Hate Barre Chords? Watch This...

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In music, a barre chord (also spelled bar chord) is a type of chord on a guitar or other stringed instrument played by using one finger to press down multiple strings across a single fret of the fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strings).

Players often use this chording technique to play a chord that is not restricted by the tones of the guitar's open strings. For instance, if a guitar is tuned to regular concert pitch, with the open strings being E, A, D, G, B, E (from low to high), open chords must be based on one or more of these notes. To play an F♯ chord the guitarist may barre strings so that the chord root is F♯.

Most barre chords are "moveable" chords,[1] as the player can move the whole chord shape up and down the neck.[2] Commonly used in both popular and classical music, barre chords are frequently used in combination with "open" chords, where the guitar's open (unfretted) strings construct the chord. Playing a chord with the barre technique slightly affects tone quality. A closed, or fretted, note sounds slightly different from an open, unfretted, string. Barre chords are a distinctive part of the sound of pop music and rock music.

Using the barre technique, the guitarist can fret a familiar open chord shape, and then transpose, or raise, the chord a number of half-steps higher, similar to the use of a capo. For example, when the current chord is an E major and the next is an F♯ major, the guitarist barres the open E major up two frets (two semitones) from the open position to produce the barred F♯ major chord. Such chords are hard to play for beginners due to the pressing of multiple strings with a single finger. Mastering the barre can be one of the most difficult challenges that a beginner guitarist faces.

The CAGED system is an acronym for the chords C, A, G, E, and D. This acronym is shorthand for the use of barre chords that can be played anywhere on the fret board as described above. Some guitar instructors use it to teach students the open chords that can work as barre chords across the fret board. By replacing the nut with a full barre, a player can use the chord shapes for C, A, G, E, and D anywhere on the fret board to play any major chord in any key.

CAGED is also a mnemonic for the sequence that a chord appears in as it moves up the neck; for example, C Major can be played as an open C-shape chord at the nut, as an A-shape chord barred at the third fret, as a G-shape barred at the fifth fret, as an E-shape barred at the eighth fret, and as a D-shape barred at the 10th fret.[3] Similarly, G Major can be played as an open G-shaped chord and the next shape in which the chord appears is as an E-shape (barred at the third fret), followed by the D-shape (barred at the 5th fret); the CAGED pattern then begins again with a C-shape barred at the 7th fret, an A-shape at the 10th fret, and so on.

The same cycle can be applied to all other chord types. Learning the five movable C-, A-, G-, E-, and D-shapes of, say, a dominant 7th chord in effect allows the player to learn 60 chords, since each of the five shapes can be positioned so that any of the 12 chromatic notes is the root note.[4]

This system also provides a way to remember scale shapes, though some debate the usefulness of this teaching method due to potential technical problems.[5]

[djtombooth]

Watched this with my son and loved it. Top notch stuff.

[NewLifeWithGuitar]

This is awesome. I only started learning guitar a few weeks ago & I'm documenting my entire learning journey on here so this was super motivational!

[FretFriendGWaL]

In 40+ years a player, I still hardly ever play (or prefer) solo's. I am manin guitarist in a band that has solo's and I play them well but I don't class myself a lead player. Great video! Victor...

[wizaxed]

Great concepts, Sam. This CAGED system really works.

[sundogaudio]

despite all my rage im still just a rat in CAGED

[LMacNeill]

Yeah -- I will *never* be good enough to play that Simpsons lick. 😂