Barre Chords, Moveable Chords, Scales & Details

E Major and A Major are perhaps the most important chords in Rock music because they form the foundation of its most often used chords: Barre Chords. Note that the fingerings for the E and A Chords (gray) shown below are different from the E and A Open Chords above. This is because you are going to use your index finger to form a bar that holds the strings down when making the "barre" chord, and this allows you to simply slide the entire fixed fingering position up one fret (chromatically) to become a new chord. This fixed finger pattern can be moved up and down the entire length of the neck, forming new chords on each fret.

When you learn to form a Barre Chord, you are really learning 12 new chords, one for each fret! Be careful to mute the low E string when playing the Barre Chords based on A so that it doesn’t play. Moveable Chords are similar to Barre Chords in that they can be moved up the entire length of the neck to make new chords on each fret, so once you learn one fixed fingering position, you’ve really learned 12 new chords! Remember DO NOT play the strings with X’s over them.

Barre Chords Based on E

Barre Chords Based on A