Chords for How To Make Barre Chords, Tips And Tricks Pt. 1
Tempo:
78.525 bpm
Chords used:
C
G
F
Gm
E
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
Hi, my name is Bobby Howe and I'd like to welcome you to my studio.
In this lesson series we're going to learn how to make bar chords with the left hand on the fretboard of the guitar.
I've seen a lot of video material on the internet and elsewhere that tells you how to make bar chords
[C] by simply taking your first finger, placing it in some fret all the way across the fretboard of the guitar
and making sure you get a nice clean sound as you strum.
[F] [Gm]
Something [E] like that.
And then taking a chord and placing it in front of that bar.
Most typically it's an E-shaped chord.
[G] And in the case of having your bar in the third fret that gives you a G chord.
And then simply strumming all of that.
And you've learned how to make bar chords.
That's all well and good, but what if you have difficulties?
Let's talk about that.
One of the reasons you could be having difficulty learning how to make and play bar chords is that your guitar is hard to play.
[N] Now there are a multitude of things that figure into that, a multitude of factors and so on
that kind of go beyond the scope of what we're doing here today.
But I want to give you one tip that will make determining if that's the problem kind of easy.
Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take an ordinary capo and place it in some fret.
I'm going to choose a third fret for no real good reason at all.
I'm just going to choose to put that capo in the third fret.
And then I'm not going to simply make a chord in front of it, although I could.
What I want to do is make a bar chord in front of it.
So I want to place my bar in this case in the fourth fret.
And place an open string type chord in front of that.
Most typically that's an E-shaped chord.
If I can do that and then I can make the bar chord and make it sound good.
Let's see if I can do [Ab] that.
[C] If I can do that and it's a lot easier with the capo in place,
then that tells me that the action on my guitar is too high.
And there are things you can do about that to make the guitar easier to play.
What you want to do is go down to your local music store.
And at a minimum I think they will suggest that you buy a new set of strings.
There are different gauges of strings and they can suggest the right one for you.
Plus they can make adjustments to your guitar to make it easier to play.
I've already stated that I've seen a lot of other video material that tells you to make bar chords.
What you need to do is take your first finger, place it on the guitar neck all the way across the fretboard.
And then make a chord with your other fingers in front of that.
And that's how you learn how to make and play bar chords.
That's all well and good.
As a matter of fact that's how I learned to do it.
But maybe we can think about it a little differently to make it easier.
What usually happens is you place your finger on the fretboard and you make a chord in front of it.
And your first finger moves.
That's what usually happens.
So instead let's make the chord first with our three fingers.
And then take our first finger and place it on the fret that we intend to bar.
Let's do it that way instead.
And then hopefully that will make you think about it a little differently.
And make it a little easier for you to be able to make a bar chord.
So everything from the tip of the finger all the way to the shoulder can have an effect
and usually does have an effect on your ability to make bar chords.
Let's talk about the left hand finger first of all.
Your first finger.
There is in the middle of the finger like in most of your other fingers,
there is [G] a big knuckle joint there.
And it's the second knuckle joint down from the tip of the finger there.
Alright, from that point on, from this second knuckle joint all the way to the tip of the finger,
that part of your finger really needs to be perfectly straight.
If it's not, what happens is your finger will arch a little bit.
And that's because you have this first knuckle joint here bent a little bit.
If you have that, what happens usually is people will have a bit of an arch to that finger.
And then when you go to strum, one or more of the strings will not be fretted properly
and you'll get a buzz or a dead sound.
Maybe something like this.
Something like that.
And one of those strings just won't ring true for that reason.
What people usually do in my experience is they'll just squeeze harder and harder and harder and harder
and they think the harder that they squeeze, that it'll come out of it.
You know, it will eventually allow them to make the chord properly, but it won't.
They'll just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and not have any success.
Perhaps they'll go away thinking, well, I just can't make bar chords, that's the end of it.
Well, the problem is your first finger is not straight.
