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Jesse's Song Making
Guitar Lesson #2

Lesson #2 - Add Variety To Your Songs By Playing Each Chord In More Than One Place

Overview

You can add more variety to your songs by playing each chord in different places. Each place will sound slightly different. And this way you can play up and down the guitar neck.

You just use bar chords to play each chord. In this lesson you discover three steps that you can follow to play any Major or minor chord in two different places as bar chords. Then you can just use Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart as a reference to look up the chords.

The diagram below shows two different places that you can play the chord B minor.


Play B minor in two places as bar chords



Three Steps to Play Bar Chords

1 CHOOSE a Chord Shape!

2 ANCHOR the Chord Shape on the Root Note!

3 PLAY the Chord!


Quick Example
Here's a quick example of how to play the chord G Major as a bar chord. You're not expected to understand how to do it at this point, just glance at the pictures and keep reading.


Quick Example:
Play G Major as a Bar Chord

1 CHOOSE a Chord Shape!
Major chord shape

2 ANCHOR the Chord Shape on the Root Note!
Anchor the Major Shape on Note G

3 PLAY the Chord!
Play the bar chord G Major


Root Notes and Chord Shapes

Chords contain two items of information:

1. The letter of the note, called the root note.

2. The type of chord called the chord type., i.e. Major or minor.


Root Note-G Chord Type-Major
Root Note-A Chord Type-minor


The root note determines the location of the chord on the guitar neck.

The chord type determines the shape of the chord called the chord shape (the shape you put your fingers into when you play the chord).


Major and Minor Chord Shapes
There are five main Major chord shapes and five main minor chord shapes.

Right now you're going to learn the two most common and easiest to play Major and minor chord shapes. You can use them to play any major or minor chord by following the examples below. Here they are:


Easy Bar Chord Shapes

Two easy Major bar chord shapes
Two easy minor bar chord shapes


"R" Stands for Root Note
The note with the letter R on it in each chord shape is the root note of that chord shape.

To play any Major or minor chord, you just choose a chord shape and anchor note R on the root note of the chord you want to play. To do this you just need to know the names of the notes on the two lowest strings, the low E string and the A string.

Here's a detailed example of how to play the chord G Major as a bar chord:

Detailed Example:
Play G Major as a Bar Chord

1 CHOOSE a Chord Shape!

Choose a chord shape according to the chord type from the easy bar chord shapes above. For example, to play a G Major chord choose one of the Major chord shapes.

I chose the first Major chord shape for this example. Chord shapes can be drawn vertically or horizontally.
Major bar chord shape
2 ANCHOR the Chord Shape on the Root Note!

Anchor note R of the chord shape on the root note of the chord you want to play.

To play the chord G Major, anchor note R of the Major chord shape on the root note G.

Because note R is on the 6th string in the chord shape, find G on the 6th string.
Anchor the Major chord shape on the note G
3 PLAY the Chord!

When you create a chord diagram, write the fret number on the right side. Notice G Major is on the 3rd fret.
Play the bar chord G Major


Two More Quick Examples
You can follow these same three steps to play any Major or minor chord.

Here's a look at how to play D Major in two different places:


Play D Major in two places as bar chords



Here's a look at how to play B minor in two different places:


Play B minor in two places as bar chords


Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart
Now you can remodel Jesse's Easy Chord Chart from the previous lesson and use bar chords instead to create Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart below.


Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart

Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart - Chords in the Key of A
Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart - Chords in the Key of C
Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart - Chords in the Key of D
Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart - Chords in the Key of E
Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart - Chords in the Key of G


Make Up Songs Using Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart
To make up songs using Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart just follow the same three steps you followed in the previous lesson (shown below), except this time choose one of the two different places to play each chord.

1 PICK a Key for Your Song!
Pick a Key for Your Song

2 ROLL a Die to Select Chords From that Key!
Roll a Die to Select Chords From that Key

3 PLAY Your Song!
Play Your Song


Would You Like To Know Three Other Ways To Play Each Chord And How To Create Jesse's Easy Bar Chord Chart Yourself?

You can learn three other ways to play each chord and how to create this bar chord chart yourself in Guitar On the Spot - Using the Code. Click here to learn more.

When I make up songs, solos and riffs I don't really think about the names of the chords I'm playing like "G Major" or "A minor" etc. I just visualize the Code and use the Chord Formulas. You can learn all about how to make up riffs this easy way in Guitar On the Spot - Using the Code.


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Guitar On the Spot Using the Code

Do you have the ambition to play the guitar, but you can't quite piece it all together?

In Using the Code you’ll discover the simple code that you can use to play the guitar.

You'll use it to make up your own songs, solos and riffs up and down the guitar neck, jam with other people and figure out how to play simple songs, solos and riffs by ear.

You don’t need to read notes.
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It's the best learning tool I have discovered in bookstores or the internet.

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-Dave Stigen, Sparta, WI

"When I saw the book I thought oh it’s just another book. You know I've looked at a lot of books and they basically remind me that I need to practice various chord patterns and shapes and notes, it’s all about practice, but with Jesse’s book, it allowed me to practice in a more effective way that really benefited my guitar playing."

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-Jon B., MI

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If you've been reading a bunch of books trying to “figure it out” (that’s what I did, it took me years) and you're still confused, just check out the code and see if it clears anything up for you. You have nothing to lose.
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Jesse's Song Making Guitar Lessons

Below are all of the Song Making Guitar Lessons which you can subscribe to from the Guitar On the Spot subscription page. Click here to subscribe to these song making lessons.

These lessons build on what you've already learned on this website.


Lesson #1 - Get The Full Sound Out Of All The Chords

Lesson #2 - Add Variety To Your Songs

Lesson #3 - How to Add Flavor to Your Songs




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