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4

Chord forms

Here are most of the chords you need to know.

E

A

Em

D

Am

C

Dm

A squiggly line means don’t play that string.

G

Now, remember when I explained about a chord “formation” and how when you move it up or down the neck, its name changes?

Look at this chord (formation) again.

When you move it up or down the neck, you want to be able to play those strings that are shown to be open (or unfretted) too. How would you do that? You do what’s called ‘barre’ the chord. That means put your index finger behind the chord to serve the purpose of that little white piece of plastic that terminates your strings up by the head, called the ‘nut’. When you barre a chord like that, you can then move it anywhere, and it becomes a different chord.

Does that mean that I can know just one chord and then get any other chord I want, just by barring it and moving it up or down the neck? Yes.

Barred E form

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But I want you to be able to barre 4 of those chords, so that you don’t have to move so far to get any other chord. The ink mark drawn over the row of notes means use just one finger to push down all those notes.

When barring,
1- put your barring finger close to the metal fret (the one that’s toward the higher fret numbers, of course),
2- push down more with the side of the finger instead of the softer fleshy part on the inside of your finger, and
3- squeeze with your thumb on the back of the neck.

Barred E form

Barred A form

Barred Em form

Barred Am form

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