Music Theory for Guitarists - Part 4- More Chord Progressions and Bar Chords

PART IV - MORE BAR CHORDS

Now that we've covered several of the bar chords and progressions in the last section, I wanted to introduce a couple of other important ideas into the vocabulary. The first is the a⁷Bar Chord and the e⁷ Bar Chord. The second is a fuller and more interesting way of playing C, F, and G.


The a minor 7^th Bar chord is used quite often in classic rock. A good example of this chord is The Doobie Brothers song Long Train Running. The intro and main guitar hook is all based on this chord. Moving your pointer finger up to the 7^th fret of the guitar and playing this bar chord produces the chord e minor 7.

In this song, the guitar doesn't cover the low e string with the bar but instead lets it ring out giving the chord more depth. The riff alternates between the a7 bar with the low e open and then removing the 2^nd and 3^rdfinger completely and just leaving the 1^st finger barring the a, d, g, b, and high e strings.  Try it out if you know the song and remember to leave the low e string open. 


The next bar chord I would like to introduce is the e minor 7 Bar chord Type. It is produced by simply barring with the 1^st finger and then placing the 3^rd finger on the 2^nd fret of the 2^nd string from the bar.

The e minor 7 Bar Chord Type is a very mellow sounding chord anywhere on the neck. It is great for ballads or slow sections of a song. It is typically not used as on of the main chords but instead is used mostly for transitions to another key or to another section. Duran Duran used it effectively in one of their songs Palomino as the 1^st chord in the song and it is very memorable if you’ve ever head it. The piece focused on vamping back and forth between the e7 bar and the A bar which has a very nice sound. Overall, these two chords are easy to play but not heard as much as many others because they add a bit of an esoteric sound to the song.