Stop 2 of 5
E-shape barre chords
Major, minor and seventh with the root on the sixth string.
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Stop 2 of 5
Major, minor and seventh with the root on the sixth string.
At the last stop you climbed the F ladder. Now you'll discover that F wasn't a one-off chord but a master key: the same shape, moved along the neck, gives you all twelve major chords. With a couple of tweaks, it gives you the minors, the sevenths and the minor sevenths too. They all come from four chords you already know: E, Em, E7 and Em7.
Play an open E and listen. Now try an experiment: form the same chord but swap the fingers. Instead of 2, 3 and 1, use 3, 4 and 2. It sounds exactly the same, but your index is now free.
Now move that shape up a whole fret and lay the free index across fret 1. What just happened? The three strings that rang open in E (6th, 2nd and 1st) were being "fretted" by the . Once you move up a fret, the nut is no use any more, so the index does its job: your index is a nut you can carry with you.
Hear how the same chord "colour" rises in pitch:
A major chord isn't a list of fixed notes: it's a pattern of distances. From the , the same distances are always stacked to get the third and the fifth. Change the root but keep the distances, and you get another major chord.
On the guitar that has a lovely consequence: since each fret is a , moving a whole shape one fret raises every note by a semitone, and the distances between them stay the same. The only obstacle was the open strings, which don't travel with you. The barre removes that obstacle. A shape like this, with no open strings, is a .
String 6, Fret 1: F2 · 1 · Scale tone
Look at the labels: the root appears three times (strings 6, 4 and 1), the fifth twice and the third only once, on the third string. That layout is identical in open E, in F at fret 1 and in G at fret 3. That's why this barre chord is called the : it's the E chord, relocated.
Counted in semitones from the root on the sixth string, the notes of the E shape sit 0, 7, 12, 16, 19 and 24 semitones up. That is: root, fifth, root an octave up, major third, fifth, and root two octaves up.
Moving the shape n frets adds n semitones to every note, so the differences between them don't change. That's the whole secret of movable shapes: the geometry of your hand keeps the distances. In the next stage you'll name those distances (intervals); for now it's enough to know they travel intact.
If the root is on the sixth string, right under your index, the chord's name is simply the note on the sixth string at that fret. That's why you need the sixth-string notes at your fingertips — and you already know them:
String 6, Open: E2 · 1 · Scale tone
| Index fret | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major chord | F | G | A | B | C | D |
The frets in between give the sharp and flat chords: fret 2 = F♯, fret 4 = G♯ (or A♭), fret 6 = B♭, fret 9 = C♯, fret 11 = E♭.
Compare open E and Em: the only difference is the third string. In E major you fret it at fret 1 (G♯, the major third); in E minor you leave it open (G, the minor third). One note, one semitone, turns the chord from bright to melancholy.
The barre works the same way: lift finger 2 off the third string. The index now frets that string, one fret lower, and the chord becomes minor.
Listen to the difference between F major and F minor. Only the third-string note changes:
Open E7 is made by removing a finger from E: the fourth string rings open as D, the chord's minor seventh. That gives it the tense, bluesy flavour you met in the blues. In the barre, the same: lift finger 4 (fourth string) and let the index fret it.
Em7 combines both changes: no major third and no root on the fourth string. In the barre only the index and finger 3 on the fifth string remain.
Here's the whole stop at a single fret. All four are E-shape barre chords at fret 3, so all four are G chords: only their quality changes.
| Quality | What changes from major | Fingers left above the barre |
|---|---|---|
| Major | — | 2 (3rd string), 3 (5th), 4 (4th) |
| Minor | The third drops a semitone | 3 and 4 |
| 7 | The root on the 4th string drops to the seventh | 2 and 3 |
| m7 | Both at once | 3 only |
One shape, four colours, twelve frets: 48 chords.
Put the barre at fret 5 (easier there than at fret 1) and play each quality for one bar of four beats. Don't lift the index between chords: just take the other fingers off or put them on.
Check the minor and minor 7 string by string: they ask the most of your index.
Goal: Move through A, A minor, A7 and A minor 7 without lifting the index, with all six strings clean.
This original progression climbs and descends the neck using only the E shape: G at fret 3, A minor at 5, B minor at 7 and C at 8.
When you change, ease the pressure without leaving the strings, slide, and settle the arm's weight again. Look at the target fret before you move.
Goal: Play the whole progression at 70 BPM without the sound cutting out between chords.
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