Play the Guitar: Lesson 21

   In the previous part we've talked about what a normal practice session would be like. Now we will talk about chords B and B minor, as promised.

   Barre Chords - An introduction (Part IV)

   Yes, the reason we have postponed learning these chords is because they are barre chords and they are a bitch! Err... i mean... not exactly easy...

   So. As we have seen in lesson 16, barre chords are just open chords that have been moved up. We've also seen how the open chord E became the barre chord F. The same principle applies to chords B and B minor: B is just an A moved up and B minor is just an A minor moved up. Make sense? I hope so.

  


   But there is more.

   As you can see from the diagram, B minor is pretty much the same as F, except the barre is on the second fret, not on the first, and it is shorter (or lower, if you will). Which  can only cause additional grief and frustration, obviously.

   To make the Bm chord more accesible, we can make a little Bm, just like we did with the little F: just press strings 1,2 and 3 with the fingers 1,2 and 3 and strum only those strings. Much easier! It is a common shortcut, until we get up to speed with barre chords. Or if we never get up to speed with barre chords.

  
   As for the B chord... well... things are even more complicated, because this chord is actually a double barre chord. If we compare the A we know to this B, we'll see that there is something wrong with it: we don't make the A chord like that! No, but we could! It takes a lot of practice to position the third finger exactly right to cover all three strings at the same time, but I assure you it is possible (even if it doesn't sound like it, right now).

   And... that's it! We have completed our introduction to barre chords. All that is left now is practice, practice, practice. But, let me state this again: we don't have to begin barre chords at this time. It is still a little too soon to venture into something like that. This is only an introduction, to help up prepare for the barre chords, when we get there, eventually. As I said before, take it nice and easy, there is no rush, there is no need to hurry. Pushing hard will only increase the likelihood of us giving up. And we don't want that.

   Next time we will see how these exact same principles apply to create any chord we want, by moving up and down the neck of the guitar.

To be continued...