Guitar Today

In the first major chords installment we looked at the main G,C,D chords, then we had a look at the open guitar chords E and A in part 2. In this third and final installment on major chords we will be looking at the last two major guitar chords. They are the B and F guitar chords. These chords require slightly more finger dexterity and strength.

B major

The B chord requires a technique called ‘barring’. Barring is using one finger to cover a fret on multiple. In the case of B you need to cover the first and last strings of the chord meaning your index finger must barre the entire width of the neck starting from the fifth string. You will need to press down extra hard and anchor with your wrists to do this. Place your index finger on the second fret of the fifth string, ring finger on the fourth fret of the third string, then place your pinky finger on the fourth fret of the second string.

F Major

To play the F major guitar chord, place your index finger across the first frets of the second and first strings, your middle finger on the second fret of the third string and your ring finger on the third fret of the fourth string. For this chord your index finger is somewhat barring the beck as your need to place it flat on the two first guitar strings.

When you have gotten past the single notes contained on each of the six strings on a guitar, you are likely ready to move on to chords. Instead of ‘plucking’ single strings at a time, with chords you will be strumming. Strumming is plucking all the strings in unison either by striking them all at once from top to bottom or bottom to top. When you strum from top to bottom, it is called an downstrum, when you strum from bottom to top, it is called a upstrum.

If you only played downstrokes or only upstrokes, your chord progressions would probably sound pretty boring.That is why there are many patterns that you can vary your chord strokes in. Once you have been playing a while it gets easier and more natural to simply sense these pattern. To begin, we’ll look at some easy ones.

Here are some strumming patterns that you can use along with most of the demonstrations and exercises on this website. Use the / symbol to indicate downstrokes and the \ symbol for upstrokes. The demo is also timed for you counting four beats. Tap your foot four times for each bar and strum accordingly to how many strums equal a beat.

$ D D U D U D | D D U D U D

G/ / \ / \ / C / / \ / \ /

1  2  3  4     1 2   3 4

In yesterday’s post we covered the G,C, and D, major guitar chords. Today we will look at two major chords which are also known as open chords chords. They are also extremely easy to play. E major and A major are a little bit tricky because the major and minor versions of the chords form opposing chord shapes. Where E major resembles an A minor on the first string, A major resembles an E minor on the fifth.

E major - The E major chord is as low as you can go on a standard tuned guitar. E is also agreat chord to play a guitar solo to because you have the most distance across the fretboard to work with as it is the first and among the last of the notes on the board. To play the E major chord place your index finger on the first fret of the third string, your ring finger on the second fret of the fourth string, your middle finger on the second fret of the fifth string and leave the sixth string open. Strum at will.

A major - The A major is a very easy guitar chord to learn. To play the A major chord place your index finger on the second fret of the fourth string, your middle finger on the second fret of the third string, and your ring finger on (you guessed it) the second fret of the second string.

The above demo uses the E, A and D major, which is also sometimes considered an open chord. The next two major chords are C and B which get into a slightly more difficult fingering position. But first we’ll be having a look atsome strumming patterns you can use for these examples.