Intermediate Bar Chords Bar Chord Extensions

Bar Chord Extensions - E Shape

Bar chords are broken into 2 parts,

• The Bar (this is first finger that covers either the five or six strings).
• The Extension (the fingers that make up the chord shape, 2nd, 3rd & 4th)

The 1st two animated examples below are showing the same idea two different ways. An open chord that can be played using only 3 fingers can be transformed into a bar chord. In the first example you can se how moving the E7 shape up one fret turns the chord into a F7 chord. By using this simple principle of bar chord placement, you could then play a G7 chord using the same shape but moved to the 3rd fret.

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5 Main E Shape Extensions

Major

Minor

Seventh

Major Seventh

Minor Seventh

The five most common extensions I have come across are,

1. Major
2. Minor
3. Seventh
4. Major Seventh
5. Minor Seventh

Learn these common extensions first the you can move on to some more colorful ones later.