Which barre chord is best to use when?

My guitar playing coworker just came in and said that he would usually end up using the A shape barre chord on the 7th fret if he was playing in the 3-5th fret position.

Sounds pretty good to me... any other recommendations, experience with this?

you could use your fore finger as a capo on the 5th fret & make a "C" shape chord. That would give you an F.

I actually use that .

I know this is difficult for a beginner, because you don't have the experience yet. But it's something to think about and get your ears perked up for early. It might not make too much sense now, but if you start listening critically now, it will make a difference as you become more proficient at the guitar.

Different inversions of a chord (different shapes) put the notes in a different order from low to high. For a simplified example, the F Major chord (F-A-C) might have any of those notes on top (and in different orders below). Consequently they all sound a little different.

Use the inversion that sounds best to your ears for the particular song you are playing and with the chords you are playing before and after.

I know that sometimes I'll even jump around the neck a bit, skipping the closest chord to the adjacent one to get the sound I need.

This is more critical when the chord is being held for a few beats. If the chord changes are very fast, then the easiest ones to get around on are what I'll use.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

on inversions and barre chords: many barre chords -- esp triads and triads w/7th versions offer several possible inversions within the 5 or 6 note fingering, and these can be selected from groupings of 3 or 4 strings within the barre chord. an experienced player often chooses to play only some of the strings of a barre form in order to pick the tonal (inversion) flavoring desired -- sometimes even changing inversions while holding a chord by strumming different groups of the barre strings at different times.

also consider that some forms -- e.g. the E- and A-barre forms provide an overlap of exactly the same inversions, but on different strings. a triad example: because they are the same notes and in the same string order, playing the E- A- D-strings of the E-form (say a D-chord at tenth) can sound much like playing the A- D- G-strings of the same chord fingered as an A-form (D-chord at fifth). some of the note -- and flavoring -- differences between these barre chord forms are in the notes that do not overlap: D@5th's 'optional' A note on the low E, and the D@10th's D note on the high e.

crudely, same color = same note:

D@5th____D@10th____notes
-----------10--------D
5----------10--------A
7----------11--------F#
7----------12--------D
7----------12--------A
5----------10--------D
(5)-------------------(A)

there are also timber differences across the strings due to length and mass, but that's another discussion.

you could use your fore finger as a capo on the 5th fret & make a "C" shape chord. That would give you an F.

I actually use that .

I feel like my fingers are about to become separated from my hands when I do that. :lol: :lol: That is by far the hardest shape I've ever tried.

The guitar is an incredibly versatile instrument - because we can get the same pitch in several different places, we can play chords almost anywhere. There are probably 100+ ways to play a chord like F major. Which one we choose depends on what we're trying to do.

I teach guitar chords through a progression of steps:

1. You memorize a dozen or so basic chords - the 'cowboy' chords in open position

2. You learn how to move those basic chords around by using the barre. The more barre shapes you know, the less you have to move - if you only know the two most common (the E and A 'shapes'), you have to play F at the 1st or 8th fret - but if you know the 'C' shape, you can play x87565 at the 5th fret, and if you know how to move the 'D' shape, you can play xx3565 at the 3rd fret.

3. By learning what voices are on which strings in a chord, and learning the formulas used to build chords, you can adapt the shapes you know to play any chord you need. I wrote a couple of lessons on the logic involved in this: Extended Chords and Altered States

4. The last step is to learn how to SPELL each chord, and learn the fretboard well enough to find those notes. Then you can create chord voicings that you won't find in any chord books - at the 3rd fret you might play x035xx for an F chord.

Which chord fingering to use when depends on your purpose. In a rock/pop/folk rhythm guitar context, you're usually trying to make things easy for yourself - and that means either finding a chord fingering that's not far away, or finding a voicing with an easy fingering. But in a different setting, your purpose might be very different.

In a solo guitar setting, you might want to use a chord melody, where the voicings are chosen so the melody of the song is clear in your progression. When I write chord melody arrangements, I'm usually putting the melody at the 'top' of each chord (in the soprano voice) - and that means I might be moving a dozen frets from one chord to the next at times.

In a different setting, your purpose might be accompanying a soloist, and the choices you make require using your ears. Your job here is to support someone else in the most musical way possible. If you're working with a singer who's weak in one part of their range, you might want to play 'thicker' voicings at those times, and play them in a register that matches the vocal line (as in chord melody playing). At other points in the song, where the singer might be very strong, you'll back off and play thinner voicings. It's all about what sounds best in the situation. If I was playing a song with an F chord in a power trio, I might move to first position to play 133211, no matter where I was starting from... but for the same song done by a 10 piece band, I might play just x03xxx, xx35xx or xxxx65 - none of those are a complete F chord, but they'll get the idea across without stepping on anyone else's toes.

Thats like when I am playing at church ( which I do consistently now)

The pianist( he's a bassist but he plays the piano at church cause its better cause he is the director and its easier to direct with the piano cause he can do bass notes and higher notes) likes to change the bass under the chord alot of times, and that sounds awesome but if I play the bass notes, or a full chord on the guitar it might clash.

So I will sometimes do the barre shape and just hit from the 4th string up, but sometimes ( when I know the song and am not trying to get it by ear in the heat of the moment) I'll do a a voicing like this xx3563 which would be F-C-F-G that would translate to an Fadd9 without the 3rd. The add 9 sounds nice in the context.

The good thing about barre chords is that when I'm trying to get a song by ear ( in the heat of the moment) I can memorize the whole structure of the song in Harmony, and harmony is easier to see in barre chords ( aleast in the heat of the momnt) so if for example a song is in G and it does a uh, I V VIm IV, I'll just think of 3rd fret, 5th fret, 5th fret ( 6th string ) and 3rd fret again ( 5th string) so if suddenly we decide to modulate the song lets say to A, 'll just think 5th fre 7th fret etc etc.

I only do this in church because most of the time I am playing Idk the songs, so it is mostly getting them by ear, I can get them pretty quickly, I'll prolly know what tonality the song is before hand and I'll get them in like 8 bars or so , by using a combination of ear and knowing patterns ( like hearing something and being able to identify it as a movement from VIm to IV or whatever).

So in that respect barre chords can be pretty handy ( modulation and such ), but voicings can be great to give it a different sound or when you are playing with more people. Soon it becomes less about ease of play and more about what sounds better ( to your ear)