Learn How to Barre Chords Work (Part 2) on Guitar

So, with that now, we are going to do the minor chords on the E string. Those are really easy because all you are going to do is think about your Em chord, open position. Em chord open position, this top string is open and you have 2nd fret with your ring finger and pinky and then open, open, open, open. So, put your Em chord where you are going to put your ring finger on this string right here and your pinky right below it. So, play that. [Demo] That is your Em. So, you get your Em to your Fm which is half step. All you do is slide that up to one and bar in it. So, the only difference between -- on the E string, the only difference between your major and your minor chords is that middle finger. Because in the major chord, [Demo] It is there. In the minor, it is off. [Demo] I will move from major to minor chord just by simply removing that middle finger. So, major chord. [Demo] E, take that middle finger off. [Demo] That is your Minor, the same way all the way up to the neck, works with that. So, move up two and this would be a G note here. So, you have these two fingers here. [Demo] Gm. If you are having trouble with the strength of the bar chord or you have kind of big hands so I can do this. You can take your middle finger and put it over top of your pointer finger. [Demo] To give you a little more strength and get that strings with weak fingers. Also, you should remember that want to try and keep your thumb in the middle of the back of the neck like you are going to keep it right there. Because I wrap and that actually I wrap around like kind of give you some problems when you want to try and play some bar chords. So, make sure you keep your thumb there and that will also give you -- you can squeeze your thumb and your pointer together to give that strength on the bar chord. So, we did the E string. Now, we will get down at the A string. Like you did before with the A string open, up two steps is your B. [Demo] C on the 3rd fret. [Demo] I will not go up through because I already did it. But what I want you to do for the bar chords for that is think of what your open. Position A chord, and that is where you are holding down the second. 2nd fret on your D, G and B strings. So, from the top 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 3rd, 4th and the 5th. Alright. That is your open position A. [Demo] So, another way to play that is you bar across these three with this ring finger. [Demo] Now, that is your open position A. And another thing just like earlier, if you think about it really this part of the guitar here for you is barring across for you. [Demo] So, that finger is kind of like a bar chord. So, what you do now is you slide that up right there. Try to keep that middle finger up so you can see better. So, you are going to barring across these three strings, D, G and B strings. [Demo] Then you bar across the five. You would only have to bar across the top five or the bottom five strings on your A bar chords because you do not want to play this low E string. You want your A to be your base note. So, just start and move up to neck. Get your open position A. [Demo] Slide it one step from A to A# up here. 2nd fret, this is called a B. [Demo] From your B slide to one step up to the C on the 3rd fret. [Demo] From your C, where you are going to go? You are going to D, two more up. D, you are going to E and just push on the 7th fret. Put your bar across E 7th and you will bring this down, your bar on the 9th. [Demo] From the 7th, it is a -- A, B, C, D, E. Okay, so you got your E. [Demo] So, next one, you are going to do the F. You will go to the 8th fret. [Demo] Then F to your G. 10th fret. And then all the way back up to here is another A. So, that is basically how you do that. The minor chords on the A string, the base note where this pointer finger is going to be barring is exactly the same. The only thing you are going to do is instead of barring across the D, G and B strings, on two frets down is you are going to make the same chord formation that you did on the major E. So, just think of it. I know this is probably a lot of terminologies for a beginner. But think about putting where Am is in open position. An Am in open position is put your middle finger on the 2nd string up from the bottom, 1st fret. So, you get your high E, that is open and your B string. Put your finger on the first then the two strings above that put your ring finger and your pinky. So, E, A, D and G. Go to the 2nd fret and the B string 1st fret. So, this is your Am. [Demo] So, if you want to move up to a Bm, that is two steps up. You slide this up two and bar. [Demo] So, Bm. You are going to go to Cm, you go one step and then move up to next. [Demo] Cm, D, E, F, G, Am again. That is basically how bar chords work guys. That is one of the things that confused me when I first started playing. I hope this is helpful. Sorry that I went through so fast but i am doing my video on a video camera and I have to keep it below ten minutes or YouTube would not let me put it on there. So, hope this helps. If you have any questions or you want anymore kind of individualized instruction, if you are having sort of trouble with anything, let me know. I have Instant Messenger. I have YouTube messages, so we can kind of talk it through if you are having some problems on some stuff. And if there is anything else that you know that you are trying to learn guitar and you are having some troubles, let me know. I am going to do a video here about five minutes after this on basic chords that you want to learn when you first start playing guitars so you can play some songs. That is always what everyone is after is just to pick up the guitar and play something else that everyone is going to recognize. So, thanks for stopping in guys. Keep up the request and I get a lot of them now and we are trying to keep it up and get these videos as soon as possible. So, thanks guys. Take care.