Barre

Nitebob

Hi all,

I have become a little obsessive about these, since somebody made a single comment on a post where I struggled with chords. The comment was "get to grips with barre chords'

Since then I've been looking at them a lot and seeing that you can play majors, minors, 7ths and minor 7ths, with basically one structure (E based) got me wondering. Is there any acoustic players on this site that play predominantly barre's? I mean with these 4 catagories above mentioned, you should be able to play most songs, shouldn't you? I know playing barre chords is often 'frowned upon' but nobody can give me a valid reason why... I even heard some people say, that playing barre chords isn't 'really' playing guitar....I mean, WHAT THE FLAGNOD? Is it making the right noise or not?

evolucian

Nitebob wrote:
I know playing barre chords is often 'frowned upon' but nobody can give me a valid reason why... I even heard some people say, that playing barre chords isn't 'really' playing guitar....

Whoever said this to you is a dick. Barre chords are also not frowned upon. Once again, he/she/it was a willy, may still be one.

In Barres you have the E shape, A shape, D shape, C shape and G shape with which to make music. Also to find other voicings you wont find in open position.

Buy a gun... shoot the next person who says barres are for sissies

Nitebob

:roflmao:

Thanx Evolucian. Enjoyed the 'propably still is' addition. Do you think barre's are just as relevant to acoustics as to electric?

evolucian

Nitebob wrote: :roflmao:

Thanx Evolucian. Enjoyed the 'propably still is' addition. Do you think barre's are just as relevant to acoustics as to electric?

Definitely! Acoustic players have stronger hands cos of barres (not like us electric weaklings and nylon players). That means the stamina level (referenced to guitar playing) is way up there. A barre is just a chord... to see it as a weakness is stupidity. So yeah, relevant to all forms of music on guitar (guitar used as the collective. Basses don't count - they're just termed as "other instrument guy" on application forms).

Bob-Dubery

Nitebob wrote: I know playing barre chords is often 'frowned upon' but nobody can give me a valid reason why

Nobody sensible that I know frowns upon barre chords. Ever since the guitar got a 6th string they've been pretty much unavoidable. Indeed the standard tuning, with the 2nd string a major 3rd higher than the 3rd string, evolved to make barre chords a practical proposition.

domhatch

Nitebob wrote: Hi all,

I have become a little obsessive about these, since somebody made a single comment on a post where I struggled with chords. The comment was "get to grips with barre chords'

Since then I've been looking at them a lot and seeing that you can play majors, minors, 7ths and minor 7ths, with basically one structure (E based) got me wondering. Is there any acoustic players on this site that play predominantly barre's? I mean with these 4 catagories above mentioned, you should be able to play most songs, shouldn't you? I know playing barre chords is often 'frowned upon' but nobody can give me a valid reason why... I even heard some people say, that playing barre chords isn't 'really' playing guitar....I mean, WHAT THE FLAGNOD? Is it making the right noise or not?

it is possible that the person who made this hysterical crap up, was actually talking about 5th, or so-called 'power' chords. these are composed of the root and the fifth of the chord alone, and are utterly useless in music in any way at all.

?ause for dramatic effect aaaaaaaand WHAM upside the head from power chord support faction:

you see, now matter what you do, how you slice it, what you call it etc, somewhere, someone will have a use - and a good, justifiable use - for a chord type, no matter how much it gets dissed by someone else. that's just music for you.

Nitebob

Thanks for all the input guys, but there is no-one that relies on only barre chords. I mean barre chord F will be fuiller sounding because of th open top (E) string, am I right. So isn't barre-chords actually preferable.

FruitarGeek

How can anyone say any chord is frowned upon? hahaha. Music is all the same. Should you decide to use a power chord, a barre chord, a camp-fire chord. who cares, as long as its sounds nice to you. I will commonly use all 3 + some nice jazz chords just because I can!

Bob-Dubery

Nitebob wrote: Thanks for all the input guys, but there is no-one that relies on only barre chords. I mean barre chord F will be fuiller sounding because of th open top (E) string, am I right. So isn't barre-chords actually preferable.

Not always - but as a minimum you should know the barre chords built around the E shape and the Am shape.

An example of when you might not use a barre chord. You're fingerpicking, in the key of C. If you want to go the F then you COULD barre, but also you could finger it something like
1 0 3 2 1 x
or
1 x 3 2 1 x
(both low to high)
with the F on the 6th string fretted with the thumb.

Now you have the pinky free to add a 6th note (D) for colour on the 2nd string.

Which is useful, but only in certain circumstances.

Fingerstyle players can eschew the usual chord shapes because they might not be playing some strings.

domhatch

Nitebob wrote: Thanks for all the input guys, but there is no-one that relies on only barre chords. I mean barre chord F will be fuiller sounding because of th open top (E) string, am I right. So isn't barre-chords actually preferable.

nope. if you're playing a barred F with an open E string on the top, you're playing an Fmajor7 chord, which ain't the same. F looks like this: 133211, Fmajor7 looks like this: 133210. spot the difference?

barre chords aren't always preferrable, sometimes open chords sounds better, and sometime a combination of barred and open strings in a chord make for the best option. it's something we learn as we go along this path called learning the #$%&%^$# guitar. ? here's a reference you might find handy in terms of different voicings of chords up and down the neck, barred, not barred, combos, etc. i have (and still do) spent many an hour scouring this site looking for interestin voicings. click on guitar room - easy, and have fun! http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/

dh

deefstes

Nitebob wrote: Thanks for all the input guys, but there is no-one that relies on only barre chords. I mean barre chord F will be fuiller sounding because of th open top (E) string, am I right. So isn't barre-chords actually preferable.

