Barre Chord Notation
Editor's Note: This is another page that was not recovered from the archive. The maintainer has done his best to ensure the original intent of this page is met with this new material.
As you view tabs or use chord generators or charts, you won't often find any specific notation for barre chords. Rather, it's up to you when looking at a chord to determine whether or not it should be barred. For some chord voicings, it's quite obvious that the only way to play them is to use a barre, for example, F#m (F# minor):
In this case, your index finger will clearly barre at the 2nd fret, holding down strings 1, 2, 3 and 6. However, other chord formations may not be so immediately obvious, such as the Bm chord (B minor):
In this chord, your index finger barres only 1 and 5, because 2, 3 and 4 are fingered higher up the neck. As you progress, you'll learn to use the tip of your barre finger to mute the 6 string in chords such as this one. As you learn more chords and voicings, you'll quickly learn to identify barre chords by checking for at least 2 strings both fretted at the lowest fret in the chord formation. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but you've probably figured out by now that every technique has its exceptions - that's part of what makes learning guitar so fun!
This should hopefully clear up any confusion on barre chord notation. If there are any further questions, please e-mail me. Good luck and have fun.
For my archive of common chords, click here.
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© 1997 Daniel E. Smith. © 2004 Mike McCracker.