Playing A Major Barre Chords on the Guitar

Video Transcript

"So we've learned the E type barre chords, major and minor. Now how about the A type bar chords? You might have heard of these before, well they're just as important. We can use the same principle, we're going to use the same shape of an A. We're going to use our first finger to barre still, but this time since it's an A type, our A string will be our base note. We don't need to barre all the way to the E. In fact a good principle is to use our barre, say on the fifth fret to start on the A string but let it touch the E so that the E is muted. So if you accidentally strum and hit the E string, you're not going to have some open thing or the fifth doubled on top. Now this is going to be a tricky one. You're going to take your third finger now that you first finger is barred across the fifth fret, starting on the A string and you're going to start it. First arch it on the D string second fret, that shouldn't be hard. Now you're going to barre it also and you're going to barre it across the seventh fret of the D, G and B strings. You're going to want to arch it at the end. Remember this shape that we used when we tried that A type. We're going to have to arch it backwards at the end so we have the open string underneath on the fifth fret bar. We get the note! I didn't say it was going to be easy, but with enough practice you can do it. Now this is making the shape of a D major, because this note is D. So it's not the same shape, but it's the same chord. Now this can be an E flat which we had no way of playing before."