Barre Chords - "A" Shape

 

Lesson Goals:

♦ Review definintion of a barre chord 
♦ Learn barre chords in the "A" shape
♦ Learn C, D and E barre chords

In this lesson we will work on barre chords based on the "A" shape.

The main difference with barre chords that use the "A" shape is that the root note for these chords will be on the 5th string.

Let's take a look at the "A" shape.

With barre chords in the "A" shape, you will actually be barring with two fingers. The 1st (index) finger will barre across the fret at the root (like we did with "E" shape barre chords), and, you will use your 3rd finger to barre the three strings that make up the "A" shape.

The trick with these "A" shape barre chords is to do the barre with the 3rd finger without touching or muting the other strings.

Keep practicing though, and your fingers will learn to cooperate.

If we take the A chord like in the diagram above and slide it up to the 3rd fret, we wind up with a C chord as illustrated below.

With "E" shape barre chords (last lesson) we could determine the name of the chord by the name of the root note on the 6th string. With "A" shape barre chords we determine the name of the chord by the name of the root on the 5th string.

If we slide the C chord up two frets to the 5th fret we wind up with a D chord. See below.

In the above diagram, the root note is on the 5th fret of the 5th string making this a D chord.

Sliding up two more frets to the 7th fret you arrive at an E chord. See below.

Hopefully you can see how simple it is to figure out any major chord just by knowing the notes on the 5th fret.

Coming up after this, we will put some of these chords to use in a new song!