Instantly
Play 12 Guitar Chords By Learning Just One Movable Shape
Learning movable chord shapes is
a fairly simple concept. Yet, they can dramatically increase
the number of chords and therefore the number of songs at
your disposal.
Like many guitar students, my
beginner days were spent memorizing about 10 open chords.
You know, the ones found at the first 4 frets at the far end
of the guitar neck.
When I gradually learned to move
smoothly from chord to chord a whole world of songs were
suddenly at my fingertips. For the first time I felt like a
real guitar player.
It had taken quite a while to
memorize the open chords and I just couldn’t imagine how
anyone could learn and remember all the chords that reside
at the other 18 or so frets on the guitar neck. It just
didn’t make much sense. There seemed to be no rhyme or
reason for why certain notes were fingered on certain
strings. Each and every chord just had to be memorized… or
so I thought.
Learn To Play Barre Chords
One day my guitar teacher, Ms.
Mosier, decided it was time for me to learn how to play
barre chords. These chords required the index finger of my
fretting hand to press down across all of the strings at a
given fret all at once.
At first, my index finger ached
and I had a difficult time getting all of the strings to
produce a clean sound. Eventually my fingers became stronger
and more importantly my technique improved to the point
where I could consistently switch between different Barre
Chords and produce a clean sound.
Learn to Move The Barre Chord
Shapes
One day while practicing I felt
like I was struck by lightening. I suddenly realized that if
I played a G major Barre Chord at the third fret I could
just slide my fingers up one fret while carefully
maintaining the exact shape with my fingers and produce
another major chord that was higher in pitch than the G
major. It was a G# (sharp) Major.
I moved up another fret for the
A major. Then the lights really came on. I could make one
shape with my fingers, slide it up and down the guitar neck
and produce at least 12 Major Chords. This made sense.
Learn To Move
Smoothly Between Companion Shapes
I can remember trying to play
some simple chord progressions in an attempt to imitate some
of my favorite rock songs from the radio. The theme song to
the Beatles’ Sargent Pepper Album comes to mind. The
problem, for my inexperienced hands, was in playing chords
quickly and accurately that were somewhat far apart on the
neck.
Again, my guitar teacher came to
the rescue. Ms. Mosier taught me another complimentary Major
Chord shape that was barred at the same fret as the first.
If both shapes were used together it would virtually shrink
the guitar neck down to a much smaller and therefore more
playable area or “box”.
For example, one Major Barre
Chord shape at the 3rd fret will play a G Major.
Another shape will play a C major Chord while barring the
same fret. Using the same shape these chords are 5 frets
apart. Using both companion shapes together puts them right
on top of each other.
The Steps To Learning Companion
Major Barre Chord Shapes
1. Learn one Barre Chord
at a time starting with the 6th String Root Major
Chord Shape. Each of these chords gets their name by the
note the barre (index) finger touches on the 6th
or lowest pitch string.
Barring across the 3rd
fret would produce a G Major because the barre finger
presses down on the G note on the 6th string.
Barring across the 4th fret would sound a G#
Major Chord and so on.
Form The 6th String
Root G Major Chord Shape As Follows:
- The Index finger barres across all 6 strings at the third
fret
- The 2nd finger goes to the 4th fret
on the 3rd string
- The 3rd finger goes to the 5th fret
on the 5th string
- The 4th finger (pinky) goes to the 5th
fret on the 4th string
2. Practice until the
barre chords sound clean on every string.
3. learn to move smoothly
from one fret to the next while maintaining the same exact
shape with your fingers.
4. Learn the companion
Major Chord shape. This shape is referred to as the 5th
string root Major Chord Shape because it takes its name from
the note the barre chord finger touches on the 5th
string.
Form The 5th String
Root C Major Chord Shape As Follows:
- The Index finger barres across all 6 strings at the third
fret
- The 2nd finger goes to the 5th fret
on the 4th string
- The 3rd finger goes to the 5th fret
on the 3rd string
- The 4th finger (pinky) goes to the 5th
fret on the 2nd string
Note:
This chord can
also be formed using the index finger and only one or
two other fingers. This is a little beyond the scope of
this article however.
