Hey Friend,

Last week I showed you nine different shapes for the C major triad, located all over the neck. Today, let's look at the barre chord shapes.

The first thing I want to point out is that you already know the primary shapes for barre chords: the E major shape and the A major shape. The difference between the simple triads and barre chords is that we're going to add a "barre" across the strings, using your index finger. 

By doing this, you expand the dynamic range of the chord with an added root note an octave lower than what is in the triad. This lower root note is also the basis of creating power chords. Learn more about my ebook "Easy Power Chords" here.

The barre is meant to be used as a replacement for the guitar nut (the piece at the top of the fingerboard where the strings rest).

Let's review the E and A major shapes. Both of these shapes are second inversion chords, meaning it's the five note from the scale that is the root note of the chord. As you can see in the exercise tab, they're notated as slash ("/") chords, showing the root note. 

For E major, it's the B note. For A major, it's the E note. Do you remember how we figure that out? Here's a refresher...

Look at the name of the chord. That tells you which key you can use to determine the notes to use to construct the chord.

For example, an E major chord is constructed using the E major key. The notes from E major are E, F#, G#, A, B, C# and D#. I got that by applying the scale pattern W  W  H  W  W  W  H. E to F# is two frets, F# to G# is two frets, G# to A is one fret and so on.

Our triad notes are E, G# and B (1 3 5), but the way they're configured for the first position E major triad is B, E and G# (5 1 3).

When we create a barre chord using the E major shape, the one note (tonic of the key) of the chord is doubled by adding the lower octave note on the sixth string. In other words, the chord is now "rooted on the sixth string." Now you have notes E, B, E and G# (1 5 1 3).

The second system in the tab shows the E and A major barre chords rooted on the sixth string. This ties in well with the idea from last week that both the E and A major triad shapes can be used to play any major chord you need (CAGED system).

The third system shows the same major chords - E and A -  but using the A major shape barre chords. These chords are rooted on the fifth string.

If you write out the notes from each of the barre chords, you'll find that in the case of both shapes, you end up doubling the tonic and the fifth notes of the chords. The third note occurs only once in the construction of each barre chord. 

Something to keep in mind - if you haven't played barre chords before, they are challenging. If you can't play them right now, don't worry about it. I'll go into detail about how to build up your finger strength in a future lesson. Use this one to simply familiarize yourself with the basic idea behind barre chords. Otherwise, try them out with the exercises.

Tomorrow we'll look specifically at the C major barre chords and power chords. Until then, rock on!

Peace~

Dave