You have to have, from this second knuckle joint to the end of your finger,
you have to have that part of your finger perfectly straight
in order to have some success at making a bar chord.
[N] Let's talk now about the position of the left hand thumb.
In order to make a bar chord, in my experience,
the best position for the left hand thumb is directly behind the first finger, right in the center of the neck.
Now let's talk about the overall position of your arm.
In my experience, you're going to have the best results
if you keep your elbow all the way up against your body as you go about to make bar chords.
So I hope you don't become discouraged when I make the following statement.
Making bar chords is really pretty easy.
Now if you're having a hard time of it, if it's difficult for you,
go back and check the things we talked about, the position of your fingers,
the position of your thumb and so forth.
Squeezing harder and harder and harder is not the answer.
You can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze.
If you have to do that, there's something wrong.
Either your fingers are not in the right position,
or your guitar is hard to play, or a combination of both of those things.
So I hope you found this video useful and it's been helpful to you.
I'm always anxious to hear about your progress and how it's going for you.
You can email me at the address you see on your screen there.
That's bobby at bobbyhowell.com.
I look forward to hearing about your comments and suggestions.
In this lesson series we're going to learn how to make bar chords with the left hand on the fretboard of the guitar.
I've seen a lot of video material on the internet and elsewhere that tells you how to make bar chords
[C] by simply taking your first finger, placing it in some fret all the way across the fretboard of the guitar
and making sure you get a nice clean sound as you strum.
[F] [Gm]
Something [E] like that.
And then taking a chord and placing it in front of that bar.
Most typically it's an E-shaped chord.
[G] And in the case of having your bar in the third fret that gives you a G chord.
And then simply strumming all of that.
And you've learned how to make bar chords.
That's all well and good, but what if you have difficulties?
Let's talk about that.
One of the reasons you could be having difficulty learning how to make and play bar chords is that your guitar is hard to play.
[N] Now there are a multitude of things that figure into that, a multitude of factors and so on
that kind of go beyond the scope of what we're doing here today.
But I want to give you one tip that will make determining if that's the problem kind of easy.
Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take an ordinary capo and place it in some fret.
I'm going to choose a third fret for no real good reason at all.
I'm just going to choose to put that capo in the third fret.
And then I'm not going to simply make a chord in front of it, although I could.
What I want to do is make a bar chord in front of it.
So I want to place my bar in this case in the fourth fret.
And place an open string type chord in front of that.
Most typically that's an E-shaped chord.
If I can do that and then I can make the bar chord and make it sound good.
Let's see if I can do [Ab] that.
[C] If I can do that and it's a lot easier with the capo in place,
then that tells me that the action on my guitar is too high.
And there are things you can do about that to make the guitar easier to play.
What you want to do is go down to your local music store.
And at a minimum I think they will suggest that you buy a new set of strings.
There are different gauges of strings and they can suggest the right one for you.
Plus they can make adjustments to your guitar to make it easier to play.
I've already stated that I've seen a lot of other video material that tells you to make bar chords.
What you need to do is take your first finger, place it on the guitar neck all the way across the fretboard.
And then make a chord with your other fingers in front of that.
And that's how you learn how to make and play bar chords.
That's all well and good.
As a matter of fact that's how I learned to do it.
But maybe we can think about it a little differently to make it easier.
What usually happens is you place your finger on the fretboard and you make a chord in front of it.
And your first finger moves.
That's what usually happens.
So instead let's make the chord first with our three fingers.
And then take our first finger and place it on the fret that we intend to bar.
Let's do it that way instead.
And then hopefully that will make you think about it a little differently.
And make it a little easier for you to be able to make a bar chord.
So everything from the tip of the finger all the way to the shoulder can have an effect
and usually does have an effect on your ability to make bar chords.
Let's talk about the left hand finger first of all.
Your first finger.
There is in the middle of the finger like in most of your other fingers,
there is [G] a big knuckle joint there.
And it's the second knuckle joint down from the tip of the finger there.
