Lesson 5
You will learn...
- Bar chords - this will be by far the most demanding part of the course with respect to your hands.
- The Troggs - Wild Thing - with bar chords
- Nirvana - About a girl - with regular chords and 5th chords
Recommended time for completion - 2-4 weeks
Tune your guitar
I do encourage you to tune your guitar before you continue - otherwise it will sound horrible, and people will not want to listen to your beautiful music...
Tune your guitar by comparing notes with your computers MIDI-bank: click here!
Warm up!
Warm up those guitar fingers as I demonstrated in the 2nd lesson.
New chords
Before moving on with the bar chords it is an advantage that you know the most common open chords. Here are the ones that have not previously been introduced in the course:
Learn them. I will demonstrate how to play them in the video.
X33210
XX0212
X21202
320001
Some of you might have notices (and become frustrated) over some songs which have the chord "B" or "H" in them (as you know from the last lesson this means the same thing). I have not introduced this chord in the course, except for hte dominant 7th form above. The reason for this is that it is so much easier to play in its bar form, which you will learn in this lesson.
Bar chords
Now we enter the most difficult part of the course. It will be a lot of work, but don't worry - it will all be worth it! All you need is a little patience, a lot of practice and a gadget for training your hand is all you need to make it through;)..
So... what are bar chords?
Like 5th chords (powerchords) bar-chords are simply movebably chords whose fretting position can be assumed anywhere on the fretboard - of course changing the key (the scale of the chord) as you do so.
The principle of bar-chords, as I mentioned in the previous lesson, is that you replace the nut with your index finger, and then replacing the regular fretting of the open major/minor chords you have learnt with your 3 free fingers that remain.
Sounds messy? I'm sure this will clarify things for you:) Try reading it a few times, and you will see the pattern.
Understanding the principle
Allright, so in order to get a grip on this so-far-to-us-vague-and-unknown-bar chord business, we'll start off with an open E Major chord, as follows:
Look at the shape of this chord. Beautiful, isn't it? It is easy to grip, and it lies at a comfortable position of the fretboard - we love this chord. However we are now going to transform this exact chord into a gripping/fretting pattern (and you might hate it for a while, but I promise that you will love it once again:))
Let's imagine that I replace the nut with my index finger, as follows:
I still want to grab the same chord (E Major) therefore I replace my:
index finger for middle finger
Ring finger for little finger and
middle finger for ring finger
Okay, now comes the big step - I will move my entire gripping pattern one fret step closer to the bridge, as such:
133211
Now my indexfinger is pressing down on all strings, making sure that those not fretted by the other 3 fingers can have a clean sound.
Can you guess the name of this chord? The root note is on the same string as it was for the E-major chord (i e on the E strings), and if you look at the fretboard diagram I'm sure you can figure out that it is in fact an F Major chord that we are now gripping.
Or rather - I am gripping, you are trying to grip it: it is really difficult, and you probably will not be able to get a clean sound the first few times. But don't worry, this chord (and many others) will be as easy for you to grip as eating an apple, with some practice:).
Now I move the whole grip two more frets towards the bridge. Can you figure out which chord this is?
It is a G Major =)
355433
Try to play it in both this form and in the regular form that you have learned previously - you will hear that they practically sound the same.
320033----- 355433
regular------- bar-form
Now you have (hopefully) understood the principle of the E-shape bar chord. It is crucial that you make the connection between the open chords and the bar chords - it will make your playing so much easier in the future.
If you did not quite understand, try reading all the steps one more time!
This is how you will usually find this chord in chord books
The frets are not numbered because it will be a major chord on any fret you choose to play it on (if your guitar is in standard tuning of course), on fret 5 it is A-major, fret 8 C major, fret 2 F# Major etc. The important thing is that you have the exact fretting pattern as shown in the diagram.
The root note, demonstrated with the R in the diagram, is on the thicker E string (well both e strings really) in this particular shape.
Important - this is the E-shape of the barchords! Since we derived it from E. It is important that you understand this for later theory.
Everything's still a but fuzzy? Hopefully this video, in which I demonstrate all of the above will, clarify things for you...
The A shape
That's right, there are more shapes! For any open chord you can construct a bar-shape, this is a fact! Forget about this for now though, because you will learn it later in the course. Now we need to focus on the A shape.
The A-shape is a little more difficult, because the fingering of the fretting pattern can be different - however the principle is identical to the E-shape. (i. e. replacing the nut with your index finger, and then using your other free fingers to form an "A shape" of the chord)
As with a open A major chord, the thick E string is NOT played, and the root is on the A string (and the G string)
These are the two fingerings explained, using the C major chord in the A-bar-shape.
X35553
Fingering #1
You can use your ringfinger alone to fret the D, G and B strings. This puts a high demand on your fingers' flexibility , and it takes a long time to master. With practise it will be as easy as sitting on a chair (well if you don't have any difficulties with that, that is). Although you will be in a need to use the other fingering at some occasions. Besides - if you really cannot master this fingering shown in the picture, the second one is probably the one for you!
Fingering #2
In this fingering you make use of all your fingers.
little finger: B string
Ring finger: G string
Middle finger: D string
This gives you more power (logically) to keep those strings down, since three fingers are doing work instead of one . It is also, in fact, necessary to use this grip sometimes, when you are doing certain arpegios. However if you have very bulky fingers, this might be difficult!
