The Bar Chord
All the chords studied in Progressive Country Guitar Method were "open chords"; i.e. they contain at least one open string. In this lesson the "bar chord" is introduced. The term bar chord means that the first finger bars across all the strings. The fact that there are no open strings in a bar chord means it is possible to move the one shape to all positions of the fretboard and play in every key.
Root Six Major Bar Chord
The first bar chord you will learn is the "Root Six Major" bar chord, meaning two things. Firstly the term "Root Six" indicates that the root of the chord or the name of the chord is found on the sixth string. Secondly, the word "Major" points out exactly what type of chord it is.
The Root Six Major bar chord is based upon the basic E Major chord and can be learned in three steps.
Step One
Finger the basic E Major chord with the second, third and fourth fingers, therefore leaving the first finger free.
Step Two
Now move this fingering of the basic E Major chord up the fretboard one whole fret.
Step three
F
Finally, lay the first finger across the fret thus barring all the strings (as indicated by a curved line). By doing this your first finger is doing the same job as the nut except one fret higher. This completes the raising of the basic E Major chord one fret. A new chord, F Major, is produced because the F note (or F chord) is always found one fret higher than E. As mentioned previously, the root note (F) is found on the sixth string. The root note will be highlighted by a box.