Alright, from that point on, from this second knuckle joint all the way to the tip of the finger,
that part of your finger really needs to be perfectly straight.
If it's not, what happens is your finger will arch a little bit.
And that's because you have this first knuckle joint here bent a little bit.
If you have that, what happens usually is people will have a bit of an arch to that finger.
And then when you go to strum, one or more of the strings will not be fretted properly
and you'll get a buzz or a dead sound.
Maybe something like this.
Something like that.
And one of those strings just won't ring true for that reason.
What people usually do in my experience is they'll just squeeze harder and harder and harder and harder
and they think the harder that they squeeze, that it'll come out of it.
You know, it will eventually allow them to make the chord properly, but it won't.
They'll just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and not have any success.
Perhaps they'll go away thinking, well, I just can't make bar chords, that's the end of it.
Well, the problem is your first finger is not straight.
You have to have, from this second knuckle joint to the end of your finger,
you have to have that part of your finger perfectly straight
in order to have some success at making a bar chord.
[N] Let's talk now about the position of the left hand thumb.
In order to make a bar chord, in my experience,
the best position for the left hand thumb is directly behind the first finger, right in the center of the neck.
Now let's talk about the overall position of your arm.
In my experience, you're going to have the best results
if you keep your elbow all the way up against your body as you go about to make bar chords.
So I hope you don't become discouraged when I make the following statement.
Making bar chords is really pretty easy.
Now if you're having a hard time of it, if it's difficult for you,
go back and check the things we talked about, the position of your fingers,
the position of your thumb and so forth.
Squeezing harder and harder and harder is not the answer.
You can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze.
If you have to do that, there's something wrong.
Either your fingers are not in the right position,
or your guitar is hard to play, or a combination of both of those things.
So I hope you found this video useful and it's been helpful to you.
I'm always anxious to hear about your progress and how it's going for you.
You can email me at the address you see on your screen there.
That's bobby at bobbyhowell.com.
I look forward to hearing about your comments and suggestions.
Key:
C
G
F
Gm
E
C
G
F
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Hi, my name is Bobby Howe and I'd like to welcome you to my studio.
In this lesson series we're going to learn how to make bar chords with the left hand on the fretboard of the guitar.
I've seen a lot of video material on the internet and elsewhere that tells you how to make bar chords
[C] by simply taking your first finger, placing it in some fret all the way across the fretboard of the guitar
and making sure you get a nice clean sound as you strum.
[F] _ [Gm] _
_ Something [E] like that.
And then taking a chord and placing it in front of that bar.
Most typically it's an E-shaped chord.
[G] And in the case of having your bar in the third fret that gives you a G chord.
And then simply strumming all of that.
_ _ And you've learned how to make bar chords.
That's all well and good, but what if you have difficulties?
Let's talk about that.
One of the reasons you could be having difficulty learning how to make and play bar chords is that your guitar is hard to play.
[N] Now there are a multitude of things that figure into that, a multitude of factors and so on
that kind of go beyond the scope of what we're doing here today.
But I want to give you one tip that will make determining if that's the problem kind of easy.
Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take an ordinary capo and place it in some fret.
I'm going to choose a third fret for no real good reason at all.
I'm just going to choose to put that capo in the third fret.
And then I'm not going to simply make a chord in front of it, although I could.
What I want to do is make a bar chord in front of it.
So I want to place my bar in this case in the fourth fret.
And place an open string type chord in front of that.
Most typically that's an E-shaped chord.
If I can do that and then I can make the bar chord and make it sound good.
Let's see if I can do [Ab] that.
_ _ [C] If I can do that and it's a lot easier with the capo in place,
then that tells me that the action on my guitar is too high.
And there are things you can do about that to make the guitar easier to play.
What you want to do is go down to your local music store.
And at a minimum I think they will suggest that you buy a new set of strings.
There are different gauges of strings and they can suggest the right one for you.
Plus they can make adjustments to your guitar to make it easier to play.
I've already stated that I've seen a lot of other video material that tells you to make bar chords.
