Is There Barre Chords In Blues Acoustic?

[daza152]

I would like to play blues and have noticed that I havn't seen any barre chords in some of the songs on you tube which got me to thinking maybe its not part of the blues style of playing? I will still endeavour to learn the barre chords purely as a matter of "learning the basics" then move into the blues.

Thanks Daza.

[RevGeo]

I play a lot of acoustic blues and I use barre chords quite a bit. I also use that chord form where you make an F chord shape and wrap your thumb around to the 6th string. That's just a barre chord fingered differently anyway.

One of the great things about blues is that there are no rules, technique-wise. As long as you get the music out who cares how you did it?
Some people might say that barre chords aren't used in acoustic blues but they are just following other people's paths. Find your own path and don't disregard any technique if it helps you get where you want to go.
There is no such thing as knowing too many ways to get music out of a guitar.

Rev George

[Short Balding G]

Originally Posted by RevGeo

One of the great things about blues is that there are no rules, technique-wise. As long as you get the music out who cares how you did it?
Some people might say that barre chords aren't used in acoustic blues but they are just following other people's paths. Find your own path and don't disregard any technique if it helps you get where you want to go.
There is no such thing as knowing too many ways to get music out of a guitar.

Rev George

Cheers! I think this is good advise to consider when playing each day.

As a more novice player, I am close to my beginning and recall vividly the frustration when told to find my own answer or path. I knew nothing and really wanted a specific prescription to being a good acoustic blues player. I took the tactic to mimic the better players (instructors/DVD lessons/players) around me. I found differences and tried to play the different ways and have been slowly settling into the "short balding guy" method. Trying the different methods means that I did not throw anything away but now have options. Turns out that advise was good - just hard to hear for me as it did not have what I prefered (detailed/concrete steps). My first instructors guided me thru this maze of options well.

Bar chords - YES! One example; The "long A chord" as played with the bar typically across the 2nd fret and a finger fretting the fifth fret is in many of the songs that I play. Songs that with that long A come immediately to mind have been recorded by Broonzy, Blind Boy Fuller, Otis Harris, Miss. John Hurt, Wilkens, and BL Jefferson.

Best wishes, Eric -

[BULLSPRIG]

I think there actually ARE quite a few barre chords in blues guitar. And there are quite a few abbreviated barre chords. All over the neck. Although once again, I tend to avoid most barre chords. But there are cases in blues where you absolutely need them. Check out a guy named Robert Cray. He plays electric blues, but he's gonna use quite a few barre chords. At least to my ears. Probably more than most.

[shawlie]

I really like listening to (and trying to play) old acoustic blues, my favorites are people like Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell, Frank Stokes, Pink Anderson, and that kind of blues. Listening (and trying some of their songs out), it seems like they'll use a lot of partial bar chords (like the long A mentioned), but never full ones (unless in open tuning, maybe, like a C chord bar on the fifth fret in open G, but that's not too hard after practice). I have no idea about other kinds of blues.

One funny thing that I will always think about - in a great book by Mark Hanson on Travis picking, there's a song (written by another guitar player) that is a tribute to Mississippi John Hurt (great song, by the way).

It's funny, it does very much remind you of Hurt's guitar playing, but seems played not at all like John Hurt plays. It uses three-finger rolls (index, middle and ring) and an Em bar on the seventh fret. He didn't use his third finger and (as far as I know) that type of bar chord (doesn't sound like he uses many minor chords at all, actually), but it still has a lot of his feeling in it. So it seems the approach can be up to you - there are different ways to create a certain feeling, if you don't want to play exactly the same.

[jackstrat]

There was a time when I played nothing but blues and was trying to learn from everyone and everything--records, friends, etc.

But I realized early on that 99% of the books, 98% of my friends, etc. played a sanitized version full of typical chords (E, A7, B7 or A, D7 and E7), and box scales, when in reality...

...the blues I was listening to and interested in, 99% of the time, were played in different and strange tunings, odd shapes that made up "chords", and note patterns that were only remotely similar to the "blues scale" boxes I saw in the books.

I am not saying that scale boxes and standard chords have no place in music or blues, just saying, that the stuff I was interested in would have been near impossible to document in print.

JackL