What would make a song writer choose a barre chord over an open chord of the same note or vice versa? Would the main reasons be that switching might be easier with one or the other, and the different sound (voicing?)
Could be a bunch of reasons.
Maybe the writer wants the timbre of a specific voicing... the same note sounds different on different strings.
Maybe it's to make an easier transition to or from the chords on either side.
Maybe it's to connect the notes.. for voice leading purposes.
Or maybe it's because that's the only fingering he knows for a given chord.
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Part of the answer you already answered in your topic title. Barre chords are moveable so if you would like to raise up an octive or two, barre chords are your best choice. Also, barre chords tend to sound better and more "unique" than open chords. Plus some chord might be harder to play open than barre...the B chords come to mind here...
I doubt barre chords (or anything!) can sound more unique/better: it remains a bunch of notes in a combination that has been used billions of times. It's also rather uncommon to play barre's an octave (let alone two) above the open chord, it would be way more logical to use moveable 'jazz' shape chords. Try doing some barre's at the 17th fret (octave above A) to see what I mean.
Two reasons:
1) because it's easier in the context of the song
2) because it sounds better in the context of the song.
Note the italic bit: it's really about context and the reasons for going with a barre in song A can be totally invalid with song B.
Oops...the title meant to say 'use of moveable barre chords...'. But thanks everyone. Are there any barre chord shapes other than E-shape and A-shape that are common in rock music? I've heard about D-shape but my books haven't mentioned it. What's a jazz shape? TIA.
I doubt barre chords (or anything!) can sound more unique/better: it remains a bunch of notes in a combination that has been used billions of times.
I may have used the wrong word when I said octave hence my limited music vocabulary....
However I disagree with you on sounding "better/unique"...play an open G chord in first position then play the barre G on the 3rd fret....the barre sound much more "fuller" to me...
I also find the regular open G to sound perhaps the dullest of all common open chords, don't know why.
However I disagree with you on sounding "better/unique"...play an open G chord in first position then play the barre G on the 3rd fret....the barre sound much more "fuller" to me...
It sure does. But does that make it 'unique'? It's a voicing of three notes played billions of time so it cannot be unique. Better would probably depend on what you were playing, the magical 'musical context'. You're probably not always looking for a fuller sound. It's a different voicing which can be usefull for the reasons Tom gave, on itself there is not a single chord voicing that could be classified as being unique or better.
Here are a few possible reasons I have found from my limited experience...
1. Barre chord strings "ring" less than open ones. Handy, I suppose if you use a lot of sixteenths.
2. Barre chords allow for quick muting of strings giving a "percusive" type sound. (e.g. Jack Johnson)
3. Barre chords make a quick chromatic descension easier. For example, try this...
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
[G] Sitting in the morning sun
I'll be [C]sitting when the day [Bb]is [A]done.
Notice the really cool chromatic descension C-B-Bb-A at the end. (I knew I liked that song for some reason...)
Play it with a B- barre shape. [224442] , only (here's the cool part...) since a barre chord is moveable, slide everything up one fret [335553] and you now have C. Slide back one fret to B, another [113331] to Bb and then a normal A [002220] I like to strum it: 3 strums C, 2 strums B, 1 strum Bb, A
There is no way you can play that with open chords.
4. Barre chords can make a transition easier. For example...
"Wake Me Up When September Ends"
[C]Wake me up, [Cm]when September [G]ends...
Now truthfully, this song sounds better fingerpicked, but I was working on a strummy version of this song back in... well...September.... because my daughter likes it so much. I had to give up because I couldn't make the C-Cm transition quickly enough. Cm [335543] (E-shaped barre chord) But I found out later, that if you play the C as [335553], you can actually move your 2nd finger into position for the Cm WHILE you are playing the C! This because the 2nd finger change is "behind the 555 barre" so it doesn't sound. Now all you have to do is move fingers 3 and 4 into position (the 1st finger barre is already there). I do this strictly because I am not talented enough to land an E-shaped barre chord "on the fly" cleanly even half the time. I play a normal C in the rest of the song.
I think you can play a lot of stuff without learning barre chords, but 2 that pay big dividends down the road are F#m and B. They pop up a lot.
John A.
They say only a pawnshop guitar can play the blues. An eBay one does it better. A guitar's bound to feel unloved if her owner plasters pictures of her over the internet for all to see and then sells her off to the highest anonymous bidder.
