Guitar Bar Chords and Free Online Video Guitar Lesson

Guitar Bar Chords...
There's more than one way to "spell" a chord

Frustrated with guitar bar chords? These clear instructions include a free online video guitar lesson that will heal any frustration you feel.

Electric Guitar

Acoustic Guitar

Before we go further, I'd like to point out that "barre" is the correct spelling. Just in case you're looking it up elsewhere. Now you know that its one of those words that gets spelled 2 different ways. I actually have a different lesson on "barre chords" under the "Articles" section. You may like to read it sometime. It doesn't include a guitar lesson video though.

If you want the quick start guide to making bar chords easier, go to the video now. If you aren't sure, or want to know more about these chords, read on!

Why even bother with guitar bar chords?

I'm glad you asked :-) Here are a couple of very good reasons...

Chords with roots such as "F" or "B" can only be played as some type of barre chord.

You'll have more options when playing songs or jamming with others.

You'll begin to see more patterns on the fretboard.

Electric or Acoustic?

This brings us to another important point. If you play electric guitar, you have no option. You really do need to get the basic barre chord forms under your fingers. Not only for the reasons listed above, but because learning them will truly begin to open the guitar up for you :-)

If you play acoustic steel string it can a little trickier. And it depends upon your goals. This is because guitar bar chords can be physically demanding to play on a steel string guitar. Also, open strings sound so much better on an acoustic!

What some players do to offset this is to use mainly open position chord shapes. If they want to play in a different key, they simply use a capo. A capo is the device that you clamp onto the neck of a guitar. This way, a guitarist can still have the effect of open strings ringing through.

Or some players will play in "open tunings". This means they tune the strings of their guitar to different pitches than the standard tuning. It also means they will need to use different fingerings for various chords. If you're fairly serious about your guitar playing and you're drawn to this type of playing, go for it. Otherwise, I strongly suggest sticking with standard tuning.

The best way for most players to improve their playing on acoustic guitar is to learn the basics really well. And that definitely includes guitar bar chords. Fingerpicking is also a good skill to learn. It can really take your playing in new directions. As always, stay focused. If you jump around too much with curiosity, you won't get anywhere. By all means experiment and do your research. Then, narrow you focus and practice! When you're ready to expand a little, you'll know. It's like building a house. Make sure you have a solid foundation in place. Then it won't matter what styles you want to learn.

Is it Major, Minor or Dom7?

Dom is short for dominant. The "C dominant 7th" chord would be named simply C7. Major will usually be written as "ma" or upper case "M". Minor will be "mi" or lower case "m". Sometimes they will be

This Basic Guitar Lesson Gets You Started Right.

Basic Guitar Lesson - get it right the first time.

Learning guitar can definitely seem overwhelming - especially in the beginning. This basic guitar lesson helps you get it right the first time with some important tips. Tips such as how to hold and position your guitar properly so you can stay relaxed and at ease while playing. It also covers how to hold your guitar pick.

The positioning of your guitar and your posture are the foundation of learning guitar. If you're not relaxed and comfortable, it's going to get in the way of your enjoyment. In some cases it can even lead to chronic injuries - but that would take a ton of playing ;-)

OK. It's important to be comfortable and relaxed. But is that it? Can you skip ahead to another "more interesting" lesson now? Sure. But I wouldn't recommend that just yet. Even if you think you already know how to hold a guitar, you just might find out a couple of very helpful tips. And those tips just might be things that help you to improve your guitar playing.

First things first...this basic guitar lesson is similar to if you were at your very first golf or tennis lesson. You'd first learn how to "grip" the golf club or tennis racquet and get into a proper "stance" or posture. Same goes for guitar - ( btw, if you don't know golf or tennis, it doesn't matter ;-)

Let's get started! As always, you can scroll to the video to help you understand even more. Just make sure you do your best to read through these basic guitar lesson instructions once before watching the video. They will really help you put it all together.

Important note: I'm assuming that your guitar is either a standard acoustic guitar with 6 steel strings or an electric guitar. If it's a Spanish Guitar with nylon strings, it's covered briefly in the video.

