Hey Friend,

Now that you've had the chance to see the basic barre chord shapes, let's apply that to the C major chord.

For any major chord, there are two locations you can use to play their barre chord. One will use the E shape from CAGED. The other will use the A shape.

In the case of C major, the barre chord closest to our first position open C major is located at the third fret. We'll use the A major shape across the fifth fret of the fourth, third and second strings. Your index finger forms the barre across strings one through five, with the root note of the chord on the third fret, fifth string. 

This should be pretty easy to remember because the third fret fifth string is a C note, the same as the root note on the open C major chord.

The tough part is playing the A shape when your index finger is busy pretending to be the guitar nut. Sure, you can try to use your middle, ring and pinky fingers to get into the A shape position, but there are a couple challenges.

1) It's a cramped space and your fingers will be fighting over limited real estate on the neck, and B) Chord changes will require you to be lightening fast to get into and out of the shapes you need before or after.

The better way is to create a second barre across the fourth, third and second strings using your ring finger. I admit, this is an awkward shape to form initially, but once you learn how to bend the finger at the first joint and manage to keep a clean sound for each note, the shape becomes second nature.

It is most definitely easier to play the A shape barre chord on an electric guitar with light strings. 

The second C major barre chord uses the E shape rooted on the sixth string. Your index finger will find the C note at the eighth fret on the neck. Barre it across all six strings - I know, I know, it's not easy, but this is how you do it! No one said it would be easy.

Form the E shape just below your index finger on the fifth, fourth and third strings. You'll have your middle finger on the third string, ninth fret, ring finger on the tenth fret of the fifth string and pinky on the tenth fret of the fourth string.

This barre chord shape is easier to play than the A shape, and you should have less trouble both forming the shape and changing chords. That doesn't mean it won't take effort to get your hand used to playing the E shape barre chord. Like everything else in guitar land, it takes some practice to get comfortable playing these wacky configurations.

Hey, I didn't invent them - maybe the Marquis de Sade did... (just kidding!).

Tomorrow, I'll go into some methods to get your fingers used to playing barre chords and some easy approaches to them. Half the battle is building the muscle memory, and there';s no way around that - you have to practice and play them. Work on your first position open chords and get your fingers into shape, memorizing the shapes and locations.

Also practice changing between two different chord shapes. Look for ways to be efficient. There are certainly chord fingerings that let you change chords faster, and I'll point some of those out to you.

Peace~

Dave