The Bb chord on guitar is definitely one of the hardest barre chords around and it is the one that gives a lot of beginners and intermediate guitarists a lot of bother. Today, I’ll show you some ways to simplify this, play it with better technique (which no one really teaches), how NOT to play it and even ways to “invert” it for a sophisticated take on the chord.
Today, I want to give you a video showcasing some really important techniques on how to improve bar chords on guitar within minutes. The video features some detailed techniques on what you can do to instantly improve your barre (or bar) chords.
If you are a novice guitarist or a frustrated beginner, then you are probably still experiencing some sort of unpleasant noise or lack of clarity when playing your basic guitar chords.
In this post, I’ll share with you five basic tips I give out to students on a daily basis to help them overcome this frustrating part of guitar playing.
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As promised after the recent survey, I’ll be more creating a few more blog posts and videos on the blues—particularly acoustic fingerstyle blues. To get started with the blues you really need to be 100% comfortable with the structure, otherwise it will all fall apart quicker than you can say “my baby gone left me”.
In today’s blog post, I’ll teach you how to get comfortable with the basics of blues as well as learn a super cool blues riff.
The chord of F Major is a hugely popular chord on the guitar but one that causes all sorts of problems for beginners. Some guitarists try to play the big full barre which only leads to lots of buzzing notes and some only play the super mini version which if not played correctly can sound weedy and thin.
As you can see from (my rather dodgy) illustration, the F Major chord can be one hell of a frustrating chord that makes people want to curse to the high heavens or make grown men and women weep with anguish and smash their guitars up in frustration.
Won’t Get Fooled Again! by Luke Hayfield, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Have you ever gone to learn a song, looked at the chords, seen a b minor, then with a shriek and look of horror ran off and never looked at the song again?
Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but a lot of guitarists fear the B minor on guitar. Yes, it is a scary chord at first and a little difficult to play (but there are easier ways, as you’ll see below), but the b minor chord is so useful and is featured in so many classic songs.
C-Chord by Kamaljith K V, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
There are thousands and thousands of chords you could learn, but the truth is you will never use most of them. In my experience most guitarists will use the same chords over and over again for 90% of their playing.
These chords are the 10 in my free report, The 10 Chords That Every Guitarist Needs To Know.
Ben Harper Live @ Ippodromo delle Capannelle by Fabrizio Sciami, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Do you know about the art of ‘Pivoting’?
If not, in this post we will learn about it, how to apply it, and most importantly, how to save you weeks and possibly even months of frustration applying it to your chord changes.
A solid foundation of chords is crucial for you to fulfil your potential as a guitarist. In this post, we are going to go through the order in which I recommend you learn the fundamental chords on the guitar.