Playing E-based Minor Barre Chords

Now it's time to add other chord qualities into your repertoire. Playing a minor, a dominant 7th, or a minor 7th in its barre form is very easy just like playing a major barre. Soon enough, as you continue to practice, you'll notice that everything gets a lot easier.

Minor chords

The following simple steps describe how to play the Fm (F-minor) barre chord:

1. Play an F major barre chord. See my previous about playing major barre chords based on E and learn how to play an F Major chord.

How To Build Confidence In Playing Barre Chords

Confident Guitar Boy. Photo Credits

A good way to build your comfort and confidence in playing barre chords is by practicing a progression, which is a series of chords. The image below shows the exercise. Take note of the correct first-finger fret placement for each chord.

For this exercise, you must only use barre chords. It can be very tiring at first to get all the strings to ring out clearly. Try to release the pressure on your left-hand fingers when sliding from one chord to another. You may sometimes feel that your left-hand is starting to cramp. If you do, try to keep at it and feel the burn in order to develop the stamina and strength you need to play barre chords.

Playing All 12 Major Chords Using The Barre F Chord Form

Knowing how to play an Playing all 12 major chords using the Barre F chord form as a barre chord allows you to play every major chord by simply moving up the neck.

Barred F Chord Form.

That's amazing, right?

To determine the name of the chord that you are playing, you simply need to know the name of the note that you are playing on its root string, the 6th string.

For your quick reference about the notes of the 6th string on specific frets, see the figure below:

FRET

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

11th

12th

NOTE

F

F#/Gb

G

G#/Ab

A

A#/Bb

B

C

C#/Db

D

D#/Eb

E

"#" symbol denotes a sharp (F# is read as F-sharp)
"b" symbol denotes a  flat (Ab is read as A-flat)

How To Play Major Barre Chords Based on E

1. Play an open E chord, but instead of using the normal 2-3-1 left-hand fingering, use fingers 3-4-2.

2. Lay your first finger down across all six strings on the other side of the nut (toward the tuning pegs).

How To Raise The BARRE Of Excellence

Raising the bar of excellence. Photo Credits

After spending a great deal of time learning the basic open position chords, we move on to the world of barre chords. It is already an achievement to be able to play the open position chords since almost all kinds of songs use them. However, open chords have limitations because you are only confined in playing chords up to the third fret. But there will be instances that you need to play chords which do not include open strings. In these situations, guitarists will often resort to playing "barre chords" or simply "bar".

What makes the blues "Bluesy" and jazz "Jazzy"?

An example of a jazz music sheet. Photo Credits

MINOR 7TH CHORDS

In contrast to the dominant 7th chords, the minor 7th chords are characterized as a little bit softer and jazzier.

Fingering minor 7th chords

Dm7 Chord diagram and left-hand fingering

 

7th Chords: What's Hidden In The Number 7

7up Signage. Photo Credits

In this section, we're going to continue our exploration to the basic(open position) 7th (seventh) chords. Just like the simple chords presented in my previous posts, seventh chords are also easy to play. 7th chords are made up four different notes instead of three, and that's what gives the 7th chords its distinct sound. The different 7th chords (dominant 7th, major 7th, and minor 7th) can make the blues sound “bluesy” and jazz sound “jazzy.”

Let's start with the Dominant 7th chords.

More To See With The Chords In The C Family

Of course everyone knows the happy birthday song, right?

Birthday Party Celebration. Photo Credits

When I was a kid, I was taught by my father to play the happy birthday song in the key of C. Basically, you can play it in any key you like provided that you already know how to transpose the chords. When I grew up, I learned to play the song starting from different keys like D or G.

The last chord family that we will be learning is the C. In musical theory, everything starts with C or the "Do" in "Do-Re-Mi". The key of C is basically the center of the tonal universe and most musicians would agree that it is the easiest key to play in. Maybe, that was the reason why my father taught me to play common nursery rhymes in the key of C including the happy birthday song.

I chose to tackle the C family of chords last because it's so easy to play and it also has lots of chords in its family. But don't worry, you already learned most of the chords when we explored previous chord families (A, D, and G).

Guitar Secrets Revealed - How to become a guitar master

Eric Clapton performing in his concert. Photo Credits

Do you think Eric Clapton woke up an amazing guitarist? NO!
He practiced, and practiced, and practiced. Guitar masters probably practiced hours and hours every day. To become good at guitars, you must pay your dues.

