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After my last post about barre chords, I found this really cool video at Ultimate-Guiter.com. The video is basically a tutorial on how to play barre chords, and it is oriented towards beginners.

Check out the video on barre chords here.

This is the amazing thing about learning to play guitar in the age of the internet… I can’t imagine trying to learn to play guitar before you could download tabs, lessons, and entire courses about guitar.

I am pretty amped about this barre chord video… I just downloaded it and played it through for the first time. The download is huge - 35 megabytes, but it was worth it. As I mentioned before, I was just starting in on these barre chords, so this is pretty cool to come across a free video on how to play barre chords.

tags: guitar chords,
learn to play guitar
,
barre chords

So where are all the barre chord fans out there? It seems like after I was playing for only a month or two on the open chords, I started to hear about
barre chords. I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was. Then a friend of mine spent a few minutes showing me how you can move a barre chord up and down the fret board, and I started to clue into why barre chords are cool.

The other thing about that basic intro to barre chords was that I started to understand just a little bit about the fret board and how you can figure out the various notes and chords. Now mind you I am not an expert… in fact, I am barely even a beginner. But just the slightest glimmer of understanding is starting to seep in.

It seems like the E shaped barre chord is one of the favorites… or at least one of the easiest barre chords. And it didn’t take too long for me to be able to form that E shaped barre chord and move it around. It didn’t always sound great (and it still doesn’t), but I am making progress. However, I still really stink when it comes to moving to it in any type of a timely fashion.

Then another friend pointed out that the good old F major chord is really a barre chord, since you are holding down the first two strings on the first fret. Well now, here is a barre chord that I can actually make with some degree of alacrity.

In my last post I asked if I could move this barre chord - the F major shape - around the fret board to make different chords. Logic seems to say yes, but I can’t find any references to it in any of my “learning guitar” books, or even any chord reference books.

Reference tags: guitar,
guitar chords

OK, so every beginner hates the F chord (ie, the F major chord). And six months into learning to play the guitar, I have to admit that the F chord was a major hurdle. I mean, the G chord, C chord, D chord, A chord, and E chord are pretty easy to learn to form and get a good sound. But the F chord is one that can take a while - and I am talking about playing at a “no tempo” speed. Even if you take a minute or two to form that F chord, beginners often can’t get it to sound right.

The reason is that the F chord is really your first barre chord (that is pronounced “bar” chord)… where you have to use one finger to hold down two or more strings. At first this seems literally impossible. But take my word on this… it gets easier over time. In any case, with that F chord you have to hold down both the first and second strings at the first fret with your first finger (ie, you index finger.

Of course, that is not all you have to do to make that F chord… you also have to hold down the third string at the second fret and the fourth string at the third fret. Oh, and you have to be sure not to play the sixth string… and you probably shouldn’t play that fifth string either. That means that it might be a good idea to wrap your thumb around the neck and deaden that sixth string with your thumb (for you experienced players, I am not trying to start a debate here!).

So this is my question for you experienced guitar players out there… I often read about the various barre chords - the E shaped barre chord and the A shaped barre chord seem to be the most popular. But can I use the F chord as a barre chord and just slide it up the neck?

reference: barre chords,
guitar