I'm not sure there's anyone who relies only on barre chords but I'm not sure that's important. With regards to the F chord, I never play it unbarred. Even if I don't play the F bass I still barre the chord because that's what my hand knows best. G, I probably play in open position 50% of the time and barre position 50% of the time. It depends on what chord precedes or follows it. The same goes for A and Am.

An interesting one is B (which is the A shape barre chord). On electric I have absolutely no problem with it but on acoustic I still don't get all the strings to ring consistently. If I can help it I play B7 in open position in stead of B. Of course this works well in the key of E (mostly) and messes things up in most other keys.

Nitebob

@Deefstes. See this is where I start scratching my head and say 'ohhh' while nodding...even though I don't get it. If you play the e-shape barre chord at the 7th fret you also have B, so if you can barre F, you should be able to barre B ???

@Domhatch. Thanks that's a great resource.

deefstes

domhatch wrote: nope. if you're playing a barred F with an open E string on the top, you're playing an Fmajor7 chord, which ain't the same. F looks like this: 133211, Fmajor7 looks like this: 133210. spot the difference?

That depends on what "top" means but in this case I'm pretty sure it refers to the "top" string as in "closest to the ceiling" and not as in "higher in pitch" - i.e. the bass E string. Thus, an open F chord would be x33211. Important of course that the open string does not ring because then it becomes some ugly chord that I don't know the name of but which is essentially F/E (F with an E bass).

deefstes

Nitebob wrote: @Deefstes. See this is where I start scratching my head and say 'ohhh' while nodding...even though I don't get it. If you play the e-shape barre chord at the 7th fret you also have B, so if you can barre F, you should be able to barre B ???

Yes absolutely, and that's what I end up doing if I can't bully a B7 into the song. It's a bad habit because I never force myself to get the A shape B chord down properly. Also, jumping up to the 7th fret isn't always practical if all the other chords are in the first 3 or 4 frets.

domhatch

deefstes wrote:
domhatch wrote: nope. if you're playing a barred F with an open E string on the top, you're playing an Fmajor7 chord, which ain't the same. F looks like this: 133211, Fmajor7 looks like this: 133210. spot the difference?
That depends on what "top" means but in this case I'm pretty sure it refers to the "top" string as in "closest to the ceiling" and not as in "higher in pitch" - i.e. the bass E string. Thus, an open F chord would be x33211. Important of course that the open string does not ring because then it becomes some ugly chord that I don't know the name of but which is essentially F/E (F with an E bass).

dude, this is one of those things i can never get any clarity on. afaik, top always means 'top (as in highest) note in the chord', and therefore 'closest to the floor'. if you can find someone who can settle this matter once and for all, i'll buy your next set of strings - and i'm talking elixirs here...

Nitebob

Ahhhh....Now I'm starting to see the light. There-in lies the true issue...that F-Barre is way up there and D-Barre for example is way down at the 10th fret, and they may likely be in the same song? Am I starting to get it?

evolucian

top means high E. That would be pitch wise.

*Unless a fool is playing a banjo thinking its a guitar*

DonovanB

evolucian wrote: top means high E. That would be pitch wise.

That's confusing, I would have taken that to be the top string. ???

English doesn't make life any easier...

domhatch

this isn't english. it's music. don't think in terms of words, think in terms of sound. top = high. if something is on top of something else, musically it sounds higher.

for example, in 'building' the C Major chord, we stack two notes 'on top' of the C. C D E F G A and B are the notes of the C Major scale. from it we take the notes C, then E (higher up the scale) then G (higher up again) and respectively stack them on top of the C to create the C Major chord - C E G. similarly, the lowest 'sounding' note on your guitar can be found on what we term the 'bottom' string, because it makes the 'lowest' sound, musically. the highest 'sounding' note that can be made on your guitar is made by what we term your 'top' string, because it makes the 'highest' sound, musically. musical sound is termed 'pitch'. i.e. your bottom string has the lower 'pitch' and your top string has the higher 'pitch'.

make sense? good luck
dh

deefstes

domhatch wrote: this isn't english. it's music. don't think in terms of words, think in terms of sound. top = high. if something is on top of something else, musically it sounds higher.

for example, in 'building' the C Major chord, we stack two notes 'on top' of the C. C D E F G A and B are the notes of the C Major scale. from it we take the notes C, then E (higher up the scale) then G (higher up again) and respectively stack them on top of the C to create the C Major chord - C E G. similarly, the lowest 'sounding' note on your guitar can be found on what we term the 'bottom' string, because it makes the 'lowest' sound, musically. the highest 'sounding' note that can be made on your guitar is made by what we term your 'top' string, because it makes the 'highest' sound, musically. musical sound is termed 'pitch'. i.e. your bottom string has the lower 'pitch' and your top string has the higher 'pitch'.

make sense? good luck
dh

You've almost earned yourself a set of elixirs there. ?