Advanced Exercises

Reference         "Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below." --Joseph Addison

Techniques Bending Double-Stops Harmonics Hammer-on and pull-offs Palm Muting Raking Right Hand Tapping Slapping Slides Trills Vibrato Strumming Open Chords Power Chords Barre Chords Sweep Picking Alternate Picking Tremolo Picking Building Dexterity Building Speed Advanced Exercises Improvisation

Barre Chords are chords played at higher frets when you lay your index finger across the fretboard to fret all the strings. This raises the overall pitch and can make it possible to make fuller, richer chords not possible as Open chords.

Barre Chords for Beginners

Barre Chords are usually fairly hard if you are just starting out due to the difficulty in getting the index finger to lay flat across all six strings. It's best to start practicing them early! It takes some time to get it right, make sure when you are playing these chords that all the strings ring out. Out of these examples, the easiest to start with out with is the Minor 7th, as it has only one additional finger. These chords are written out in a way that lets you see the correct fingerings.

   A Major (A)        A Minor (Am)
E---------------5-------------5-------------
B-------------5-------------5---------------
G-----------6-------------5-----------------
D---------7-------------7-------------------
A-------7-------------7---------------------
E-----5-------------5-----------------------
      i r p m i i     i r p i i i  

   A Major 7th (A7)   A Minor 7th (Am7)
E---------------5-------------5-------------
B-------------5-------------5---------------
G-----------6-------------5-----------------
D---------5-------------5-------------------
A-------7-------------7---------------------
E-----5-------------5-----------------------
      i r i m i i   i r i i i i