Stage 7 milestone
Milestone: The Barre Pass
Review, practical challenge and self-assessment to close the stage with everything you learned.
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Stage 7 milestone
Review, practical challenge and self-assessment to close the stage with everything you learned.
Look back for a moment. You reached this pass with chords that depended on open strings and a handful of "friendly" keys. You climbed the F ladder step by step, learned to roll your index and let your arm do the work, turned E and A into shapes that travel the whole neck, and discovered that a progression is a recipe of numbers you can cook in any key. From this summit you can see the whole neck. Time to prove it.
| Stop | What you learned | The key idea |
|---|---|---|
| The journey to F | 4-, 5- and 6-string F; index on its edge; arm weight | The barre is built in steps, over weeks |
| E-shape barre chords | Major, minor, 7 and m7 with the root on the 6th string | The index is a movable nut |
| A-shape barre chords | Major (with mini-barre), minor, 7 and m7 with the root on the 5th | Every chord has two homes |
| Moving shapes | Root map, transposing, nearest shape, power chords, capo | Move every shape = change key |
| Progressions in any key | Degree map, I–IV–V, I–V–vi–IV, I–vi–IV–V, ii–V–I, Nashville | Think in numbers, play in any key |
Snowy Pass is an original 16-bar piece in A: an eight-bar verse and an eight-bar chorus. It uses five of the six degrees you know and makes you combine E and A shapes.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verse | A | C♯m | F♯m | D | A | E | D | E |
| Degrees | I | iii | vi | IV | I | V | IV | V |
| Chorus | D | E | C♯m | F♯m | D | E | A | A |
| Degrees | IV | V | iii | vi | IV | V | I | I |
Play the whole piece with three-note , at the same frets where the barre chords will go later. That way you memorise your hand's route without fighting the full barre yet.
One downstroke per eighth note (eight per bar), with the backing above. Look at the target fret one beat before each change.
Goal: Play all 16 bars with power chords at 80 BPM without losing the beat.
Now the real barre chords. Notice the shapes chosen: they all live between frets 2 and 7.
In the verse, play this strum:
And in the chorus, this choppy chord rhythm. Release the index pressure on the rests so the chord stops dead:
Goal: Play all 16 bars with barre chords and every string clean at 80 BPM, twice in a row.
Here is the Nashville chart of Snowy Pass:
1 · 3m · 6m · 4 · 1 · 5 · 4 · 5 ‖ 4 · 5 · 3m · 6m · 4 · 5 · 1 · 1
Transpose it to C using the degree map around an A shape at fret 3, and add colour: the 5 becomes G7 and the 6m becomes Am7.
Play the version in C with the backing. Then choose another key (for example G or B♭), place the I and let the degree map do the rest. Don't write down the chord names: read only the numbers.
Goal: Play the whole piece in C with sevenths and then in a third key of your choice, reading only the number chart.
Two weeks, about 20 minutes a day. Each session mixes a bit of everything (interleaved practice) and revisits earlier days (spaced practice). Two rules: stop if it hurts and rest your hand between blocks.
| Day | Warm-up (4 min) | Barre chords (8 min) | Music (8 min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 | F ladder | E shapes: 4 colours at frets 5 and 3 | Snowy Pass level 1 or 2 |
| 2, 5, 8, 11, 14 | Octaves and roots | A shapes: 4 colours at frets 3 and 5 | I–V–vi–IV in two keys |
| 3, 6, 9, 12 | One-minute changes (your hardest one) | E/A mix: nearest shape | Nashville chart in a new key |
Barre at fret 7, then 5, 3 and 1 (E-shape major). For each: form it, check string by string, release and shake your hand. Do it with the thumb off the neck at least once, to check the weight comes from the arm.
Goal: Four clean barre chords, checked string by string, with no tension in the thumb.
Pick the shape of the day and go major → minor → 7 → m7 → major at two different frets. Use the stage strum.
Goal: Eight changes in a row between qualities without lifting the index.
Play the day's piece or progression with its backing. The rule of this block is don't stop: if a chord goes wrong, carry on with the next. You're training to play inside the music.
Goal: Play the day's music block from start to finish without stopping, even with the odd mistake.
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