Hi, how are you doing? Justin here.
Welcome to the Intermediate Foundation 1 Course.
In this first lesson we're going to be checking out the E shape barre chord.
A lot of you guys will have come from the beginners course,
and already had a little bit of a sneaky look at the F chord probably,
but we're gonna go into a lot more detail on how to play these barre chords
and how to move them around up and down the neck, etc.
Before we start you need to know at least the notes on the thickest string (the 6th string).
You should really know the notes on fifth string and the sixth string by now, but
it's absolutely essential that you know the notes on the sixth string.
A couple of you are probably a bit concerned about being able to play barre chords.
Everybody struggles when they're learning barre chords pretty much,
I've seen a few students over the years pick them up pretty quickly,
but most people most of the time find it difficult and painful and it takes a while
That's kind of normal, so don't freak out if that's you.
Also, a lot of people are kind of concerned about having their hands too fat or too small
or too thin or too long or the wrong shape, or whatever.
I've never had a student or met anyone that just couldn't play barre chords.
Some people have a bit of a struggle with it, those with big fat fingers,
you'll probably find this a bit easier because your hands are probably quite strong.
A lot of people have trouble pressing down all the strings,
so you should be alright in that department.
Those of you with thin fingers might have to work on the strength of it,
but you'll get your fingers into a good place quickly.
So whatever it is that you think is being the thing that's stopping you from playing barre chords,
probably won't exist after the end of this lesson, it's just going to be about practice.
So what we're doing in this lesson is just E shape Major and Minor.
Now, E shape comes from the name of the E open chord.
So really, what the idea is if we had -- I'm going to do a close up in a sec --
If we had a regular E shape open chord, E shape major chord,
and we reposition our fingers so we're not using our first finger,
slide it up the neck and use our first finger, almost like a capo, to press down on all of the strings.
That's our E shape barre chord.
So the barre is kind of functioning like a capo and the shape that we put in front of it
is where we get our name from.
And, like I said, we're doing E shape to start off with, you can do like C shape and A shape and D shape
and all sorts of stuff, for the intermediate level I'd try and focus on the E shape and the A shape.
So we're gonna be just working with the E shape,
getting that really good to start off with, that's the kind of the point.
Ok, so let's get to a close-up, have a close-up look at the shape,
and then I'll go through and look at the techniques,
then we'll go through and explain some of the
common problems people have with them, and how to solve it.
So, let's get to a close-up.
The way that I'd recommend you start off playing your barre chords
is first of all to put down a regular open E chord, an E Major chord.
Now what we're going to be doing is kind of changing the fingers around,
so we're playing the same dots, but we're not using our first finger.
So your gonna lift off the first finger, move the 2nd finger to where the 1st finger was,
the 3rd finger to where the 2nd finger was, and the little finger to where the 3rd finger was.
So what we end up with: 2nd finger in the 1st fret of the 3rd string,
3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the 5th string,
and the little finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string.
It should sound exactly the same as your regular E chord.
So if we play it that way:
♪
Change the fingering around and play it again:
♪
It should sound exactly the same.
Now to actually start with our barre,
what I recommend you do is you slide the shape up,
so that your 2nd finger is in the 4th fret.
Now some of you may have well tried to play an F barre chord as your 1st barre chord,
and that's OK, but it's also the hardest place to play a barre chord,
because the strings are the highest point here at the nut.
So if you move it up here to the 2nd finger in the 4th fret,
you should find putting your barre down a little bit easier.
The first and probably most important technical thing that you need to think about
is what part of your finger creates the barre.
Now, the flat part of your finger, like this, is very soft and fleshy.
And it's very difficult to get a solid barre down if you're using the flat.
So really what we're using is kind of the outside,
like 45 kinda degree angle there, of 1st finger.
And the way to achieve this, the way you think about it,
is when you put it on the actual guitar neck, put it down flat right on the fret.
So you can see that the fret is underneath, I know normally that you try and put your finger just behind the fret,
but what you want to do is put if flat of the fret,
and then roll it onto the side.
So I'm actually kind of twisting the finger around
so instead of being flat on the fleshy part, I'm using this little part here,
and it's a lot harder you can feel it yourself with your other finger,
that the edge of it, the 45 degree angle of the finger is a lot harder than the flat part.
