I am learning “King of the Road” and the barre chords I use are Bb Eb and F (all major) for the first part of the song. The slide from Bb to Eb and then back to F is 5 frets.
I practice no look chord changes and endeavour to not look when changing chords all the time. I am wondering though for this particular change that spans 5 frets (Bb to Eb and back to F) if I should utilize the markings on the guitar neck. Using the markings it is very easy to glance to your next chord change and not lose too much attention.
Just wondering what more experienced players do? 1) Keep to the goal of no look for all chord changes or 2) for examples like this use the fret markers. An argument for the latter might be is that it would enable you to use a greater range of guitars and types of guitars.
Just wondering, don’t want to cut corners but also do not want to spend time practicing something not useful.
I’m hardly that experienced I guess. I play a version of that song that uses cowboy chords in the 1st position. But I do use more of the neck of the guitar for other songs.
I absolutely DO glance down to the fret markers to make sure I’m moving my hand where it needs to go. I figure that movements that big are going to take a good bit more time for me to be able to do without looking at all. So I’m going to use the reference that I do have to help out.
And for other things, yeah, I do strive to be able to do stuff without looking. But to be able to do it well without looking, you’ve gotta build the muscle memory for it. And you build the muscle memory by doing it right LOTS of times. And doing that requires looking sometimes. Sometimes I look at my fret hand. Sometimes when I need to clean up my strumming hand, I look down there.
While there are others around that have been playing much longer than me (3 1/2 years now) I do play with a band and I am the singer, so I am familiar with this struggle.
The main goal (at least for me) with not looking down at your hands is so that an audience isn’t just watching the top of your head while you stare at the fretboard. That doesn’t mean that you can never look down at the fret markers.
When I play, I try to keep my head up as much as possible, especially because I have to keep my mouth positioned right above my vocal mic. If I have to look down, I will make sure to just take a quick glance at the fret markers for any big changes (like the 5 fret slide you discuss) and then look back up and continue on. This is a perfectly acceptable practice IMO. @Richard_close2u gave me this advice when I first started playing and I’ve been practicing doing it ever since.
Think I’d be tempted to use '‘A shape’ barre chords as well as E shape, that way you haven’t got the distance to cover on the fretboard.
So Bb 6th fret (E shape), Eb 6th fret (A shape), F 8th fret ( A shape) hope this helps👍
This!
I’m trying to get into the habit of- when I’m learning new songs- figuring out where the barre chords are, grouped higher up on the neck. I’m hoping it will make it easier to make out the relative chord progressions.
I think only you will know which option is the most useful for you. Fret markers are on the guitar to mark frets and be visible, so I see no harm in using them. Also, if you play the same instrument for years, then you’ll get used to its dimensions and might not need to check the fret markers for each and every chord change.
I don’t know the song you mentioned, but when you say “slide” from Bb to Eb, do you mean a literal slide (a glissando)? If not, I’d give a shot to playing one of the chords with an E-shape barre chord grip and the other one with an A-shape grip at the same fret.
Don’t know if this will work for you.
But.
Put a capo at the 1st fret.
Bb becomes A
Eb becomes D
F becomes E.
Or
Play Bb as a E barre chord @ 6th fret.
Eb as a barre A chord @ 6th fret.
F as a barre A chord @ 8th Fret.
Or.
Play Bb as barre A @ 1st fret.
Eb as barre C @ 3rd fret.
F as barre E 1st fret.
or you could also play F as barre C @ 5th fret.
Or.
Mix and match for what works for you.
And there’s more too, but it gets much higher on the fretboard.
Edit,
One last thought.
forgo the capo, but still play A, D, E chords. You’ve lowered them three chords a 1/2 step, or one semi tone.
Then lower all chords in the song a 1/2 step. Whatever the chords are, they would all need to be lowered a 1/2 step. That may or may not be easy to do depending on what other chords are in the song.
I for sure do this with a few songs I do. It works, if the other chords can be adjusted to fit with fingerings for the fretting hand that work for you. Just keep in mind, all chords need to be adjusted.
This would be a transposed song. You would be transposing to another key. Again, it ‘can’ work, depending on…
The original song starts with these chords in the key of Bb but makes a semitone step up key change to the key of B part way through the song.
Using a capo to make easy open-chord grips for Bb, Eb and F would mean that barre chords are necessary after the key change.
So you can have barre chords first and open position chords after or vice versa.
You have already had advice on capo fret 1.
A-shape = Bb chord
D-shape = Eb chord
E-shape = F chord
Then you need barre chords for B, E and F# respectively.
E-shape fret 7 = B
A-shape fret 7 = E
A-shape fret 9 = F#
If you maintain no capo, when the key change arrives you need
A-shape fret 2 or E-shape fret 7 = B chord
Open position E chord (or A-shape fret 7)
E-shape fret 2 = F# chord
Another option is Capo fret 3
G-shape = Bb chord
C-shape = Eb chord
D-shape = F chord
When the key change happens you need barre chords
E-shape fret 7 = B chord
A-shape fret 7 = E chord
A-shape fret 9 = F# chord
Thanks for all the good suggestions. I had tried some of these options for playing higher up on the neck but I found I preferred the sound and feel of the song playing the barre chords lower down on the neck. I know this created a big jump (ie. Bb on fret 1 to Eb on fret 6 and back to F fret 1), hence why I asked about no look changes for Barre chords in these situations. That being said, it would sound really great with two guitarists jamming, one lower on the neck and the other higher up.
After all the suggestions I think my ideal would be to do the big changes with no look and after experimenting it is not too difficult to accomplish, at least practicing one minute changes. Playing the whole song another story, really have to slow it down initially.
If you are ever in a situation and have to play on a different guitar you can use the fret markers (dots) on the side of the neck. The dots are your friends. And you can use the suggestions by @Jenndye429 above for how to do without too much movement.
Thanks again for all the feedback and great suggestions.
One big thing to remember when sliding, either single string notes or chords, always, always, always look at the destination fret, do not try to follow your fingers with your eyes.
