Guitar Chords

For Basic to Advanced Chords see the following sites :-

http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com/

What is a Barre Chord?

A barre chord takes its name from the role of the 1st finger of your left hand. This finger acts as a "bar" across the fingerboard, depressing all six strings and replacing the nut (the ivory piece at the top of the neck). By using your first finger as a "bar," you can move many of the open chords you have learned up and down on the fingerboard.

 To understand this, first grab your guitar and play an E chord. Note in order for the first finger to be used as a barre, the fingering has to be changed slightly; use your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers instead of the usual 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers. Now move the chord up one fret and lay your 1st finger across the 1st fret, covering all six strings. You are now holding your first barre chord, F. This is essentially the same as the F chord you have learned in the open chords section, only the 1st finger barres all six strings instead of just the 1st and 2nd strings. In the same manner, move this F chord up two frets, 1st finger barring the 3rd fret and maintaining the E chord shape. You now have an alternative way to play an G chord

Because most music is chord based. If you were able to analyse your pieces at your present state of learning you would probably find that the structures consist of the notes of chords or parts of chords. The notes can be either in the original order of the chord or in any other order or combination. It is possible to "see" these shapes both on the guitar neck or on a keyboard and even on the music as basic patterns or shapes which are constant.

For example a basic major chord consists of notes 1,3,5 of the major scale. A minor chord of notes 1, b3,5 and a diminished chord of 1 .b3 ,b5. If you carefully analyse the distance apart of the notes of those chords you will find that they are built either of notes 2 tones apart (4 frets) or notes 1 1/2 tones apart (3 frets). 2 tone notes are called major thirds and 1 1/2 tone ones are minor thirds.