Guitar Lesson 8: Barre chords & blues in barre chords

All images are copyright-free.

This lesson is about a type of chord called the barre chord. It is called that way because you lay your
pointer finger flat across 5 or 6 strings to form a bar.
You can play barre chords with the root note on either the E or the A string.
E string
Barre chords with their root notes on the E string follow one simple rule; you play the E major or
minor chord without using your pointer finger, and you lay that finger flat across the six strings above
the chord. Now you can slide this shape all across the neck and play every common chord. You do
need to know which note is on which fret to know which chord youre actually playing; for example,
the shape below (on the left) has a root note on the 5
th
fret of the E string; making it an A major
chord. The one on the right is an A minor chord. The numbers in the black circles represent which
finger you use for playing that note (1 = pointer finger, 2 = middle finger, 3 = ring finger, 4 = pinky).







A string
Barre chords with their root notes on the A string follow a very similar rule; you play the A major or
minor chord without using your pointer finger, and you lay that finger flat across the five (you dont
include the low E string) strings above the chord. You do need to know which note is on which fret to
know which chord youre actually playing; for example, the shape below (on the left) has a root note
on the 5
th
fret of the A string; making it a D major chord. The one on the right is a D minor chord.

A major A minor
D major D minor
Blues
With these chords, you can play blues all over the neck, following one simple rule; when you play the
base chord (for example A, on the 5
th
fret of the E string), the second chord will be on the same fret,
but with the root note on the A string (so D, on the 5
th
fret of the A string) and the third chord will be
with the root note on the same string, but two frets higher (so thats E, on the 7
th
fret on the A string.
Diagrams below.






This rule applies to all blues schemes (remember that this simple blues only uses major chords). So if
you want to play a blues in G, for example, the chords will be G (on the 3
rd
fret of the E string), C (on
the 3
rd
fret of the A string) and D (on the 5
th
fret of the A string). Diagrams below.

A major D major E major
G major C major D major