Chords

Learn how to play barre chords!

In order to play more chords than the first ten open position chords you can use your index finger to barre the strings, by doing this you replace the nut of the guitar.

To learn how to fret barre chords we use an exercise called “The Cycle Of 4ths”.

The exercises will teach you how to fret each individual barre chord shape.

As you play the chords; say the name of them out loud, this will teach you all the notes on the neck.

This means that the exercises on the following pages do two things:

1. Teach you to fret a shape.
2. Teach you all the notes on the neck for string 6, 5 and 4.

Cycle of 4ths Exercise

As you progress through the S-E P R you will see many exercises using the concept of cycle of 4ths.

Since the cycle moves up a 4th continuously we get the effect that we move through all keys before we come back to where we started.

The only other interval cycle this happens to is the cycle of 5ths, which move the opposite way.

Apart from being a great tool, it is good to firmly understand the movement of 4ths in music, many chord progressions move through it.

For example turnarounds often move VI – II – V – I, which is up in continuous 4ths.

In a Blues we get a 4th up movement between I – IV and V – I. See Blues Jam Tracks (a part of The Spy Tunes Method) for more.