A simple example is to try a I-IV-V blues progression in various keys. Some of them work pretty well with open chords, e.g.
G-C-D
A-D-E
D-G-A
However, in other keys you may not be able to play an open chord, e.g.
E-A-B - no open B chord; here you can play the B as a 6th or 5th string root barre chord
C-F-G - no open F chord; the “basic” F chord grip would be your easiest choice
F-A#-C - no open F and A# chords; you could play the F and A# as 6th string root barres chords, but the movement from A# to open C would be a little big + the chord shape would change. An easier solution would be to play all 3 chords as 6th string root barre chords. An even more economical solution would be to play the basic F chord grip and then the A# as an A-shape barre chord as both of them can be played at the 1st fret which requires less movement. Then you could move the A-shape barre chord grip up a tone to play C.
Problem 1 - I don’t know the B chord.
Problem 2 - I can’t play the F barre chord without spending second getting the fingers in the right place.
Problem 3 - I honestly don’t know how to answer that
As I am only halfway through Grade 2 when do I get to all this CAGED stuff because at this point I don’t understand this or feel like I ever will. Very depressing. It seems like I need to know the names of the notes on the neck for this which, by the way, I don’t.
Don’t get too hung up about all this if you haven’t reached these lessons yet. Better to build on strong foundations than rush ahead.
If you haven’t tried it yet, I warmly recommend the practical music theory course, the first 2 modules of which are free (you’ll need to subscribe for the rest, but I think it’s well worth the money):
If you can fret the “basic” F chord (i.e. the E-shape barre chord grip), you just need to move the shape up to the 7th fret and you’ll have a B chord. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have an open version in standard tuning.
The A-shape barre chord can be imagined as a “continuation” of the open A chord played with a mini barre. When you play the open A with a mini barre, you use only your 1st finger to fret the notes E, A and C# on strings 4-3-2 while playing the A string open. Thus, you have the “middle” four strings ringing out.
Now if you use your 3rd instead of your 1st finger to fret the same strings (4-3-2) 2 frets higher (notes F#, B and D#) and fret the 2nd fret of the 5th string (note B) with your index finger, you’ll get the A-shape barre grip of the B chord. And so on, the root note depending on which note you fret on the 5th string.
Your 3rd choice is to play a B major triad (B-D#-F#) on 3 adjacent strings. The theory course has several lessons on major and minor triad grips on different sets of strings. It’s very interesting and will contribute to unlocking the fretboard when you get there.
Apologies to the OP for hijacking this thread. Not intentional!!
Thanks to those that responded to my posts but have to say that I find the use of barre chords slightly disheartening at this point. May be due to the fact that the F Barre chord is such a problem for me that i mostly steer clear of it and use Fmaj7 instead. I rarely practice the F chord as have other things to practice.
Hi Stuart I was just thinking there the discussion we had a while ago about the use of the capo. Rather than avoiding the F chord what about using a capo says for example at fret 2 and practice a song that uses the F chord. That way you’re continuing to work on the F chord but will be a bit easier.
Just keep doing what you are doing, Stuart, and in due course you will come to the moment when this make sense, when it will be the next thing that builds on what you already know.
Once you know your barre chords, it is sometimes just easier and may sound better to play a chord as a barre chord rather than an open chord.
Then there are the chords where an open chord is not an option. When simply playing in the key of G ie a song that uses only the chords G Am Bm C D Em then the Bm is a barre chord.
Just keep at it and in time you may reach this point. In my 6th year here I’ve learned ‘never say never’
I can only encourage you to persevere. Learning the F barre is a challenge for all.
So firstly I’d remind you to think back to the first day you picked up the guitar and started to learn. How many things back then seemed impossible and disheartening and now are possible.
F is just the next one. There’ll be more as you progress.
For F it is a good idea to put a capo on the guitar, perhaps at the 4th fret. Then play that F shape with the barre. You may find that easier as there’ll be less pressure required to make a clean chord at that place on the neck with the capo on. Don’t worry about what actually chord you are playing. If that works then slowly move the capo down the neck, towards the headstock, doing the same with it at fret 3, then 2, until you are again working on the F chord ie an E shape barre chord with the root not of the chord being the F note on the low E string at the first fret.
Just stay with your grade, taking all the time you need to master what is being taught. The A shape barre chord is further on down the road.
You do need to know these. I highly recommend Justin’s Guitar Note Trainer app. It’s only a couple of dollars and is well worth that price. The sooner you learn where the notes are the better. I’m slowly getting there.
Also learn the octave trick- starting on any fret of the 6th or 5th string, move up (in pitch) 2 strings and up 2 frets to the next octave of that note. From that note move up 2 strings again and up 3 frets for the next octave of the note.
I tried that thanks, but to be honest it wasn’t much easier. Still can’t get the B string to ring out. Any ideas for easy songs with F as the web site doesn’t list any. I may have some but I can find any by filtering F from Search.
Still don’t really understand chords in a particular key! At this point I guess that this doesn’t matter that much and all will become clearer further down the line.
@Stuartw That’s good to hear, Stuart. So based on that you can have confidence that in time you will master F. It is helpful to remember that and have that growth learning mindset, that does require us to be patient and understanding as we learn the new and challenging things. Enjoy the learning process day-by-day
Absolutely, go in with the mindset not to be perfect but to be better than you were the day before or the week before as not only will you see the progress but you will feel good about it each day you pick up the guitar.
@DavidP just a thought but would it be easier to find songs if you were able to filter by grade 2 for example and then filter by individual chords rather than having to filter with all chords in the song?
@Socio a good thought, James. I went to Songs after reading only the first part of the thought and as I looked at the filter options I had the same thought about the chord filter functionality. I will raise with the Team.
I find that the chord filter works great. If you knew about chords in a key, you could select G, Em, C and D and get lots of songs. If you don’t know anything about chords in a key, you could still just select all the chords you know how to play, e.g.:
This will result in ton of songs, and none of them will have F, Fmaj7 or Dm. You could use other filters, like “Difficulty level” to further refine the search, if you want.
The problem with that is that it will also show you songs that don’t use all of those chords. So if Stuart was to select 4 chords including the F chord not all of the songs coming up would use the F chord. Stuart is just looking for grade 2 songs that specifically have the F chord in them.
Hi John, no need to apologise. I thought your response was rather helpful and learning the chords in a key is very useful. Otherwise you’re just selecting random chords in the filter the way it currently works.