So, put it down flat, roll it over onto the side and then put your chord shape down.
So that's probably the most important part that you want to get used to,
is the rolling of the finger.
It also helps to think of the angle pressure as being kind of across.
It's not directly in, if you're pressing directly in,
you're really going to hurt this muscle here in between your first finger and your thumb,
it's gonna get really sore.
So what you're trying to really do is angling the pressure kind of sideways,
45 degree angle into the wood,
not just pressing flat, that'll just make your hand sore
and it'll be difficult to get the chord nice.
So, finger on flat, roll it 45 degrees,
then place the rest of the fingers.
Now, also while we're talking here about placing the rest of the fingers,
don't let them do this:
especially with the angle kind of going 45 degrees.
A lot of people end up rolling all their fingers and they collapse over the top.
That just makes it really difficult to play and difficult to change chords, and all sorts of problems.
So, really what we're doing there is making sure that the fingers are kind of nice and squarely on.
You can see there that wrong, move them out,
just think about pulling your knuckles, here, towards you a little bit,
and that should help get the fingers nice and square,
The barre can still be kind of... so much like dividing the pressure
The bar pressure is going over there
The fingers are pointing kinda back towards you a little bit
Another really important thing to be aware of right at the start,
is the angle of your wrist.
Now, lots of beginners when they start trying to do barre chords
end up with their wrist in this really weird kind of contorted shape like this
and that really doesn't work, you know, having that angle there.
Really what your after is this kind of shape
where the angle between the arm an the wrist is quite flat.
There's a little bit of angle,
you know,a little bit is OK, but just not this.
Really avoid pushing that thing...
You'll probably find that all of your shoulder and stuff is tense.
Really, what you want is that your hand is flat, level with your arm,
and then when you go to do the barre chord,
it kind of just folds around, but the arm is still...
it's the fingers that make that 45 degree angle.
You kind of see the angles of my fingers there.
It's not like I'm doing this and keeping my hand and my fingers flat like that to do the barre,
it's the fingers that make the 45 degree angle to the hand
That's really important. A lot of people muck that up.
A good way of think of it is just like I said, to try and keep that
hand kinda apart, the hand and the arm flat
and then relax the shoulder
A lot of people put a lot of tension in there.
So try and get the chord on it, just
wobble your elbow out a little bit, and just kind of try and relax.
Some time helps to push your shoulders down first and then relax,
because, often when you push your shoulder down, actually that's the most relaxed position, so
don't let your shoulder be kinda up like this or whatever,
just try and relax the shoulder down, you know, keep the hand flat,
grab the chord and make sure the angle is on the fingers.
Another really good hint about putting your barre chords down
is to make sure you realize what notes are actually being played by the barre.
'Cause you should notice that the 3rd string, 4th string and 5th string
are covered by these fingers, so
the barre is not actually having to hold those notes down,
really all it's covering is the thickest string and the thinnest two strings.
So they are the kind of the points where you really need to be
holding your barre down really tight.
Is having that note and the two thinnest strings,
the thickest and the thinnest two
from your barre, that's really important. So what can be a good test for your barre
is, can you do the 6th string and the thinnest two, straight away.
If you then put your fingers on, (plays)
and one of the notes isn't ringing out, you know it's the fingers' fault, not the barre's fault.
Some people also find it helpful -- I know I did when I was learning --
to think of the pressure in the barre as being in the middle.
So it's kinda... I'm thinking about focusing my pressure
into the middle of the barre.
I know that it sounds ridiculous, but
especially if the notes that we want to play are the ones in the outside,
but if you focus your pressure in the middle,
it kinda seems to press both of the edges down at the same time.
So that can be a really, really good way of kinda thinking about your barre.
You're pressing sideways, but you´re also thinking of the pressure
is being in the middle of the finger, that's where you "focus your energy, man"
as you're trying to get the barre chord down.
Now, let´s go through some of the really common mistakes.
What you should be practicing is
putting your chord down, you know,
get your barre up, put it on, roll it back, put the chord, the fingers down,
and then strum: (plays) pick out the notes one at a time:
. . .
And then strum again
Now, what you are likely to find is that some of the notes don't ring out properly,
and so what I'm gonna try to do is show you the really the common ways.
