BAR CHORDS
Basic Major Chords
For starters anyone promoting the CAGED system hasn’t noticed that the C&D and the A&G are different phrasings of the same Chord shape (they’re 75% the same ).If you can master open C, A & E, you’ve got it. All the Chords are variations of these 3 shapes. When you learn the Minor and Seventh variations of these 3 Chords, you’ll be able to play most Blues, Country and Roots- Rock songs.
In standard tuning the 3 Major chord shapes you need to learn are: Fmaj 1 3 3 2 1 1(low to hi), bar the first fret w/ first finger, but only press down on the first, second and sixth string. Move it down 1 fret, it becomes (open) Emaj 0 2 2 1 0 0 (3rd fr=G, 5th=A, 7th=B, 8th=C ect) The Root is on the first, fourth and sixth strings.
Open Cmaj X 3 2 0 1 0 (mute sixth str.), move this chord up 2 frets, it becomes D maj X 5 4 2 3 2, (Bar Chord) first finger bars top 3 strings, second fret (4th fr=E, 5th=F, 7th=G, 9=A ect) The Root is on the second and fifth strings. The CAGED phrasing of an Open D is X, X, 0, 2, 3, 2 (Root on 4rth and 2nd strings)
And the openGmaj 3 2 0 0 0 3, move it up 2 frets it becomes Amaj 5 4 2 2 2 X Bar Chord(mute 1st str.) bar 2nd, 3rd & 4rth strings w/ first finger, second fret (4th fr=B, 5th=C, 7th=D, 9th=E ect) The Root is on the first, third and sixth strings. A can also be played w/ the more familiar Open AMaj Chord;X 0 2 2 2 0 Root is on the fifth and third strings. This phrasing moved up a whole-tone, would be Bmaj X 2 4 4 4 2 w/ first finger barring first and fifth strings, second fret. (3th fr=C, 5th=D, 7th=E) The Root is on the third and fifth strings.
The 3 hardest beginner Chords to play are probably Fmaj X X 3 2 1 1, B7 X 2 1 2 0 2 and the open Amin X 0 2 2 1 0 These Chords have ended more students efforts than any other. So don’t be surprised if they take days or even weeks before you feel comfortable playing them.
If you’re having trouble forming full Chords start out with Triads. These are 3 string phrasings of the Chords. You can pick out any 3 adjacent strings/notes of a Chord, to create a Triad. Eg: AMaj 5/0, 4/2, 3/2
Major and Minor Chords are made up of 3 parts. The Root, the Third, and the Fifth. Root= red, Third= yellow, Fifth=blue
The Third is what makes the Chord Major or Minor. Eg an EMaj 0 2 2 1 0 0 the 3rd string happens to be the Third in this example and an Emin 0 2 2 0 0 0 the Third is 1 fret or a semi-tone lower in the Minor Chord.
Don’t panic if this Root, Third, Fifth and Seventh stuff, doesn’t make sense now. Just be aware that they are parts of a Chord/Scale. There is only 7 different notes in an octave ( an Octave starts and ends on the same note, eg: A-A, or C-C). The Root, the Second, the Fourth and the Fifth don’t change from Maj to min. I was playing and taking lessons for 3 or 4 years before this really started sinking in. This becomes very useful in writing songs and Transposing from one key to another.
You should try to be aware of which string(s) the Root of the Chord is on. Eventually the Third and Fifth will fall into place. It will probably take several years of practice and visualization to map out the whole fretboard. You’ll notice the same shapes and patterns ( allowing for the 2nd and 3rd string being a semi-tone shorter interval than the other strings ) showing up.
I know it sounds like a lot of work to number everything as well as learning the notes but numbers are the key to visualizing Chords, Melodies and Riffs. It’s hard to visualize, the relationship of letters. They are not quantified until you give them a number. It can take several years to really understand the how it all fits together so don’t sweat it if this concept doesn’t make sense right away.
One of the advantages of having 3 different places to play every chord is that it requires less movement from the player. It gives you options for phrasing. But, it makes it really hard for a beginner to understand the relationships. Remember an AMaj chord is always just an AMaj chord no matter which one of the three chord shapes you use. The Root note is just on a different string Eg; AMaj 5 4 2 2 2 X or 5 7 7 6 5 5 or X 12 11 9 10 9.