What you need to do is take your first finger, place it on the guitar neck all the way across the fretboard.
And then make a chord with your other fingers in front of that.
And that's how you learn how to make and play bar chords.
That's all well and good.
As a matter of fact that's how I learned to do it.
But maybe we can think about it a little differently to make it easier.
What usually happens is you place your finger on the fretboard and you make a chord in front of it.
And your first finger moves.
That's what usually happens.
So instead let's make the chord first with our three fingers.
And then take our first finger and place it on the fret that we intend to bar.
Let's do it that way instead.
And then hopefully that will make you think about it a little differently.
And make it a little easier for you to be able to make a bar chord.
So everything from the tip of the finger all the way to the shoulder can have an effect
and usually does have an effect on your ability to make bar chords.
Let's talk about the left hand finger first of all.
Your first finger.
There is in the middle of the finger like in most of your other fingers,
there is [G] a big knuckle joint there.
And it's the second knuckle joint down from the tip of the finger there.
Alright, from that point on, from this second knuckle joint all the way to the tip of the finger,
that part of your finger really needs to be perfectly straight.
If it's not, what happens is your finger will arch a little bit.
And that's because you have this first knuckle joint here bent a little bit.
If you have that, what happens usually is people will have a bit of an arch to that finger.
And then when you go to strum, one or more of the strings will not be fretted properly
and you'll get a buzz or a dead sound.
Maybe something like this. _ _ _
Something like that.
And one of those strings just won't ring true for that reason. _
What people usually do in my experience is they'll just squeeze harder and harder and harder and harder
and they think the harder that they squeeze, that it'll come out of it.
You know, it will eventually allow them to make the chord properly, but it won't.
They'll just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and not have any success.
Perhaps they'll go away thinking, well, I just can't make bar chords, that's the end of it.
Well, the problem is your first finger is not straight.
You have to have, from this second knuckle joint to the end of your finger,
you have to have that part of your finger perfectly straight
in order to have some success at making a bar chord. _ _ _ _
[N] Let's talk now about the position of the left hand thumb.
In order to make a bar chord, in my experience,
the best position for the left hand thumb is directly behind the first finger, right in the center of the neck.
Now let's talk about the overall position of your arm.
In my experience, you're going to have the best results
if you keep your elbow all the way up against your body as you go about to make bar chords.
So I hope you don't become discouraged when I make the following statement.
Making bar chords is really pretty easy.
Now if you're having a hard time of it, if it's difficult for you,
go back and check the things we talked about, the position of your fingers,
the position of your thumb and so forth.
Squeezing harder and harder and harder is not the answer.
You can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze.
If you have to do that, there's something wrong.
Either your fingers are not in the right position,
or your guitar is hard to play, or a combination of both of those things.
So I hope you found this video useful and it's been helpful to you.
I'm always anxious to hear about your progress and how it's going for you.
You can email me at the address you see on your screen there.
That's bobby at bobbyhowell.com.
I look forward to hearing about your comments and suggestions. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Hi, my name is Bobby Howe and I'd like to welcome you to my studio.
In this lesson series we're going to learn how to make bar chords with the left hand on the fretboard of the guitar.
I've seen a lot of video material on the internet and elsewhere that tells you how to make bar chords
[C] by simply taking your first finger, placing it in some fret all the way across the fretboard of the guitar
and making sure you get a nice clean sound as you strum.
[F] _ [Gm] _
_ Something [E] like that.
And then taking a chord and placing it in front of that bar.
Most typically it's an E-shaped chord.
[G] And in the case of having your bar in the third fret that gives you a G chord.
And then simply strumming all of that.
_ _ And you've learned how to make bar chords.
That's all well and good, but what if you have difficulties?
Let's talk about that.
One of the reasons you could be having difficulty learning how to make and play bar chords is that your guitar is hard to play.
[N] Now there are a multitude of things that figure into that, a multitude of factors and so on
that kind of go beyond the scope of what we're doing here today.
