[MUSIC]
Let's talk about bar chords.
Now, we've covered the open position chords.
Those chords, as we mentioned, are not movable.
The good thing about bar chords is that they are movable.
And you can use some of the knowledge that you have, for example,
the names of the notes on certain strings, to transpose the chords.
So in other words,
once you know where the root of a certain chord is in a bar chord, you can
always move it to a different place on the fretboard to get other chords.
Now bar chords might be a little difficult to get initially.
Just have some patience.
And let's talk a little bit about technique that can help you
develop your bar chord skills.
Now a bar chord often involves stretching your first finger and
fretting all six strings.
Sometimes it can be a partial bar or a half bar.
But a lot of times,
it involves using your first finger to hold down multiple strings.
Now the important thing to remember when you're
holding a bar chord is to try and have most of the force come from your hand.
You're pulling back.
Some people try to squeeze with a bar chord.
Try and have it so that the guitar is positioned in a way that allows you to
pull back, and that most of the pressure comes from you pulling back,
more than it would be that you would be squeezing to try and
get the bar tight enough to hold down the strings.
So in this case, I can actually hold a bar on the third fret, and
I'm not even using my thumb.
Just to give you an idea of how much the pressure is, I'm pulling back and
my arm on the other side is holding the guitar in place.
And I'm pulling back, [SOUND] and I can apply enough pressure [SOUND] to
have the strings sound, even though I'm not using my thumb.
So of course, then the thumb is just a little bit additional, more force.
And usually, for bar chords,
you're going to keep your thumb sort of somewhere in the middle of the fret.
Now, the great thing, as I mentioned,
about bar chords is that if you hold a chord, for example,
we're going to hold an F chord in first position where we have a bar.
And we're going to put our fingers in those positions right here.
Now, notice that this is strangely similar to when we played our E chord.
[SOUND] And you remember how we said that our E chord was not a movable chord.
If we move it up a half step and
we use our first finger to put a bar on the first fret.
[SOUND] What we get is an F major chord.
We have F on the sixth string.
[SOUND] We have C which is our fifth, that's five.
And then, we double our F again.
[SOUND] We have A which is three.
Then we have C [SOUND] which is five.
And we double the F again.
[SOUND] So this is an F major bar chord.
Now, I mentioned these chords are movable.
So if we were to move this chord up a whole step to where the lowest note,
which in this case is the root, is a G, we can play exactly the same shape.
Only now, the chord becomes [SOUND] a G major chord.
So here we have an F major chord with the root right here on the sixth string.
And here we have a G major chord and the root on the sixth string.
Again, the relationship between the notes is the same.
We have a root, [SOUND] we have 5, we have the root, we have 3, 5, and 1.
Now that movable shape works anywhere on the fretboard.
If you were to move it further up the neck,
the chord would simply take the name of the note that lies in the root position.
Here it was an F, [SOUND] here it was a G, [SOUND] and here it would be an A.
[SOUND] Now let's do a couple more movable bar chords,
major chords, and this time we're going to
do chords with the root on the fifth string.
Now I know that you've already memorized, hopefully,
all the names of the notes on the fifth string.
So I'm going to give you a movable bar chord shape
that actually has the root on the fifth string.
Now here we're going to start with C major.
I know we've done an open position C chord.
[SOUND] Now we're going to do a movable bar C major chord.
And it's like this.
[SOUND] And notice that they [SOUND] sound very similar.
[SOUND] It just sounds almost like a different inversion.
Here we have one, [SOUND] five, [SOUND] we have one again [SOUND],
that's three [SOUND] and then we have five.
[SOUND] And we can double five on the six string because that's the same note.
[SOUND] So here we have G [SOUND], C [SOUND],
G [SOUND], C [SOUND], E [SOUND], and G [SOUND] again.
All of these notes are one, three, and five of a major scale.
And they all make up a movable triad bar chord,
C major, with the root on the fifth string.
[SOUND] Now since the shape is movable and
you know the names of the notes on your fifth string,
that allows you to take that basic shape anywhere on the fretboard.
If we were to play it here, [SOUND] that would be a C major.
If we were to move it down to this note,
[SOUND] that becomes a B major.
Now, if we want to move it up to this note, which is an E,
and we played that same shape, [SOUND] that would be an E major chord.
Now I'm going to give you a couple more of these movable bar chords.
And really be patient,
it really does take a little bit more effort to learn some of these bar chords.
So make sure you learn all of your open position chords,
those are a little easier to play.
And certainly, if you want to change keys, you can use the capo, we spoke about that.
Now let's talk about some minor chords, movable bar chords.
So here, we're going to, remember that that was our F major chord, and
remember the difference between a major chord and
a minor chord was that the third was lowered a half step.
So here we have an F major chord [SOUND] and
we have one [SOUND], five [SOUND],
and that's one [SOUND] and this is our third.
[SOUND] So if were to lower this note [SOUND] just a half step.
[SOUND] So we're going from an A [SOUND] to an A flat [SOUND], we get this shape.
[SOUND] So this is F major.
[SOUND] And now this is F minor.
[SOUND] Now this [SOUND] movable shape,
the root is on the sixth string.
So we can move this with our knowledge of the names of the notes of
the sixth string.
We can move this anywhere on the fretboard and
the chord would simply take the name of the note in the root position.
So we're going to move it up to the fifth fret here.
I'm going to play that same shape.
[SOUND] And that is an A minor chord.
[SOUND] Has one, five, one, flat three,
five, and doubled again.
[SOUND] So, that is a movable bar code shape
that has a root on the sixth string.
Now, we're going to show you a shape that is a movable bar code shape
with the route on the fifth string.
Again, we can use the knowledge that we have,
the names of the notes on the fifth string and
plug in the shape anywhere where the root lies on that fifth string,
and that chord will take the name of that note.
So let's start right here, we're going to start with C minor.
[SOUND] This is a C minor,
movable bar chord shape with the root on the fifth string.
You remember the C major that we just learned.
[SOUND] If we lower the third, which in this case is the E,
to an E flat we wind up with a C minor chord.
[SOUND] This is C major.
[SOUND] And this is C minor.
[SOUND] The root is in this position right here on the fifth string.
If we were to take that shape and move it to another place,
let's move it up here to where this note is an E.
[SOUND] That is now an E minor chord.
[SOUND] One, [SOUND] that's five, [SOUND] that's one,
[SOUND] flat three, [SOUND] and five again.
That's an E.
[SOUND] If we were to move it down here,
where this note is a B, [SOUND],
now we have [SOUND] a B minor bar chord.
[SOUND] So with this knowledge,
we can play any major chord and any minor chord
in different places on the fretboard.
If it's on the sixth string, that note, [SOUND] G, for
example, will be the name of the chord.
[SOUND] If it's on the fifth string, [SOUND] that note,
C, [SOUND] would be the name of the chord.
And for minor, if it's on the sixth string, that note,
[SOUND] which is an A, would make this chord an A minor.
And if it's on the fifth string, [SOUND] that note which is the root on the fifth
string, fifth fret, will be the root of this chord, which is a D minor.
Again be very patient with these bar chords.
It takes a while to get the right pressure, but in time,
you'll be playing chords all over the neck.