Basic Guitar Lesson Instructions

How To Hold A Guitar Pick

The hand you use to hold the pick is the hand you play guitar with. For example, I'm left-handed because that's the hand I use to hold my pick.

It's generally best to learn with a pick in the beginning - but it's not absolutely necessary. Just ask yourself if you truly want to learn "fingerpicking"? Or are you just being lazy about learning with a pick?

Whichever hand you decide to use, make sure that the heaviest string is closest to the sky when you sit to play. If it's not, see lefty for more information about how to play a guitar left-handed.

OK. You're right-handed. Sit on a sturdy chair or stool. Best if it doesn't have arm rests. You don't want anything too soft to sit in either. No bean bag chairs ;-)

If possible, you want your thighs to be as parallel to the floor as possible. In other words, you don't want to sit too high or too low. Just right.

Place the body of the guitar on top of your right thigh. Have it angled slightly so that you can see the dots on the fingerboard.

Don't slouch! And have your left arm extend away from your body so that if you grip the neck of the guitar, your wrist is fairly straight.

Your right arm rests on the guitar body. If the guitar is digging into your arm, it may mean it's too big for you.
Final Notes

That's pretty much it. The rest is in the video. You may need to experiment with chairs and adjusting angles a bit. Pay attention to your body as you play. Try not to hunch your shoulders - occasionally take a relaxed deep breath - that should position them properly.

Also important is your left hand wrist. For the most part, it should be straight. Again, the video describes this. If you have any pain in your wrist, stop! Get someone who is a pro to check out your "guitar posture" - and/or check with your doctor. Don't worry! This is rare. It usually takes lots and lots and lots of practice to have any pain ;-)

I hope you enjoyed this basic guitar lesson. If you are still having difficulty and are unsure about things, e-mail me. Perhaps include a photo that shows how you are holding your guitar. Also, is there anything about this website that you think could be better? I'd love to hear about it so I can "fix" it :-)

Best in guitar and Life,

Dave

How to Play Guitar Chords. Try This Free Beginner Guitar Lesson

How To Play Guitar Chords and...
Sound Great!

Find Out What You Need to Know

Get clear instruction on how to play guitar chords. Learn basic chord guitar with this excellent lesson. If you're a complete beginner on guitar, I would recommend clicking here to get started. Come back to this page later :-)

Switching between basic guitar chords.

These instructions get you switching between basic guitar chords. The goal is to be able to change between 2 different chords without hesitation. That is the first challenge to overcome when learning basic guitar.

Memorize 5 chords first... This lesson on how to play guitar chords is based on an earlier exercise from a different page. Go to that page now. Check that you know a minimum of 5 chords from the chord charts there. If you don't, I strongly recommend going through that lesson. And watching the guitar lesson video on that page. Then come back here.

OK. Let's get started...

Choose any 2 basic guitar chords.

Check to make sure all the necessary strings are ringing through clearly when practicing how to play guitar chords.

Make sure you know which string to hit first with the pick! For example, don't hit the low E (string 6) first when playing a D major chord.

Follow the previous steps for the 2nd guitar chord that you chose.

Strum downward only. Switch to the other chord after 8 strums. Do not stop strumming.

If you "miss" the chord change, simply continue strumming. Adjust your fretting hand if necessary.

After 8 strums, switch back to the 1st chord. Continue alternating like this until your fingers bleed ;-)

Kidding aside now. When learning how to play guitar chords it's very important to VISUALIZE the chord BEFORE you make the switch.

At this point, you can try the same exercise with only 4 strums. Once mastered, pick 2 new chords and go through the entire process again.

Playing songs...

If you can now switch a handful of chords with some degree of confidence, you're ready to try this method on a song that you like. Important! Choose a song you already know most of the chords to.

If there are one or two chords you don't know, that's OK. Learn them! Most songbooks have a basic guitar chord chart above the lyrics. If not, go to guitar bar chords . That should give you all the ammunition you need :-)

Relax! There aren't all that many chords to learn if your goal is simply to accompany yourself to songs. That's why I strongly recommend singing along as best you can. Eventually, singing while you play will be effortless. Just like picking up a book, or walking from one room to another.