But I want to give you one tip that will make determining if that's the problem kind of easy.
Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take an ordinary capo and place it in some fret.
I'm going to choose a third fret for no real good reason at all.
I'm just going to choose to put that capo in the third fret.
And then I'm not going to simply make a chord in front of it, although I could.
What I want to do is make a bar chord in front of it.
So I want to place my bar in this case in the fourth fret.
And place an open string type chord in front of that.
Most typically that's an E-shaped chord.
If I can do that and then I can make the bar chord and make it sound good.
Let's see if I can do [Ab] that.
_ _ [C] If I can do that and it's a lot easier with the capo in place,
then that tells me that the action on my guitar is too high.
And there are things you can do about that to make the guitar easier to play.
What you want to do is go down to your local music store.
And at a minimum I think they will suggest that you buy a new set of strings.
There are different gauges of strings and they can suggest the right one for you.
Plus they can make adjustments to your guitar to make it easier to play.
I've already stated that I've seen a lot of other video material that tells you to make bar chords.
What you need to do is take your first finger, place it on the guitar neck all the way across the fretboard.
And then make a chord with your other fingers in front of that.
And that's how you learn how to make and play bar chords.
That's all well and good.
As a matter of fact that's how I learned to do it.
But maybe we can think about it a little differently to make it easier.
What usually happens is you place your finger on the fretboard and you make a chord in front of it.
And your first finger moves.
That's what usually happens.
So instead let's make the chord first with our three fingers.
And then take our first finger and place it on the fret that we intend to bar.
Let's do it that way instead.
And then hopefully that will make you think about it a little differently.
And make it a little easier for you to be able to make a bar chord.
So everything from the tip of the finger all the way to the shoulder can have an effect
and usually does have an effect on your ability to make bar chords.
Let's talk about the left hand finger first of all.
Your first finger.
There is in the middle of the finger like in most of your other fingers,
there is [G] a big knuckle joint there.
And it's the second knuckle joint down from the tip of the finger there.
Alright, from that point on, from this second knuckle joint all the way to the tip of the finger,
that part of your finger really needs to be perfectly straight.
If it's not, what happens is your finger will arch a little bit.
And that's because you have this first knuckle joint here bent a little bit.
If you have that, what happens usually is people will have a bit of an arch to that finger.
And then when you go to strum, one or more of the strings will not be fretted properly
and you'll get a buzz or a dead sound.
Maybe something like this. _ _ _
Something like that.
And one of those strings just won't ring true for that reason. _
What people usually do in my experience is they'll just squeeze harder and harder and harder and harder
and they think the harder that they squeeze, that it'll come out of it.
You know, it will eventually allow them to make the chord properly, but it won't.
They'll just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and not have any success.
Perhaps they'll go away thinking, well, I just can't make bar chords, that's the end of it.
Well, the problem is your first finger is not straight.
You have to have, from this second knuckle joint to the end of your finger,
you have to have that part of your finger perfectly straight
in order to have some success at making a bar chord. _ _ _ _
[N] Let's talk now about the position of the left hand thumb.
In order to make a bar chord, in my experience,
the best position for the left hand thumb is directly behind the first finger, right in the center of the neck.
Now let's talk about the overall position of your arm.
In my experience, you're going to have the best results
if you keep your elbow all the way up against your body as you go about to make bar chords.
So I hope you don't become discouraged when I make the following statement.
Making bar chords is really pretty easy.
Now if you're having a hard time of it, if it's difficult for you,
go back and check the things we talked about, the position of your fingers,
the position of your thumb and so forth.
Squeezing harder and harder and harder is not the answer.
You can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze.
If you have to do that, there's something wrong.
Either your fingers are not in the right position,
or your guitar is hard to play, or a combination of both of those things.
So I hope you found this video useful and it's been helpful to you.
I'm always anxious to hear about your progress and how it's going for you.
You can email me at the address you see on your screen there.
That's bobby at bobbyhowell.com.
I look forward to hearing about your comments and suggestions. _ _ _