Movable Chord Shapes in Five Forms
To become a good guitar player, it is important to have a system for identifying movable chord shapes all over the fretboard in any key. Most movable chord formations are closely related to the five basic major chord shapes shown in the following diagrams.
C
A
G
E
D
You already know the E form bar chord (root 6) and the A form bar chord (root 5). The C, G and D chords can also be used as the basis for bar chords. There are also many other movable chord shapes based on these 5 shapes which are useful for Blues playing.
The five basic bar chord forms are shown in the following diagram. Notice the order of these forms - C, A, G, E and D. This order is easy to memorize if you think of the word caged.
C Form
A Form
G Form
E Form
D Form
When these five forms (shapes) are placed end to end in the one key, they cover the whole fretboard. For example, if you start with an open C chord, the A form bar chord at the 3rd fret is also a C chord. The root note on the 5th string is shared by both chord forms.
The A form chord then connects to a G form C chord beginning on the 5th fret. The root note on the 3rd string is shared by both chord forms. The G form then connects to an E form C chord at the 8th fret.
This time there are two root notes shared by both forms – one on the 6th string and one on the 1st string. The E form then connects to the D form at the 10th fret, this time the shared root note is on the 4th string.
To complete the pattern, the D form connects back to the C form at the 12th fret. The shared root note between these two forms is on the 2nd string. This C form is one octave higher than the open C form. After this, the whole pattern repeats. The following example demonstrates all five forms being played as C chords.
