I've been practising the barre chords shapes, and wondered if anyone had a recommendations for nice easy songs as an intro to using barre chords (if such a beast exists :lol: ).
My preference is for rock music..
Thanks
Stand by me. If you play it in A, it has F#m (one of the easiest barre chords).
Hotel California. It only has two barre chords: Bm and F#.
And you can play some blues progressions. Blues progressions are easier to me because you can play 7th chords and you only need two fingers (three with the index for the barre) and sometimes one finger if you play minor blues.
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay (the way I play it).
The verses are all bare chords from the 3rd fret (G) to the 7th (C) and back. The chorus and bridge are open chords (except of course for the F in the bridge). The G and A in the chorus can be barre or open, your choice for ease.Strum pattern: D D U U D
1 2 + + 4
Intro:
D|-----5-5---|---5-5---|---5-5---|---5-5---|
A|-----5-5---|---5-5---|---5-5---|---5-5---|
E|-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-|
Verse 1:
G B
Sittin' in the mornin' sun,
C B Bb A
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes.
G B
Watching the ships roll in,
C B Bb A
Then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah.
Chorus:
G E
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay,
G E
Watching the tide roll away.
G A
Oo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay,
G E
wastin' time.
Verse 2:
G B
I left my home in Georgia,
C B Bb A
Headed for the 'Frisco Bay.
G B
I have nothing to live for,
C B Bb A
It looks like nothing's gonna come my way. So I'm
Chorus:
G E
Just gonna sit on the dock of the bay,
G E
Watching the tide roll away.
G A
Oo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay,
G E
wastin' time.
Bridge:
G D C
Look like nothing's gonna change.
G D C
Everything still remains the same.
G D C G
I can't do what ten people tell me to do,
F D
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes.
Verse 3:
G B
I'm sittin' here restin' my bones,
C B Bb A
And this loneliness won't leave me alone, yes.
G B Bb A
Two thousand miles I roamed
G B Bb A
Just to make this a dock my home.
Chorus:
G E
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay,
G E
Watching the tide roll away.
G A
Oo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay,
G E
wastin' time.
End …
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
A good tune for practicing basic barre shapes is Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay"... and the progression has been used in some other tunes too: A (5th fret E shape), C#m (4th fret Am shape), G (3rd fret E shape), Bm (2nd fret, Am shape)
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If you can do an A (5th fret E shape), a D (5th fret A shape) and an E (7th fret A shape) you can play Summertime blues and Wild Thing. Change the E to an Em and you can play Louie Louie.
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Thanks everyone for the suggestions :-)
Green Day.
A good tune for practicing basic barre shapes is Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay"...
only if you want to torture someone. this song will leave your hand throbbing.
I like "Wild Thing" by the Troggs, and many others... Ohhh - I see Greybeard had it already. 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9DVJE_bhVU ... Jimi Hendrix's version was a little longer, or psychedelic? :lol:
Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Thanks every one - I had a go at Hotel California yesterday, and once I've got that vaguely recognisable I think I'll try Wild Thing next :D
Thanks every one - I had a go at Hotel California yesterday, and once I've got that vaguely recognisable I think I'll try Wild Thing next :D
Glad to hear of your enthusiasm, and efforts, with follow-up. :D That sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. Enjoy! :wink:
Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
I found Hotel California hard when I was learning the barres.
Green Day's 'When I Come Around' is full of barres. Not even a single open chord and it will also teach you palm muting, which imo, is essential for any rock guitarist.
It goes - F# C# D#m B and that's pretty much the whole of the song. Sounds awesome, even on an acoustic!
this song will leave your hand throbbing.
Only if you're doing something wrong.
Barre chords shouldn't hurt. If your hand is throbbing, it's not the song - it's your technique.
Things to check:
1. Don't 'tip' the guitar to see where your fingers are - doing that puts strain on your wrist. If you're insecure about your finger placement, practice in front of a mirror.
2. Your barre finger should be straight, as if you were pointing at something. Many guitarists will curl the finger, which means you'll get uneven pressure on the strings - and that means you'll squeeze harder to make them all sound, and as a result you'll get cramps.
3. Your thumb placement. The flat of the thumb should make contact with the back of the neck. Some folks use the tip of the thumb - that'll lead to hand cramps.
4. General hand position. The guitar isn't a baseball bat; there should be some space between the palm of your hand and the back of the neck. If there isn't, you're asking for cramps.
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As a sax player doubling on guitar in guitar bands, I learned barre chords first. It was easier for the "real" guitarist to teach me a chord that used the same hand position in every key than to show me the "cowboy chords" and trust me with a capo on their guitars. Besides, we did mostly rock and roll and the songs we did simply should be played with barre chords.
(BTW, a good friend of mine and a great guitar teacher calls the "cowboy chords" with all due respect, and I like the alliteration.)
At first my hand hurt a lot, mostly because I was doing it wrong. Note boat's suggestions are right on so I won't repeat them.
I also learned that it is more about correct hand position that brute force. I find that I can play barre chords with a light touch as well as I can with the "grip of steel". It's more about finger placement, and that comes with practice and bio-feedback.
I started on lots of 12 bar blues songs (Kansas CIty, Mean Woman Blues and trillions more), and those I - IV - V7 (1-4-5/7) songs like Wild Thing (La Bamba, Louie Louie, and countless others).
As a beginner they were almost instant gratification, and the sheer number of songs I could play with those three chords were amazing.
Next I added the then ubiquitous I - vi - IV - V7 progression (zillions of slow and moderate tempo songs) and I found that between those three elementary chord progressions, I could play more songs than I knew.
Then once I had those under my fingers, I set about exploring other songs with new chords.
I think that as you know more about them, and as fingers get more educated so you don't need the grip of steel anymore, you will come to appreciate them. What I like about them the most is the ability to control the sustain and to choke them with the left hand. That gives me more expressive tools to use while playing.
I prefer to play barre and other movable chords, and only play those "cowboy chords" when the song calls for them. BTW, I play electric, and mostly baby-boomer rock, a touch of Disco, a little light jazz, and some Nashville (as opposed to real Country).
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Barre chords shouldn't hurt. If your hand is throbbing, it's not the song - it's your technique./quote]
+ 1 to that. Also, if experiencing either some hand pain (not a lot of it...) or excessive difficulty playing barre chords (i.e. notes choking all the time, even after practicing them daily for a few weeks), I'd check the guitar is properly set up. My Spear guitar would have notes choke out on barre chords because the radius of the strings didn't match the radius of the fingerboard/frets. I'd apply more pressure to try to prevent the notes from choking out, and quickly wind up with an aching hand from it. After a quick set up, all was fine again. I might have thought it had been due to my bad technique, only I'm fairly experienced at playing guitar and could barre just fine on my other guitars. If you're learning them for the first time, I'd seriously consider getting your guitar set up by a pro, to ensure this isn't the cause of your difficulties.
For learning barre chords, I'd suggest pretty much anything by Nirvana. Smells like Teen Spirit uses both the E-shape barre (6th string barre chord) and the A-shape barre (5th string barre chord), so you'll learn to switch between them.