It's very obvious to say that the more you practice the better you’ll get - but it’s the simple TRUTH. And the more time you spend practicing your guitar, the faster you'll get good at it.

Do The Guitar Grooves With The G Family Chords

Original members of the Rivermaya Band

The G family of chords is my favorite. As a young boy, I grew up listening to the nostalgic songs of Eraserheads, Riyermaya, and Siakol. These OPM bands used the G family of chords a lot in their compositions and I've spent a great deal of time learning to play these great songs on my guitar.

Original members of the Eraserheads Band

So far, we have already tackled two chord families, A and D. Some chords in these families also belong to the G family. The basic chords that make up the G family are G, Am, C, D, and Em. If you have been following along with my previous posts, for sure, you already how to play the chords G, D, and Em. That means you only need to learn two more chords, Am and C, to complete your repertoire.

What Makes A Music Piece Unique: Chord Qualities

Babies born with identical physical characteristics. Photo Credits

Can you imagine a world where people, instead of being born with unique characteristics, are born having the same physical appearance, personality and interests?

Herd of Zebras. Photo Credits

How about a world where all of the living things such as animals, plants, trees, and flowers are exactly the same? All trees, plants, and flowers have the same size, color, and shape and even the striping pattern on a zebra is the same for all the zebras in the world.

Rolling in the "D - Family Chords"

The basic chords that make up the D - family are D, Em, G, and A. The D family introduces two new chords: Em (pronounced as "E minor") and G. Just like the previous chords presented, Em and G are also called open chords and are easy to play. We already learned the two other chords, D and A, from my previous post about the A family.

A minor chord has a distinct sound from that of a major chord that can be characterized as soft and sad. Always remember that a chord that's named by a capital letter followed by a small "m" is a minor chord.

The following figures shows the fingering the chords in the D-family:

Em Chord diagram and left-hand fingering

  

Guitar Calluses: Obtain Your Badge Of Honor

I have been a guitar player for over 15 years and I am often asked by new guitar players if the tip of my fingers still hurt whenever I play my guitar. I've always had sensitive fingertips and yes, they still do hurt sometimes, especially when my hands are cold.

Playing the guitar can be somewhat painful at first. We are all born with soft fingertips and no matter how tough you look like or how big your muscles are, your fingertips will still hurt when you start playing the guitar. The pain is caused when we press down the strings with our fingertips and this situation is very normal especially for those who are just starting out.

Guitar Calluses. Photo Credits

In order for you to become comfortable playing the guitar, you must first develop nice CALLUSES on your fingertips. Calluses are toughened areas of the skin which has become relatively thick and hard in response to repeated friction, pressure, or other irritation. It may take weeks or even months for you to build up those protective layers of dead skin, depending on how much and how often you play.

Your First 3 Chords: A - Family Chords

The chords that belong to the A-family are very popular because they are very easy to play. Also, the A-family of chords contain open strings - the strings that you play without pressing anything. Chords that contain open strings are called open chords or open-position chords.

The A-family of chords consists of the basic chords A, D, and E. These chords are known as major chords. When you see a chord that's named by a letter alone such as A, D, and E, you call it a major chord.

The following figures show the fingering of the chords in the A-family:

A Chord diagram and left-hand fingering:

The Easiest Way To Play Basic Guitar Chords

I really like it when someone asks me to play my guitar while he or she sings. It feels great! And being able to provide an accompaniment to someone is no small feat. Sometimes, even though my voice doesn't sound that good, I try to sing my favorite songs and play my guitar at the same time. And what I found out is that, one of the best ways to pickup basic guitar chords is to play while someone sings.

A girl singing accompanied by a guitar. Photo Credits

The very first chords that I learned to play were the major chords D, A, and G.
Do you know any song that uses the chords?
Are you familiar with The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars?
Or Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles?
Both of these songs use the D-A-G chord pattern.
Actually, there are a lot of songs that use this chord pattern including the song by Alison Krauss, "When you say nothing at all",  and I bet most of you know this song.

