Justin suggests practicing “I shot the Sheriff”, but not found on the iPhone JustinGuitar app!? Other song suggestions?
How about A Girl Like You by Edwin Collins?
grades 1 & 2 the lessons had 2 or 3 recommended songs to go with them. i found that so so much better. Practice time is very very limited, and i’ve gone and blown it trawling for a slow song with the right chords.
i’ve settled on “one more cup of coffee” and accepted ill have to play a reg E for now. Am G F E, F E F E etc.
Afternoon,
I’m at the lesson where you need to learn a song featuring just major and minor barre chords.
Its a tad frustrating that there were no suggestions and so after some looking around I’m trying to learn ‘Closing time’.
Here’s Justin’s lesson.
For the most part this is G, D, Am, C.
However, from what I can see - when justing does the barre chord tutorial he isnt going up to the 10th fret.
I can see that he’s dropping down to the play the D with the root note on the A string but then playing it a bit like a power chord.
Also, his fingerings for the C power chord is odd.
Is it just me? Perhaps I’m not understanding but he’s fingers seem contorted into a strange C.
Is that because we’re using the A string and going to the C root note as opposed to playing it on the lower E string?
I’m really confused.
Alternatively can anyone suggest something I can learn this exercise on easier.
For the first time ever I’m struggling a bit with motivation and my lack of understanding what should be a fairly simple is bithering me.
Thanks in advance.
Economy of movement. If you play the G chord as an E shaped barre chord then the closest barre chord for the D chord would be an A shaped Barre Chord. If I recall correctly this Grade 3 lesson gave an introduction to both E shaped and A shaped barre chords.
https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/easy-barre-chords-for-beginners-bg-2303
You can play any song that you know with open chords using barre chords instead. You could even stick with closing time using the E shaped barre chords to get some practice moving up and down the fretboard and then when you get to the A shaped barre chord module revisit the song.
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You’re asking the right questions, you just don’t quite know enough about A shape barre chords.
Yes
The demo Justin plays at the beginning of the lesson is an advanced barre chord version. Don’t get too rattled if you can’t play that just yet, it’s not easy.
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I can play barre chords ok until you get beyond the 7th fret and then I really struggle to adjust my grip on the guitar.
I’m practicing transitioning but yeah, you’re right in that I didn’t realise I had gone into the A shape set and it really threw me.
So I looked up a barre chord chart and it said the D chord was on the 10th fret which caused me to be more confused.
But again, like so many things on a guitar, many things are interchangeable and I hadn’t really thought about that.
Two other things threw me. If you are playing a minor barre chord then I often use my middle finger to support the barre.
But Justin’s C chord seemed different in that he seems to be supporting the other finger but it’s possibly just the way it looks and he’s just lifting it. So many times the lack of perceived depth on a camera makes the grip look odd.
And the 2nd thing was, how do I know to lift off the middle finger for the A shape.
But I’ll not worry too much about that now, I’ll just try to learn the main strum and chord switching.
Thank you.
D is the 5th fret on the A string. This is why A shape barre chords are useful, you don’t have to go all the way up the neck.
You can do this with Em shape but not Am shape. Em and Am are not the same shape.
Justin doesn’t introduce A shape barre chords until grade 5, you may not have got to that point yet.
A Shape Barre Chords | JustinGuitar.com
It’s also worth learning the notes on the E and A strings. I don’t think that’s in the new beginner course. It’s definitely in the Practical Music Theory course.
Completely agree and would add learn them on all the strings. Something I did not do soon enough and when you start triads and 3 string chords it will open up the fretboard and makes scales easier. Tying it together with the CAGED system helped me as well.
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I think I recall Justin touching on the 5th & 6th string notes in the Power Chords lesson back in Grade 2… at least that’s where I think I learned them!
Tod
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Hi everyone!
It’s been a minute, but still playing guitar fortunately 
So lately I have been working on my barre chords. The E shape major barre chords are going rather well, the a shape major and minor chords are going well also, but the E shape minor barre chord is killing me…
It probably just takes a lot of time. I try to play songs that have a minor e shape barre chord in them, but usually the G string is dead. I try every one of Justin’s tips and with a lot of concentration I can get it, just not in song. Often it does sound okay though, even though the G string doesn’t ring. That also makes it hard to notice that I am not getting all the strings of the chord while playing a song. For instance: I am playing The Passenger from Iggy Pop with barre chords. The problem is that I can’t hear properly if my A minor chord is correct or if the G string is muted. Because the song is quite fast, there is no time to fiddle with your fingers while playing the chord.
What I would like to ask is: how long did it take you guys on average to get the E shape minor barre chord sounding good and having all the notes ring out properly, especially when using it in songs?
Look forward to hearing from you.
All the best,
Inge
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Took me ages if i remember correctly. It helps by using the middle finger to reinforce the barre.
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See if these help:
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Thank you very much Richard! I’m going to check them out!
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