Chord reading help

qwertplaywert

Hi.Recently started playing the electric guitar. Having a little trouble learning/playing some chords . In specific, for example , if a chord says 1 on more than 1 string, what do you do?

Blackhorse Slim

I'm assuming the '1' means your first/index finger? If so, when you see 1 on more than one string they are always on the same fret - this is a barre chord. You lay your finger flat across the strings that you need to fret with your index finger so you can hold them all down at once. To learn the technique, it's best to lay your finger across all six strings at the required fret, and then use your other fingers on other frets to complete the chord.

Barre chords are usually the first big stumbling block beginners come across, but if you can master them, then you are a guitar player. And all it takes is practice.

qwertplaywert

Cheers. Tryed what you said-its tough but I'm improving!

bostonian

As previously stated, it's likely a barre chord. Lay your index finger across all six strings at the 1st fret, and then arrange your other fingers as needed. When you understand the importance of barre chords, you can play very efficiently by using the barre forms to make other chords very quickly.

Example:

Open E chord:
0
0
1
2
2
0

With an open E we are actually barring the Oth fret, or rather, the headstock is doing it for us. Now if you change that open E to this:

1
1
2
3
3
1

You now have an open F. To make an open G, you then move to

3
3
4
5
5
3

Why did we move only 1 fret to make F, but 2 frets to make G? Because of chromatic intervals- there is no such note in western scales as an E#/Fb. But we do have an F#/Gb, so we need to move two frets when going from F to G in order to skip F#.

So by learning this one form of barre, you can make all 12 major chords, if your fingers can work in tight enough spots. For those who can't, we have other forms of barre, all based on their relative open chord. The form I've shown is E barre, but the A and C forms of barre are also common. I don't use G barre much, and D barre I only use for playing Eb. B barre is less comfortable than C barre personally so I use C in lieu of B, but it's personal preference.

You should familiarize yourself with the major and minor barre chords, they'll make you play rhythm like a pro in no time. Minor barre chords work the same as major ones, but you use the open minor chord as the form.

qwertplaywert

Afriad most of that went over my head tbh.....thanks for posting anyway.
I think I will just learn the basic Major and Minor chords for the next week and maybe scales after that.

qwertplaywert

Hi guys-another quick question-what does 0 mean on tabs?

DeadSkin

qwertplaywert wrote: »

Hi guys-another quick question-what does 0 mean on tabs?

You just play the open string.
Have a look here

qwertplaywert

Cheers. Think I've mastered the major/minor chords, and been using some excerises to improve my finger flexibility. I've also learned my first song, Pearl Jam's ''Last Kiss''.
Learning Baare chords is hard though!

Holmer

you can finger an F chord like this and it won't sound much different.
0
1
2
3
3
0

most rock songs with barre chords don't employ the top two strings, especially when playing with distortion. For example, G5 chord:

x
x
4
5
5
3

x=don't play this string, just strike the bottom 4. If you like pearl jam, songs like spin the black circle can be played this way