Now this is the first mistake that people get and it sounds like this:
. . .
and the thinnest two strings don't ring out, and that's nearly always the fault of the barre.
Because, as they roll it back, they roll it back too far at the beginning and
here you'll see that it's kinda too far away from the fret.
So make sure that your barre, even though it's rolled over,
is really nicely lying down with the fret.
From your eyesight -- wich should be just kinda in there --
you should just see the fret, but only just.
Make sure it's not too far back, or you'll have to press too hard.
So, that's the first really, relly common thing.
Second thing.
What you'll find is what you feel is that your fingers collapse,
we have already talked about that a bit, but
when your fingers collapse they tend to lay down and mute up other strings.
So, as I said, check that you've got your 1st string
and your 5th and 6th string there,
. . .
that they are ringing out fine before you get your shape.
If your shape is collapsed,
. . .
you'll probably get this kind of sound,
where half the notes aren't really ringing out.
And generally it's that underneath of the second finger,
might be muting the second string, that's a really common mistake.
Also, the little finger is sometimes lying over and muting the third string.
That's a really common mistake there,
so make sure...
The way I think of it with the barre chord,
is to make sure that the fingers are nice and round
as they're going onto the guitar neck.
Think of it as being on the tips, don't let them lay too flat.
If they lay too flat there, it can be really awkward.
If I just turn around a little bit, sou you can see the angle of the fingers,
you can see they are nice and round.
It's not like that when the fingers are kinda flat on. It doesn't work.
So the fingers have to be nice and round, like that.
That's the way to get your barre chord.
It can sometimes help to think of pushing that kind of
the knuckle where your little finger joins your hand,
to push that up towards the guitar neck,
that can help to keep your fingers nice and round there.
That's an important... important trick that one.
And the other thing I want to mention here,
is not having your first finger extended over the top of the neck too much.
It's another really common beginner problem,
is where they put the barre right over the end.
Now, it´s OK to kind of experiment a little bit,
in fact, many of you will have to move it up and down a little bit,
just to try and get to the point where it's holding all of the strings down properly.
But, you know, don't be poking it right off the end.
I wouldn't have thought any more of, say, five millimeters off the end,
like the quarter of an inch, or something like that.
That's enough. Don't let it get right over.
Unless it's the ONLY way you can do it,
if it's the only way you can do it, then you have to adapt some things later on,
but that would be the basic tip.
We are also going to check out the Minor shape today.
Hopefully, most of you remember that this was your regular E chord there,
and if you lift off your first finger,
you get to an E minor chord.
So, it's actually exactly the same with the barre chord,
when you've got your -- this would be a -- G barre chord.
When you want to play a G minor, you simply lift the second finger off the shape,
so you're just left with the bare and you 3rd and 4th fingers.
. . .
Now this presents a couple of interesting problems,
the first one being that we've got another note that we have to play with the barre,
so before we were just covering the 6th string and the 2nd and 1st strings,
now we've got to cover the 6th string and the 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings.
So, for most people, they find this quite tricky
compared to doing the regular major shape.
You should work on the major shape first and
be kinda comfy with that before you even think doing the minor chord, but
as soon as you can, then have a go at lifting off that second finger.
Now, when you lift it off,
it is OK if you want to put it down on top of your first finger.
It's not ideal, really, but it's OK.
I do it sometimes if I'm playing barre chords for a long time,
and fingers are getting sore a bit,
then I'll often use my second finger as support the first finger there a bit.
So, that can be quite a good plan, otherwise just leave it hanging around.
Now, what you will find is to get the note on that third string,
it takes a little bit of manipulation with the first finger.
With the major shape you can kinda be a bit, (plays)
you know, there's bit of leeway there with the first finger.
With the minor chord,
. . .
And I have to actually lift my finger up just a couple of milllimiters,
it's not that much, but just a little bit more up,
in order to get that note nice and clear.
. . .
You will find sometimes too, this is the string to check, so
when you'r doing your strum, and picking it out,
. . .
It's that third string... that's the note,
that's the note that makes it minor.
Major: (plays). Minor.
So, just checking that note, the third string is good.
Sometimes the little finger
can lay down a bit flat and mute the third string, so that's the...
