Those pesky barre chords

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

So how are you playing stuff like B and F, as well as your assorted sharps flats, and 7ths etc...? Personally, I'd generally rather not use barre chord forms, but I'm having a heck of a time imagining a world where I could quit using them altogether.

As often as not I'll opt for fretting only a couple select notes of the chord, and using open strings to fill things out, but that tendency goes way beyond barre chords. I'm pretty interested to hear how you've managed to cut them out altogether.

Solo guitar (i.e. being the whole band) playing melody line over harmony you will have use and need for the use of at least some barres.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

So how are you playing stuff like B and F, as well as your assorted sharps flats, and 7ths etc...? Personally, I'd generally rather not use barre chord forms, but I'm having a heck of a time imagining a world where I could quit using them altogether.

As often as not I'll opt for fretting only a couple select notes of the chord, and using open strings to fill things out, but that tendency goes way beyond barre chords. I'm pretty interested to hear how you've managed to cut them out altogether.

Hi Bushleague,

Gosh, I haven’t really thought about the musical mechanics behind my not using barre chords. I’m not a great player, or a great singer, just a “campfire” guitarist, so the easier I can make things the better.

Firstly, I use the guitar for solo song accompaniment, and I basically picked up the guitar again because the bluegrass band I was playing dobro in folded when a member passed away. I wanted to learn to flatpick to accompany songs as a solo performer as I really couldn’t play dobro and sing solo!!! The loss of the top phalanx of my left hand index finger in a climbing accident meant that, unlike when I was young, I was going to struggle with barre chords. But the players I was listening to (Doc Watson, Tim O’Brien, Jonathan Byrd, Woody Guthrie, Billy Strings etc) never seemed to use them. And nor did the guitar player in our bluegrass band, who I had stood next to for 8 years or more.

I find myself playing songs in a wide variety of keys to suit my voice. I use a capo all the time. My present song set uses the capo on frets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. When I hear a new song I like, I firstly find a key for it that fits my voice. Then I will transpose its root chord to find a place on the fretboard where it plays well. So, say if a song falls well for my voice in the key of D but uses the relative minor of that key (Bm) then I’ll try out the song from a C chord shape for the root chord at capo 2. The relative minor is now an Am chord shape (no barre). I’ll play the F chord shape as a 4 string short chord (from 6th to 1st string XX3211) using my index finger to cover off the 1st and 2nd strings together. And I’ll probably alternate the bass so from XX3211 to X3X211. I’ll use the same style of shortened form for any chord that would be a barre.

I play major key tunes mostly out of a G root chord, C root chord and D root chord shapes, with the specific key altered by the capo. For something minor like say Annabelle by Gillian Walsh, I work that song from F minor (using a capo at the 1st fret and the Em root chord shape). The chord shapes for that song would be Em, C, B7th, G and D but I’m actually sounding Fm, Db, C7th, G# and E#

I really like to keep my accompaniment very sparse, and, by not “strumming” as such but playing a boom/chick style, or using bass riffs, or borrowing from the melody, I can get away with working with a capo and using shortened chords and still get a nice timbre. If I’m playing a shortened chord and need to sustain it then I may cross pick instead of strum for a measure or so, then I’m only playing 3 strings for the roll.

Here is an example of Jonathan Byrd using a short F chord and sometimes a short F with a thumb over for the bass. The chord shapes for this song are F, C, G and Am but he rarely plays any of those chords fully but cross picks and uses hammer-ons and pull-offs to transition. The song opens on an F chord shape; If he played the F as a barre then it would spoil his transition to the C. The actual key of the tune is E major



There are lots of work-arounds you can do instead of playing barre chords. And there are some stunning players who pretty much never use them. I’m sure that they could play barre chords if they wanted to, but don’t.

[Bushleague]

I see, I think you are doing something much like me, but since I am still thinking in Barre chord forms I tend consider myself to still be using them.

For allot of positions I can get away with just playing my root or octave, the third, and letting everything else just ring open. 7ths and 5ths can be added or substituted to taste. Going to drop D opens up a bunch more positions, since some of what wont work with the open B/E will work with the open D/A.

I dont pretend this is terribly advanced/ ground breaking stuff but I do think I've run with the concept to a greater degree than many, at least in fairly standard tunings. It tends to make everything sound bigger, almost having a 12 string chime at times, other times the resulting chords end up far more harmonically complex than whatever else I might have used. Because I'm carrying alot of common notes between my chords the progressions generally come across more subtle, going to full chords in certain parts has the nice effect of adding a more resolved feel to the music. I call it artificial complexity, simply use every open string you can, as often as you can, and without even learning anything new or getting any better at playing you sound like your doing something more complicated.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

I see, I think you are doing something much like me, but since I am still thinking in Barre chord forms I tend consider myself to still be using them.

For allot of positions I can get away with just playing my root or octave, the third, and letting everything else just ring open. 7ths and 5ths can be added or substituted to taste. Going to drop D opens up a bunch more positions, since some of what wont work with the open B/E will work with the open D/A.

I dont pretend this is terribly advanced/ ground breaking stuff but I do think I've run with the concept to a greater degree than many, at least in fairly standard tunings. It tends to make everything sound bigger, almost having a 12 string chime at times, other times the resulting chords end up far more harmonically complex than whatever else I might have used. Because I'm carrying a lot of common notes between my chords the progressions generally come across more subtle, going to full chords in certain parts has the nice effect of adding a more resolved feel to the music. I call it artificial complexity, simply use every open string you can, as often as you can, and without even learning anything new or getting any better at playing you sound like your doing something more complicated.

Oh no! I am a very, very simple player! I understand what you are getting at with using dropped D. I used DADGAD to work up the accompaniment to Elzic's Farewell in my signature below. I don't ever play DADGAD but I thought it would work for that tune as the dulcimer was running the melody against root and 5th drones. I have absolutely no idea what chords I was playing in DADGAD for that piece, I just found fingerings that were easy to do and sounded right. It really isn't rocket science to play out of that tuning tuning as stuff just seems to "fall to the fingers", and it all sounds good. And that I suppose is my general guitar playing concept in standard tuning - why not just play what "falls to the fingers" (hence barre chords are out) so all my song accompaniment uses open chord shapes and a capo.

[Banter Shack]

Many thanks for all your comments folks. You've given me plenty to work with. Much appreciated.