Beginner Guitar Lesson 34 - Barring Chords

This time, to prepare ourselves for advanced levels of playing, we are going to learn the most important concept in guitar playing: barring chords to create "bar chords."

Imagine if you could play any chord, anywhere on the neck, in any key… wouldn’t that be great? Well, barring chords allows you to do just that, and it is not all that difficult to understand. The part that is challenging is getting the strength in your fretting hand so that you can actually voice the notes clearly.

You might be wondering at this point, what is the purpose of the bar chord? We’ve now mastered a fair number of chords in the open sting positions at the low end of the neck. To understand the purpose of bar chords, we need to imagine that the nut (the white or metal part that raises the strings above the fret board at the headstock) is the equivalent of barring our first finger across the strings. This means that we can translate the same chord shapes for the chords we know to any fret on the neck and create the “nut” (or the equivalent of what would be the open strings in the chord, with our first finger barred across the fret).

For example, let's take the A7 chord shape, but instead of playing it with our 1st and 2nd fingers, lets play it with our 2nd and 3rd. Next move it up to the 7th fret and place your 1st finger across all the strings (from A to high E) on the 5th fret as illustrated in the photo below.

Try to put even pressure across the strings. This will be really tough at first, but persevere and you’ll get it. Remember to strum through the chord. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It should! It’s a D7 chord! Now play the regular open string voicing of D7 and compare the sound. They’re the same, except that the bar chord is tricky to play

So why bother you might ask, when you can just play D7 in the open position? Simple: this method allows you to move the same chord shape anywhere on the neck to play in any key! Move the same D7 bar chord down two frets to the 3rd fret to play a C7, now move it down one fret to the 2nd fret to play B7. You are able to change chords very easily and keep your hands in the same position.

Next try playing an E7 chord in the open position. This time play it with your 3rd and 2nd finger and move the shape up to the 7th fret and bar your 1st finger across all the strings on the 5th fret as illustrated below.

Try to maintain even pressure. Strum through it and try to determine what chord you have just played. Do you know? Take a moment to figure it out. (The answer will be divulged to you at the end of the lesson, so you can see if you were right).

So, that is how you play barred 7th chords on both E string positions (chords like the one you just figured out that have their root note on the low E string) and A string positions (chords like the D7 you played, which have root notes on the A string).

Now I have a challenge for you. Try playing an A7 blues using ONLY barred chords. You must start on the 5th fret of the E string just as you did previously, then play the D7 shape we learned first in this lesson. Below is a timeline that illustrates the chords on the first beat of each bar. Those chords that are highlighted in green are to be played with root notes on the A string.

A7 2 3 4 D7 2 3 4 A7 2 3 4 A7 2 3 4 D7 2 3 4 D7 2 3 4 A7 2 3 4 A7 2 3 4 F7 2 3 4 E7 2 3 4 A7 2 3 4 E7 2 3 4

If you get completely stuck, you can refer to the video that accompanies this lesson. (link goes here)

Good luck with your ventures in guitar playing. You really have come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Hopefully you'll stick with it and move on to some of our more advanced lessons over technique and soloing concepts. Remember 10-15 minutes a day makes you able to play!