Beginning Guitar IV - Lesson 3

Bar Chords - D Position

Lyle: I have another bar chord type to show you, the "D Position" type. Do you remember all the regular open position chords built from the D shapes:

open position D chords

Lyle: You're going to learn how to move these chord shapes up the neck. Gilmour, The Edge, to just name a few use the D position shape chords all the time. They sound good on the guitar.

Lyle: The 4th string, D string, is where the bass/root note of the chord is located. Click on this tab file and play it back to see the name of the notes:

notes on the D string

Lyle: Next let's take the plain open D chord and move it up 1 fret to make a Eb chord:

D to Eb

Eb


D to Eb

oiler_fan9: That's tough.

Lyle: This is tricky to do, and most of the time us guitar players don't like to make this chord shape, so we leave out the 4th string.

Lyle: It's a real good finger exercise just trying to make this chord shape. See if you can make this chord shape go up the neck, 1 fret at a time like this:

major chords in the D position

BigTX: I can see why......its a stretch.

Lyle: Like I said, sometimes you can leave out the 4th string and just hold down the first 3 strings, like a normal open D chord.

Lyle: You can leave the 4th/D string out, like this:

example

Lyle: In this example I played the open D chord, then moved the three finger shape up 1 fret at a time.

smitty: So I guess you can play an C open and a Db before getting to the open D??

Lyle: Yes!

example 2

Lyle: Well, these plain major chords using this shape, they don't have any strings to bar. We're lucky for that, but the stretch is a bugger.

Lyle: Let's check out the major 7 chords. The Eb major 7 (EbM7, or Ebmaj7) does use a bar:

EbM7


Ebmajor7

Lyle: Yes, you can use your pinky. It's always good to find ways to give your pinky extra practice, to help make it stronger. Try playing this shape all the way up the neck:

major 7 chords in the D position

Chris: Kind of a nice jazzy chord.

Lyle: Very colorful sounding, yes. I made a little exercise for you to practice moving the major 7 chord around with. Try this progression:

progression 1

progression 1

Lyle: Once you have the chord changes figured out, try playing along to this looping jam track:

progression 1 chord chart


jam track - progression 1

Lyle: You'll be moving your left hand all over the place!

Lyle: Let's try minor chords:

Ebmin

Ebm


Lyle: Good finger exercise, but not a very practical way to play a minor chord, so again you can drop the 4th/D string.

Lyle: Here's where all the minor chords would be up the neck using this shape:

minor chords in the D position

Lyle: Here's another practice progression using the minor and major chords:

progression 2

progression 2

Joel: Does one need all 4 fingers for the minor chords.. just wondering.. seems painful at first.

Lyle: Again, you can leave out the 4th string, the D string.

Lyle: Here's a looping jam track for this progression so you can play along:

progression 2 chord chart


jam track - progression 2

Lyle: Just a couple more chord types to look at. The minor 7 (m7, min7) chords are tough to play and another good finger exercise. I'm going to make you all great guitar players with these chord exercises!

Ebmin7

Ebmin7


Lyle: Here's where all the m7 chords lay out up the neck:

minor 7 chords in the D position

Lyle: What chord type have I left out?

sammy_andrews: the 7th chords?

Lyle: Yes! The dominant 7 chords are the bluesy sounding chords:

Eb7

Eb7


Lyle: These are popular chord shapes that you'll use in many styles of music. Here's all of them up the neck:

dominant 7 chords in the D position

Lyle: Here's another exercise to play using the dominant 7 chords:

progression 3

progression 3

Lyle: Here's a looping jam track for this progression. See if you can play right along with me:

progression 3 chord chart


jam track - progression 3

bluesguitarmp3: A piece of a song please..you have been ending with a song.. the past weeks?

Lyle: Try this:

part 1

Lyle: This is a cool example of moving the open D shape up to make the E, then farther up and making the A7:

part 2

Lyle: Looks like we better take a break for now.

Lyle: Think of this lesson as a great finger exercise. Practice playing the chord shapes up and down the neck, making each note ring clearly. Be able to play all 3 progressions right along with me using the looping jam tracks. That's your goal!

Lyle: Let me know if you have any questions about this lesson or you want me to help you learn a favorite song, email me at Lyle@theguitar.net . Thanks...