Does it hurt the first time you did it: Playing your first chord

Chords are the basic building blocks of songs. A chord in music is any harmonic set of three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. Chords can be played in a guitar either by strumming or plucking. But you can’t just strike any group of notes; you must play a group of notes organized in some musically meaningful arrangement. For the guitarist, that means learning some left-hand chord forms.

After learning all the stuff about notations used in guitar world, which is very fundamental, you can now play your very first chord. There are a lot of easy chords to choose from but let's start with the E Major chord since it is used so frequently in guitar music. It is necessary for you to learn how to play it with ease and efficiency.

Playing the E Major Chord (E)

1. Place your first (index) finger on the first fret of the 3rd string (G# note).

Uncovering The Mystery: Deciphering Guitar Tablature

Reading music

Guitar tablature (tab for short) is a form of musical notation that graphically represents strings and frets of the guitar fretboard. Tabs shows how you play music over a period of time by indicating what particular string to play on a specific fret. Hopefully, although it may seem complex at first, after reading this, you'll be able to read guitar tabs easily in no time.

The Ups And Downs Of Playing The Guitar

Do you know what rhythm slashes mean?

Music class. Photo Credits

Rhythm slashes are slash marks (/) that simply tell you how to play rhythmically or in a systematic pattern over a period of time.

Dissecting chord diagrams

Few years ago, I had a classmate who was very interested to learn how to play the guitar.
Without second thoughts, she immediately bought a brand new guitar from the nearby music store.
Her guitar came packaged with a few song books.

A girl playing the guitar while reading the songhits. Photo Credits

However, when she opened the books to learn how to play the chords, she didn't know how to read the diagrams and she became very frustrated.
Hopefully, after reading this you won't be confused reading chord diagrams and be on your way to start playing the songs you like.

Guitar Notations: You Don't Need To Read Music To Play The Guitar

Way back in high school I had a friend who took formal piano lessons.
Often, I was able to come with him in his class.
I found out that learning to play the piano is actually harder than learning to play the guitar.

WHY? Because, you need to learn how to read music first before you can start to play.

At first, they were taught where the notes should fall on the staff and how long they should hold the notes. After a couple of weeks, they eventually moved on to practicing scales and so on...

Every time they play, they always follow a piece of paper or a book with musical stuff written on it.
My friend and I found it very difficult to understand.
Slashes, even more slashes, bars, dots, weird symbols... Shocks!!!

One afternoon, I came in his class and heard him playing a weird sounding piece.
I asked him, "What's the title of that song?" and he answered, "I don't know!"
That's because they were just instructed by their teacher to practice song after unrecognizable song that they didn't even wanted to play.

On the other hand, I can say that guitar notations are easier to understand and playing the guitar actually does not require you to know how to read music. Thanks to those early musicians who, through the years, developed a way to communicate basic ideas such as chord construction, chord progressions, rhythmic figures, and song structure in a much simpler manner.

And that's what I am going to share with you.

In my next posts, I'll be showing you how to read the following:

- Guitar chord diagrams
- Guitar rhythmic slashes and strumming symbols
- Guitar tablature (tabs)

It has been said that many great guitarists don’t know how to read music, and many who can read music learned to do so after they learned to play the guitar.

Proper Hand Positioning

Left hand position (Fretting hand)

Getting your hands into the correct position is fairly easy. Simply follow the steps with images below:

1. Extend your left hand with your palm facing upwards.

2. Make a loose fist, placing your thumb roughly between your first and second fingers.

The best positions every guitarist should know

Balancing a book. Photo Credits.

Do you still remember those times when your parents would frequently remind you not to slouch when sitting on a chair or to keep both of your feet straight with your breast out when standing? Our parents tend to become very strict about this because they simply don't want their children to develop bad habits. Just like a parent, I don't want you to develop bad guitar playing habits that will eventually lead to muscle strain and fatigue which can prevent you from progressing further on your guitar. This topic might be boring to some of you but you must pay attention to it.

Get Ready Get Set But Not Yet

Hey guys! How are you?

I was away for a week to do some stuff but here I am back again.

Guitarist fingering a chord. Photo source

How's your tuning going?

I do hope that you already mastered tuning your guitar using the relative tuning method, at least.
Anyway, you can easily review my previous posts about tuning if you are having problems getting your guitar in tune.

After learning how to tune, you are almost ready to start learning how to play your guitar.
Sounds exciting, right?