Guitar Mastery Simplified: How Anyone Can Quickly Become a Strumming, Chords, and Lead Guitar Ninja (14 page)

 
YouTube
-
YGSGuitarLessons
- Bar Chords 1

 
YouTube
-
YGSGuitarLessons
- Bar Chords 2

Notice the red circle that is in each
bar chord.  That circle represents the root of the chord.  The root
is essentially the one note that the rest of the chord is built upon.  It
is also the letter name of the chord.  For instance,
A
major, A minor, A7 and A-7 all have “A” as the root or letter name.  The
rest of the notes in the chord determine it’s “flavor”, as in: major, minor, 7,
-7 etc.  So that means every time you move that bar chord the letter name
of the chord changes also.  Each of the bar chords on the bottom row of
the 5th string roots page have the red circle located at the 2nd fret of the
5th string which is a “B”; therefore, every chord in that bottom row has a “B”
root.  The “flavor” of the chord is located above the form.
 Therefore, if you moved each one of those chords up a half-step, you
would then have a “C” in the root.

Get it?  I knew you would!

Now that you understand where the
forms come from and how they move about the fret board, let’s talk about how to
play them.

Playing the Chords

Understanding how the chords move
about the fret board and actually playing the chords are two totally different
things.  When playing bar chords, lazy or poor technique will quickly
limit you.  There are a lot of other techniques - like playing single
notes - which guitarists can “fudge,” even with poor technique.  Not so
much with bar chords... so trust me through this process.  Watch the
associated videos and
keep practicing
until you get this.  No one
gets this right off the bat; it is a learned technique that the more you do,
the better you become.  Now that we have that excuse out of the way,
let’s
do this thing!

As someone new to playing bar chords, the following points
are of utmost importance!  If you find yourself having difficulty, make
sure you are aware of the following:

1. The finger that does the
   barring,
   MUST either be perfectly straight, or
   better yet hyper-extended.  Here is a great exercise: Lift your
   fretting hand up and view your index finger from the side.  While
   viewing it from the side, straighten the finger.  Now go beyond that
   and see if you can’t slightly bend the finger backwards.  Obviously,
   our knuckles don’t allow us to bend the finger back too far, but just that
   little bit is what we call hyper-extended.  In this hyper-extended
   position, your finger is ideally situated for evenly distributing the
   weight of that finger across all the strings in your bar chord.  Even
   if your finger is perfectly straight, this is a great place to start.
    I usually tell my students to hyper-extend that finger a little bit
   because I know the natural tendency is to bend it the other way - which is
   awesome if you want your bar chords to sound like poo!  If the
   barring finger is flexed or bent in its natural direction - even the
   slightest bit - during the bar chord, you
   most likely
   will have
   some unwanted muted notes.
   

1. In order to have that
   straight or hyper-extended barring finger, we need to make sure that our
   thumb is on the back of the neck closer towards the bottom part and not
   lazily hanging over the top of the neck.  That may be fine for lead
   work and open chords from time to time, but it’s the kiss of death when
   playing bar chords.  
   So don’t do it!
   

1. Keeping your thumb on
   the back of the neck should allow for some space between the palm of your
   hand and bottom of the guitar neck.  Again, at least in the
   beginning, you want to make sure that space is there, otherwise you will
   have difficulty with your bar chords.
   

1. For the fingers that are
   not barring, but are playing individual notes, make sure that those fingers
   are playing directly on the fingertips and not on the pads.  
   This
   is extremely important!  
   Seriously, for my students that are
   playing sloppy bar chords or claim that they can’t play them at all, they
   are always breaking one of these rules... or several. “So listen to me now
   and believe me later.”  For those other fingers remember,
   “FINGERTIPS! FINGERTIPS!  FINGERTIPS!”
   

For now, the trick will be to bar your barring finger
properly, while properly playing on the fingertips of all the other fingers.
 If you don’t give up and practice,
YOU WILL GET IT!!

Practice, practice, practice!!  You’ve heard me say it
and you’ll keep hearing me say it!  You are only as good as how long and
how well you are practicing!  No one is a “natural” at this; anyone who
desires this skill
must
practice it.

This kind of direction is difficult to put into words.
 You’ve heard it said before that a picture can say 1000 words.  Well
a video can say about 10,000 words!  Please watch the associated videos
after reading this as they will clear so much up for you.

6th String Root Bar Chord Forms

5th String Root Bar Chord Forms