mute that 6th string,
I mean it just sounds really rank,
make sure you're getting the tip
of that finger there muting that chord.
Muting that note rather not the chord.
Really, really important.
Ok so that's Cm.
So we had C Major,which is the
one that everybody struggles with a little bit.
So if you're falling into
that category, be cool with that.
You know, it is a hard chord.
And then, we've got the Cm.
Now to get to Cm7 is quite a nice
one, all we do is lift off our little finger.
Very nice little chord.
So this is now,1st fingers playing
the Root note here at the 5th string,
and muting the 6th string, I
keep repeating that because it's really important.
3rd finger in the 5th fret,
then on the 3rd string, we're
playing that note with our 1st finger,
2nd finger is playing the 4th fret,
where it was before for the minor.
And we're using the barre
to play the thinnest string there,
also on the 3rd fret. So
it should be muted 6th string,
Now remember those things about keeping your finger a little bit rolled on to the side.
It's really helpful.
Remember it's not flat like
this, it's slightly onto the side.
And also remember that this note here on the
3rd string is gonna be the hardest one to get.
So that you might need
to make sure that you're pressing
down quite nice and hard in order
to get that note to ring out.
Now the last one from my little
series of looking at the 4 different types,
is this one here,
again that finger's normally there,
I'm just tucking it down
here to make it clear.
You can see now little
finger tucked in underneath there.
So this is 1st
finger muting the 6th string,
then it's playing the 3rd fret,
3rd finger on the 5th fret,
1st finger will again be playing the
3rd fret there on the 3rd string.
Little finger down on the 5th fret,
and the barre will be playing
the 3rd fret on the thinnest string.
That's your classic
kind of Blues chord.
So we have Major, remembering
to keep that knuckle forward,
that's the most important
part of that. Major, minor,
minor7, lift off little
finger as well, and 7,
where little finger goes down. So
these two are kind of split,
there's a string in the middle of
them, going right the way through there.
That's the 7.
So they're your 4 types of A
shape barre chord that you want to learn.
First Major, minor, minor7 and 7.
Mastering these 2 shapes, the
E shape and the A shape,
with the 4 different
chord types of each shape,
so it's a total of
8 chords that you've got there.
These form the foundation for
all of your guitar playing,
that you're probably going to do
for the rest of your life.
There are 3 other
barre chord shapes, G shape,
which is really, really, really
difficult, and hardly ever used.
C shape which is moderately difficult, but
used a little bit, cause it's kinda useful.
And D shape which is used
in certain parts of that shape.
But very rarely the whole thing.
They're quite difficult and quite advanced.
I wouldn't of thought that
you'd probably want to learn those,
until you'd been playing guitar
for 3 or 4 years.
And really, really confident with
your guitar playing in general.
And think most of, excuse me,
your stuff like your Jack Johnson,
and your Bob Dylan's, whatever
it is, these kind of people,
if they're playing barre chords,
they're definitely going to be
playing E shape and A shape.
Very rarely will any of
those other shapes get used.
I'd say there's an
awful lot of really fine,
fine guitar players that don't
know those other three shapes.
They're really quite rare.
So, the next thing for you
to make sure that you do,
is really, really
nail these chords properly.
I highly recommend getting a
book like the Beatles Complete,
is the one that
I recommend the most strongly.
Just the Beatles, are
an amazing band, amazing songs,
and really interesting
chords and chord sequences.
So, by going through that book, just
open the book to a random song,
and try and play it, make sure
that you get all of those chords down.
You might come across the
occasional chord you don't know,
remembering of course that you can
do what's called boiling down chords.
Say if you have a G11
you could just play a G7,
if you have a Gm9 you can play a Gm7
or a Gm even if you boil it down enough.
So, remember just subtract those notes,
for the time being you could alter,
if you see an altered chord,
like a dom7#9 or a #5,
you can just ignore it, and just,
knock off any of those
extensions that you don't know.
The most important bit is
whether it's major and minor,
and whether it's sharp or flat.
Like Gb7 would sound really
horrible if you played G.
So the # or b is to
do with the pitch not the chord type.
But the chord type can
be muddled down a little bit.
There's also for any
of you Jack Johnson fans,
there's a couple of really, really
good tunes for practicing these chords.
One I've already got up here
which is Traffic In the Sky,
beautiful, beautiful song for
learning these barre chord shapes.
Just cause it, you're picking out
the notes one at a time.
So you really have to make sure
that you've got your barre chord down,
like properly. And the other one I
like as well for this is Gone.
Which is just using E
shape and A shape barre chords,
with a sweet little picking pattern.
I think both of those songs actually
I've put up here on You Tube already.
So you might want to go and check those
out after you've practiced up your chord a bit.
Don't jump into it, spend a
bit of time on the chord.
I recommend again just 5
minutes a day with your timer,
making sure that you do your
proper concentrating 5 minute timer practice,
just strum pickout and strum, just like
you should have done with your open chords,
to make sure every note is
really clear, barre chords are difficult.
Everybody struggles with them, but once you nail 'em the world is your oyster,
as far as songs go because there's
very, very few songs that you can't play,
with your barre chords so if
you've got your open chords down,
and your barre chords down you
can play a bit of rhythm guitar,
you're well on your way.
OK I hope that was helpful.
Take care of yourselves,
and I'll see you soon.
Au revoir.