subject: Guitar For Kids -- Barre Chords: The A Form [print this page] Hi guys and gals! Hi guys and gals!
One of the many great things that you can get out of memorizing the Chromatic Scale is the understanding of bar (or barre) chords.
That's right, bar chords.
I told you guys earlier that each one of your guitar strings was, in fact a chromatic scale starting from the name of the string.
But the guitar neck ITSELF is a chromatic scale that starts from whatever note I want it to start from. But let's change that just a tiny little bit.
Let's say that I could start the chromatic scale from whatever CHORD I want it to start from.
Huh?
How 'bout if I told ya that each one of the chords that you have learned so far are movable by the chromatic scale?
And... What if I told you guys that you need to stop looking at these chords as mere chords but as chord "forms"?
Movable chord forms.
The problem with this lies with the open strings. You can't just move the chords up and down the neck without taking those strings into account -- somehow.
One way to do this would be to only play the notes of the chord "form" and not play any of the open strings. We will talk about that later.
But there are some forms that we can actually move up and down the neck and not have to worry about those pesky open strings.
Well...kinda.
They won't REALLY be open strings anymore.
What we have to do is move the nut of the guitar up the neck the same distance that we moved the chord form. This creates kinda-sorta open strings from where the new nut location is.
Move the nut? Are you kidding me?
Okay, okay... OBVIOUSLY we can't move the nut back and forth on the neck. But we can create a new one by barring across the strings with a finger.
That's whet we're gonna do here. We're gonna use one chord form as an example -- the A chord form.
See the fingering below. That's the regular way to play this chord right?
[ 0 0 2 2 2 0 ]
1st finger 3rd sting 2nd fret
2nd finger 4th string 2nd fret
3rd finger 2nd string 2nd fret
But it ain't the only way. If we're gonna move this suckah around, we'll need to find the best way to do that.
Look at the next fingering. That's the answer.
[ 0 0 2 2 2 X ] 3rd finger mini-bar on 2nd fret
What I did was to min-bar those fingered notes with my 3rd finger instead of fingering them the old way. I also am not gonna worry my pointy little head over getting that 1st string clear. In fact, I'm gonna "thud" that note.
Okay... So now... Take that "form" and move it up the neck 1 fret.
But if I want to play the other "open strings" for that chord, I'm gonna have to "move the nut" the SAME NUMBER OF FRETS that I moved the chord form. I do THAT by barring that fret with my first finger -- All the way across.
Seeing as I moved the chord form up the neck 1 fret, I'm gonna "move the nut" the same number of frets -- 1.
Voila! The Bb chord.
[ 1 1 3 3 3 X ]
How do I know it's a Bb chord?
I know because I'm gonna start my chromatic scale from the NAME of my chord form, in this case -- A.
A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A
Each fret is a 1/2 step. I moved the form 1/2 step. Therefore, the new chord name will be 1/2 step higher than A -- which is Bb!
Got it?
Let's continue on up the neck. If I move the whole nut/form contraption up 1 more fret I get a what?
A sore index finger.
Well yeah, maybe. But you'll also get a B chord.
[ 2 2 4 4 4 X ]
If I move it up to the 3rd fret, now I have a C chord.
[ 3 3 5 5 5 X ]
4th fret -- C#/Db chord
5th fret -- D chord
6th fret -- D#/Eb chord
7th fret -- E chord
8th fret -- F chord
9th fret -- F#/Gb chord
10th fret -- G chord
Understand?
Now, ya'll gotta make sure that all of the notes are clear except for that 1st string. If you actually CAN get that 1st note clear, so much the better, but ya shouldn't worry too much about it.
So start practicin'!
Professor Bruno Noteworthy
by: Professor Bruno Noteworthy: Toon Music Professor
