In this video I'd like to show you three easy ways of playing the B chord; this first B
chord shape I'm going to show you is the one that Bruce Spingsteen used in his song "Born
In The U.S.A"; and I'm playing this chord shape by placing my first finger at the second
fret, on the first string, my third finger at the fourth fret on string four and my fourth
finger at the fourth fret on string three, I'm leaving the second string open and i'm
not playing string five or string six; here's how that chord sounds.
And, actually you can play that same chord all the way through that song "Born In The
U.S.A" cause it only has really one chord in it all that happens is that the bass note
changes.
This next B chord is very similiar to the first chord shape we just learnt in fact the
only thing different is my first finger is being placed at the second fret on string
five, instead of being on the first string, the third and fourth finger are in exactly
the same finger placement as they were for the first B chord, I'm not playing the first
string or string six, but I am playing the second string I'm leaving that ring open.
And this chord gives us a nice bass note to add to our chord it gives us a lot of bottom
end, here's how this chord sounds ... and this is great if you want to have a moving
bass note, for example I could take that ah finger off that first finger off and play
an open note string five which would create a B chord with an "A" bass.
Ah, so here's me play this new B chord tha t we've just learnt, this new B chord shape
and I'll go from a B chord ... to a B chord with an "A" bass.
Now, all the B chords that I'm showing you on this video ah, do not contain the third
note of the chord, but they are a very big powerful sounding chord, all the one's we're
learning and they're very, very useful you'll hear them in lot's and lot's of songs.
Now, the last chord shape I'm going to show you ah, is exactly the same as the one we've
just learnt, in fact the only thing different is we're playing the first string open and
thaty creates a "B suspended fourth chord" ,
Now, the neat thing is that if you move this shape around, in fact if I take this same
chord shape and just move that shape up to the seventh fret i'll be playing an "E" chord,
if I go back to my B chord and move it back two frets, and play the same five strings,
I'll be playing an "A suspended second chord".
Now, the cool thing is that as you know that if you're playing a song in the key of E,
you' would have an E chord, most likely an "A" and quite possibily a "B", so with this
one chord shape you could move up and down the strings on the guitar, up and down the
neck and you could keep the same fingers all locked in the same shape an play all the chords
for the song in E. So, here's an example, here's an E chord,
going back to an " A" moving up to a 'B".