That's kinda the most common problem there with the Minor.
We've talked an awful lot now about about how to play a barre chord,
so let's now have a little look at WHERE to play your barre chord.
I mentioned already that knowing the notes on the 6th string was very important,
and this is because this is how we get the note name of our barre chord.
So, assuming that you know the notes on the 6th string already,
you'll notice we were playing before a G barre chord,
and the reason that our G barre chord was found at the 3rd fret,
is because the note on the 6th string, the thickest string,
at the 3rd fret is the note G.
So, putting that chord there on the 3rd fret is a G chord,
because the root note is found on the thickest string at the 3rd fret.
. . .
Now, if we want to move that around and let's say play a B chord,
then all we would have to do is find a B note on the 6th string,
which happens to be, in this case, on the 7th fret of the 6th string,
and put our shape down, put our barre down on the 7th fret
which is where the note B is found under the first finger,
put the rest of the fingers down and
. . .
We've got ourselves a B chord.
This also works for sharps and flats, of course, so
hopefully you remember about finding the notes with the power chords and stuff.
If we're looking for, say, the chord Ab (A flat),
we would find A, which would be at the 5th fret.
Ab -- Flat tire goes down, we go down the fret,
so we'd move down there to the 4th fret,
put our shape down,
and we've got our Ab chord.
Now of course we can also add into that Minor.
So if we wanted to find a C Minor barre chord,
we would find C, which would be at the 8th fret,
put down the shape for Minor, so in other ways leaving the second finger off
. . .
and playing it we've got our C Minor barre chord.
So, we have two shapes: the Major shape and the Minor shape,
there are twleve available notes.
-- playing the barre chord right up near the 12th fret is quite kinda tricky --
But in theory, there are twelve notes,
so in effect, by doing this one lesson, you've in fact learned 24 new chords,
which is kind of funky.
And probably one of the best things that you can do
to be practicing now for your barre chords, as part of the course now,
if you want to set aside five minutes,
or ten minutes to do this exercise.
what you want to do is either find a bit of sheet of music, or a song that you like
and be able to play every chord in that song as a barre chord.
So, let's say the first chord was G,
We go: "OK. Well, third fret, that was G, there we go"
OK, there we go (plays)
Now let's say that the next chord was a Bb Minor.
You're gonna go... First of all find the note names,
so you find B, and you got all this B-Bb,
there's Bb, and then you put down the MINOR shape.
So think of it is a two stage thing:
The note name, is it a Bb or an F#, or G, or C, or whatever,
and then is it a Major or Minor shape that you put down in front of it.
And each time you play the chord,
you should play the chord -- in this case Bb Minor --
. . .
Strum, then pick out the notes one at a time
. . .
Make sure all of the notes are good, if any of the notes are not good,
try and fiddle with the chord and make sure you've got it right, OK?
. . .
If it's a bit like this (plays),
then look down and see if you can figure out
what it is that is going wrong. Now the barre is too far away, so I'll just manipulate that around
(plays) Ah, now we got it.
That's really the best way to practice, and just go through,
randomly playing barre chords.
It does take a bit of practice
I wouldn't really recommend
practicing your barre chords for longer than 5 minutes in one sitting.
Five minutes is quite a long time,
you should find that you can give that little muscle there
in between your thumb and your first finger
quite a workout within the five minutes.
So, that's what I'd recommend for your practice.
I know this has been a very long lesson,
but the barre chords are really...
probably one of the most fundamental parts of the Intermediate Foundation stage,
and really, once you can do your barre chords,
you're kinda graduating out of the intermediate level as a guitar player.
So, really this is something to spend quite a lot of time on
It's gonna take a bit of practice, you know.
Don't expect to get this right away. It is going to be a little bit tough.
It'll be a bit frustrating, but stick at it.
Everyone can do it, so you know, just be patient and get stuck into it.
So, I hope you've enjoyed that look at barre chords,
and that you are getting them kind of right and feeling comfortable with them.
If you've got any question still, wander over to the forum,
at justinguitar.com/forum and there's plenty of people, including me,
that can come along and help you out and answer any of your questions.
I hope you've had fun with that
and I'll see you for another lesson very, very soon.
Take care of yourselves, bye-bye.