Barre Chords in general

Hi everyone just want to get something clear in my old head some songs I am attempting to learn have A shape barre chords now having looked at Justin’s A shape barre chords lesson I just want to confirm are all major barre chords with a 6th string root E shape, as in the dreaded F, all major Barre chords with a 5th string root are A shape such as B, all minor Barre chords with a 6th string root are EM Shape as in F#m and minor chords with a 5th string root are AM shape as Bm answer’s please not too technical !!! the song I am working on is Waterloo sunset in the key E it has a Bmaj,F#maj and F#m I could use another Key but have learnt the bass rundown and the lead lick probably wont work in another key.

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Yes, E shape full barré root note on thickest string E, A shape full barré root note 5th string A plus remember to mute the 6th E string…

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thanks Darrell does that apply to the minor chords as well, also looking at this song I could play it using nearly all barre chords it would make the changes easier I need to do some experimenting more than one way to skin a cat.

Just did a bit of playing and I can use barre chords for all the open chords it is easier to move from a B to an E barre just slide it up and to an A going to take some practice as I am a beginner grade 2 but yeah looking good.

No, you can play a G shaped barre chord with a 6 string root, although it’s quite rarely played in its full form as it’s quite a stretch. You can also play a C shaped barre chord with a 5th string root, not very often used, but it’s useful from time to time - the Beatles loved that one!

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I’ve only got to grips with the E shape and the A shape so far and the em shape and am shape barre

In that case yes, root 6 is E-shape, root 5 is A-shape, for both majors and minors.

But you’ll also find as you go along that if you move your E-shape major chord grip down 1 fret so that the root is on string 5, it becomes… a minor chord grip :bulb: This is because the 3rd of the chord get moved onto the B string and, since your fingers remain at the same fret, the major third becomes a minor third in this grip, thus resulting in a minor chord.

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That will see you through almost anything you want to play :slight_smile:

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Nice @Guitarman63

A cool fun thing to do is go back to the grade 1 and 2 songs and play them with Barre chords. I think some sound great, some sound ok, and some dont sound quite as good. You will start getting a feel for what type of songs sound best which way. Its a really neat practice excersize too and also a way to get a new take on some of the older songs that may have been a bit boring sounding at the begining. Its really a cool place in the journey where things really begin to open up.

Also Justin mentions this a number of times in videos, its a great way to create dynamics in a song. First start with the open chords and then as you build up energy switch to the barres. It gives it that boost and can help close a song out with a nice bang.

yes will give that a try easy on my electric not so on my acoustic still plenty of practice will sort that hopefully

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