Barre 7th Chords
Lesson Goals:
♦ Learn barre 7th chords in the "E" shape
♦ Learn barre 7th chords in the "A" shape
♦ Learn G7, A7, B7, C7, D7, and E7 barre chords
Up to this point we have learned major and minor chords in the "E" shape family, and, major and minor chords in the "A" shape family.
In this lesson we will learn 7th chords in both the "E" and "A" shape families.
First we will look at barre 7th chords based on the "E" shape. See the diagram below.
You may remember that, in order to turn an E major open chord into an E7, all you have to do is lift the note on the 2nd fret of the 4th string.
Now let's take a look at the "shape" of the barre 7th chord based on the "E" shape family.
As you can see from the above diagram, in order to make a barre 7th chord, all you have to do is maintain the E7 shape and barre the fret that corresponds to the root note of the desired chord.
This will require an adjustment in fingering to free up the 1st (index) finger to make the "barre".
Now we can take a look at a few barre 7th chords based on the "E" shape.
The only difference with any of the four chords above is the root note. Other than that they are identical.
The root note of the G7 is on the 3rd fret of the 6th string - the A7 is on the 5th fret - and the B7 is on the 7th fret. Take a moment and work on the fingering.
Now let's look at 7th chords based on the "A" shape family.
You may recall that to turn an open A major chord into an A7 all you have to do is lift the note on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string.
Below is a diagram of the "shape" of a barre 7th chord in the "A" shape family.
In this case the barre chord maintains the "shape" of the A7 chord, but the root note is now on the 3rd fret of the 5th string making this a C7 chord.
Now we can take a look at a few barre 7th chords based on the "A" shape.
The only difference with any of the four chords above is the root note. Other than that they are identical.
The root note of the C7 is on the 3rd fret of the 5th string - the D7 is on the 5th fret - and the E7 is on the 7th fret. Take a moment to work out the fingering.
