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 fingers)

The first 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 see how moving the E7 shape up one fret turns the chord into a F7 chord. By using the method of bar chord placement learnt previously, 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

These are the five most common extensions I have come across,

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

Learn these common extensions first, then you can move on to some more colorful chords later.

Major

Minor

Seventh

Major Seventh

Minor Seventh