If you aspire to play lead or solo guitar, you've got a longer - but very rich journey ahead. Interspersed with bouts of frustration, of course. Is that why some rockstars used to smash their guitars onstage? Although personally, I consider that an extreme waste of wood and value ;-)

Moving forward...

There are a couple of other very important skills to develop when learning how to play guitar chords. You've got the ball rolling by being able to switch between some of the chords. Now it's time to add rhythm to the mix.

When it comes to playing guitar chords, rhythm usually means strumming. Notice how close the word strumming is to drumming. They are almost the same. Actually, some people go as far as classifying the guitar as a percussion instrument. This is because when a guitarist is strumming chords, she's keeping the beat. We hope ;-) Here's a free video guitar lesson on strumming.

As always, be patient and persist. Enjoy the moments you have to learn guitar :-) Best in guitar and Life,

Dave

Return from How to Play Guitar Chords to Beginners

Return from How to Play Guitar Chords to Homepage

Guitar Strumming Patterns With Free Guitar Video Lesson

Guitar Strumming Patterns...
let's make music !

This free chord guitar lesson gets you started with guitar strumming patterns. Read the instructions and then watch the online guitar lesson video.

Before we get to the instructions, let's discuss a couple of things. You should know at least 1 or 2 basic guitar chords...are they memorized? Do you know how to hold your guitar properly? Your pick? How about tuning your guitar?

If you can't answer "yes" to all of the above questions, I strongly advise going to the beginners section right now. Scroll down the page to the lesson topic links. Bookmark this "guitar strumming patterns" page and meet me back here when you're ready :-)

Strumming and Drumming... are almost exactly the same word. That's not a coincidence. When you strum chords on your guitar, you're keeping a beat. Just like a drummer does...hopefully ;-)

You need to be able to count to 4. Isn't music great? Music either has 3 beats per bar or 4 beats per bar. You already know this whether you think so or not. That's why you "unconciously" tap your foot when you hear music that you like. There's a well known song by the rock band Queen that demonstrates this perfectly. If you don't know the song, don't worry. It'll all make sense in the guitar video part of this lesson.

We Will Rock You...by Queen. It's played at a lot of high profile sporting events because it has a beat that pumps up the crowd. There are 4 beats to the bar (or measure) in that piece of music. We count it 1

Free Guitar Power Chord Lesson

Guitar Power Chord Lesson
...there's more than 1 way to play a power chord!

This is a cool guitar power chord lesson and video for those of you starting out with rock guitar. Find out how to play power chords on electric guitar and make them sound great! Not only that, but we'll explore a couple of other ways to play power chords that even some more advanced players may not know.

Who's This Rock Guitar Lesson For?

If you have a burning curiosity and desire to find out how to play power chords on guitar, then you're in the right place :-) Even if you know the basic ones that everyone learns in the beginning, I'm certain that you'll learn at least a couple of new things in this lesson.

Important Guidelines

Have your amp set to a good rock sound. If you're not sure, see amp settings for some basics to get you started.

Make sure your guitar is comfortable. I know, your favorite rock star might wear his or her guitar really low...but they've been playing a long time. For now, learn to get a clear sound. That means your hands will need to be in a good position to play the guitar power chord. You can gradually get used to playing standing up and after a year or two start to experiment if you want to.

Continuing with the above point...the headstock of your guitar should be somewhere around shoulder height. I'll demonstrate in the guitar video lesson.You'll also be able to see the positioning of my hands.

Make sure your pick is not too floppy. A Fender Medium is a good place to start if you're not sure.

Strings go E A D G B E from low to high. Thick to skinny. Ceiling to floor ;-)

As usual, I cover all the points in the guitar video lesson. It's very helpful to read over this though. There are also guitar power chord diagrams below. The number at the top of the chart is the fret position. On the A5 chord you'll see a 3. That means the chord diagram starts at the 3rd fret. Got it? :-)