Bar Chords

Bar chords, also sometimes called movable chords, are pretty much a necessity for any guitarist that needs to play in a more unusual key. The open chords probably will work just fine if a song is in A or E, but a song in C#, unless you plan on using some unusual guitar tuning, you would need bar chords for that. The nicest aspect of bar chords is that once you learn one shape, as long as you know what note is the root of that shape, you can quite easily play any chord of that type.

The reason they are sometimes called movable chords is because you can move them up and down the neck to change the root note. Neil Giraldo (Pat Benatar’s lead guitarist) makes very heavy use of bar chords in almost every song he plays, so don’t feel obligated to use open chords if a bar chord seems to fit better. You can find these types of chords used in everything from some guitar versions of “Southwind” (a very tranquil, traditional Celtic song) to the hook from the main guitar riff in “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath. The extra control on bar chords actually can be quite useful in preventing feedback when you want to use chords with higher levels of distortion.

One thing to keep in mind is that bar chords are difficult to hold down. You usually need to bar either 5 or 6 strings with one finger, and that does take a good amount of strength. A good start to playing these chords is to make sure your thumb is on the back of the guitar neck, and not hanging over the side of the neck. If you still are having trouble, then just be sure to practice them a little every day. You will eventually build up enough strength to hold these chords without issues, but you will never do that without practicing them to build up your hand muscles. The closer you are to the nut, the more difficult it is to hold down the chord. There is also a point where it is hard to fret the proper notes once you go high enough on the neck (a good rule of thumb is anything past the 12th fret is too high on the neck most of the time).

The 6 string bar chords, which are sometimes referred to as E or F shaped bar chords, use the 6 string (and the 1 string, both are the same note at the same fret), as the root note. If you play it on the fifth fret, they are A chords, on the third fret, they are G chords, etc. These are identical in shape to the E chord (the “bar” is actually the nut rather than your finger) and F chord, so you may already know the shape without realizing it. Practice the chords diagrams below. Play each note individually to make sure all of them are ringing clearly. If you just strum it, you may not notice some strings being accidentally muted out. The notes in red indicate the root notes for the chord.

The 5 string bar chords, sometimes referred to as the A or B series of bar chords work exactly the same as the 6 string bar chords. The root note location and shape has changed, but they still move up and down the neck to choose what the root of the chord is. The major chord gets really difficult to hold in its more common form, so most guitarists will just use the form shown below. The 6 string should not be played for either chord, and the 1 string should also not be played for the major version of the chord. Losing one note from the major chord really does not have a huge effect on the sound, but holding that chord as shown is extremely useful during fast chord changes.

Once you get good at holding the chords, just pick any random song with open chords and practice playing them with bar chords. You need to develop the ability to quickly transition between different bar chords, and using songs you comfortably know how they should sound is a good way to develop that. If the difference between bar and open chords is subtle then you can be reasonably confident in your ability to switch chords.

Keep on rockin'!