As you may or may not have noticed, both fingerings have advantages and disadvantages - but I recommend you to learn and master both of them.
This is usually how the A-shape is portrayed (1st fingering is the one you usually will find in chordbooks):
In case, as mentioned, the root note is on the A string!
This chord, for instance:
X57775
is a D major.
Bar chords in minor keys
To turn a major bar cord shape into a minor one, all you have to do is to look at how the open minor chord of that shape looks like.
I.e. to get a C minor in the E-shape, you need to think about what E minor looks like, namely:
022000
The root is on the lower E string, therefore a C minor chord in "Em shape" would be the following:
8 10 10 8 8 8
since the 8th fret on the lower E string represents the note "C", which is the root note we are looking for in this case.
Thus a C minor in the "A minor shape" would be:
X35543 since the 3rd fret on the A string is a C.
More examples are found in the summary further down...
The moveable minor A and E shapes are usually depicted like this (root notes are on the same strings as previous major shapes)
Summary - bar chords
That's quite a lot of information - my advice to you is to take it slow, and take one chord shape at a time and let the patterns sink into your brain properly! Anyway - here's a short summary of the above:
You get the chord name from the root note of the A or E string (depending on which chord shape you use).
Heres the fretboard diagram again so that you can identify which chords you are fretting:
Minor shapes
Major shapes
Examples (First E-shape, then A-shape)
12 14 14 13 12 12
X79997
|8 10 10 988
|X35553
|12 14 14 12 12 12
|X79987
|355333
|X10 12 12 11 10
133111
X8 10 10 98
|133211
|X8 10 10 10 8
|799877
|X24442
|799777
|X24432
And so on. I think you understand the message I'm trying to get across here=). If not, then try reading it once (or twice) more.
Don't forget that all of this will make so much more sense if you learn the names of the notes on the E and A strings. Suggestion: learn one or two frets a day, and you will be done in no time:).
The Troggs - Wild Thing
Time to put our new skills to use. You have most probably heard Wild Thing, and it can be played with open chords as well as with bar chords (although I must say it sounds better with bar chords).
The chords are A, D and E, and in the chorus a variation of A is played.
I demonstrate in the video.
Chorus
-5--5---5XX--5-5-XX--7--7--7XX--5-5-XX-------
-5--5---5XX--7-7-XX--9--9--9XX--7-7-XX-------
-6--6---6XX--7-7-XX--9--9--9XX--7-7-XX--o----
-7--7---7XX--7-7-XX--9--9--9XX--7-7-XX--o----
-7--7---7XX--5-5-XX--7--7--7XX--5-5-XX-------
-5--5---5XX---------------------------------------
Verse
-5--5--5--5_-------
-5--5--5--5_-------
-5--6--5--6_----o--
-5--7--5--7_----o--
-5--7--5--7_-------
-5--5--5--5_-------
_ : let tone ring
Lyrics
Chorus
Wild thing, you make my heart sing
you make everything, grooovy, wild thing
Verse
wild thing i think i love you, but i wanna know for sure
come on hold me tight, i love you
Chorus
wild thing, you make my heart sing, you make everything
groovy, wild thing
Verse
wild thing you really move me, but i wanna know for shore
come on hold me tight, you know you want me
Chorus
wild thing, you make my heart sing, you make everything groovy
wild thing, oo wild thing
Source: LetsSingIt
Nirvana - About a girl
Nirvana made many classical songs, and this is one of their best in my opinion. It is a mixture of open chords and powerchords - thus it is a good practise in learning to switch between different types of chords in different positions on the fretboard!
Also, I hope it will be inspiring...
In the chorus the following powerchord pattern is played (it is easier to just learn it than to write it in the lyrics)
2x
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
--6-6-X---------------------o----
--6-6-X-6-6-X-44-X-4-444----o----
--4-4-X-6-6-X-44-X-4-444----------
--------4-4-X-22-X-2-222-----------
1x
------------------------------
------------------------------
-------99XX------5--55/4------
-2-XX--99XX-77-X-5--55/4------
-2-XX--77XX-77-X-3--33/2------
-0-XX-------55-X--------------
I show you how to play in the video.
Lyrics:
Verse (same chords in the other verses)
Em G----- Em---- G
I need an easy friend
Em G----- Em---- G
(I do) With an ear to lend
Em G----- Em---- G
(I do) Think you fit this shoe
Em G----- Em---- G
(I do) Won't you have a clue
Chorus (powerchord pattern):
I'll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night
For Free
I'm standing in your line
(I do) Hope you have the time
(I do) Pick a number too
(I do) Keep a date with you
I'll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night
For Free
I need an easy friend
(I do) With an ear to lend
(I do) Think you fit this shoe
(I do) Won't you have a clue
I'll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night
No, I can't see you every night
For Free
I do ...
I do ...
I do ...
I do ...
Source: LetsSingIt
Allright...
That's all for this lesson, before you move on to the next...
- practise the bar chords a lot, and make sure you can play them well before moving on - that means your fingers have become stronger, and you will have less difficulty mastering the other shapes! Just a hint - it takes around 2-3 weeks for the muscles to get significantly stronger (that is, if you practise!)
- Try learning all the notes on the E and A strings
- make sure that you can grip all the open chords without hesitation! Practising in a dark room (or just closing your eyes) is great for this.
- get good sleep, drink a lot of milk, and call the smurfs every once in a while... =)