In these exercises, you are to figure out the barre chord that needs to be played, and apply them to strumming basic quarter notes.
For the first few pages of exercises I’ve include red lettering that indicates the fret at which the barre chord is played.
1.
2.
3.
Now we’ll introduce the minor version of the A style barre chord:
4.
Here’s the minor 7th version:
5.
Here’s the major 7th:
6.
Last chord form, but not the least, is the dominant 7th:
7.
Pay special attention! The major chords are mixed with minors, minor
7th, and 7th chords now.
Sharps and flats (# & b) can be confusing as they have dual names.
8.
9.
10.
From here on out I’ve ommitted the red lettering that tells you what
fret the chord is found on. Good luck!
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Gosh, these are getting tricky aren’t they? They seem a lot harder to
play than their E style barre chord counterparts. Keep at it, though.
You’ll never get it down if you’re sitting on your hands!
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Here’s a real monster. Let’s go out with a bang!
Congratulations!
You made it through the exercises! You should be a A style barre chord
playing powerhouse by now.
Now What?
I’m sure your fingers are sore by now so give them the break they deserve.
Come back tomorrow and run through the exercises again, only this time
I want you to strum them with 8th notes instead of the one strum per
beat quarter notes that we’ve been using.
To play an the 8th notes, you’ll simply strum twice for each beat. Use
a down, up, down, up strumming pattern. Keep the strums even and everything
should be dandy.
You can also use 16th notes, which would be 4 notes per beat: