 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with MGRmusic.com and in this video today we're going to be looking at 10 central chord shapes that all guitar players need to know. So as you start learning guitar you're going to come across many songs which use chords. Now chords come in all shapes and variations but the great thing to learn in the guitar is a lot of what we do can be applied to specific patterns or shapes. Now if you learn these 10 essential shapes in this video today you're going to pretty much set yourself up to tackle whatever it is that comes your way. Now there are going to be chord shapes that exist outside of what you're going to see in this video but they're all basically going to be alterations on things you already know. So with these 10 essential shapes you should be in a pretty good position to start learning pretty much whatever you want. All the tones you're hearing today are coming from the Blackstar Studio 10 6L6 which is mic'd up with a Luit audio condenser microphone. So the first chord shape we're going to look at today is a really simple one and this is called a power chord. Now even though this is 10 chord shapes you're technically going to get three shapes out of this chord as well. So this is kind of like a bonus one to start off with. So a power chord is the essential chord for rock music. So this chord shape is really simple. So what we want to do is we want to find our root note. So the root note is the lowest note of any chord. So I'm just going to play this on an A which is the fifth fret of the low E string. Now there are two other notes I need to add to this. I need to add the seventh fret of the A string and then the seventh fret of the D string. This makes up my power chord. So I've got the root note, the fifth. So these are also known as fifth chords. This comes from the major scale. So if you don't know much about chord theory don't worry just yet. We've got the root, the fifth and then another root which is called an octave. Now the reason you're going to get multiple shapes out of this is because there are different variations on power chords. So if we simply move this down one string we get another power chord but rooted on the A string. And if we move this down again we get another power chord rooted on the D string but what we have to do this time is move that little finger up one fret. So power chords take on the note of whatever position they start from. So there I played an A, a D and a G. So if you haven't already started learning the notes on the fretboard that is a very important step in getting the most out of these chords because when you're moving these around you need to know those positions to start them from. So for the second chord shape we're going to start looking at bar chords. Now bar chords are a type of chord that many many guitar players will try their best to avoid but they don't have to be that scary. So the first one we're going to look at is a six string major bar chord. So I'm once again going to do that from an A note. So what am I doing there? So to start off I'm pretty much playing that power chord you just learned but I have some additional notes on top of that which are these three. So I'm playing the sixth fret on the G and the fifth on the B and E string. Now this is where the bar part comes in. So I'm actually playing all six strings with my index finger. So it doesn't have to be pressed down across all six strings because I don't actually need to hear the fifth fret on the A, D and G but I do need to hear it on the E and the high E and B. So a good bit of practice this is just to strengthen that finger by pressing it down and just picking through each of those strings. Like I said you're not going to need the A, D and G because you're going to be playing higher notes but it's worth doing that just to strengthen the finger. So once you've got that finger strengthened up the next step is to add the other notes from the chord. So I'm adding that fifth again which is the seventh fret of the A string and that octave again with my little finger on the seventh fret of the D. Then my middle finger is going on the sixth fret of the G. Now this is a very important note in this chord because this is the note that makes this chord major. So in the theory world this is known as the major third. So like the power chord this chord takes on the identity of whatever the root note is so I'm rooting that from an A so that's an A major six string bar chord. If I move that to a C note which is the eighth fret I get a C major or if I drop it to a G which is the third I get a G major. The third chord we're going to learn is a sixth string minor bar chord. Now this is really easy because if you've gotten that major bar chord on your fingers you only need to make one alteration. So if you remember I said the note our middle finger is playing is the important note here this is the one that makes it a major chord. This is called the major third. If I flatten this note so in this case all I do is take that finger off so it's now sounding the fifth fret of the G. I've turned that major third into a minor third and I now have a minor bar chord. Fourth chord we're going to look at is a five string major bar chord. So like power chords they don't always have to be rooted off that low E string so if I take this D note here which is the fifth fret of the A string and I bar across that in the same way I did when I did all six strings. So once I've got that I need to then add on the rest of the chord so in this instance it's the seventh fret of the D G and B. Now you'll notice this is a little bit of a tricky shape. Most guitar players wouldn't play this chord this way they would tend to play it by barring across those three notes with the third finger. Now sometimes you will lose this high E string sometimes you won't. What you need to try and do is bar with that finger and lift just in time for that high E string. If you can't do that and you do lose the high E string don't worry too much about that. And the fifth chord we're going to learn is the five string minor bar chord. So like with a major it starts off with the same system so I'm barring across that fifth fret but this time I'm playing the seventh fret on the D, the seventh fret on the G and the sixth fret on the B. Now before we go on to the remaining five chords in this lesson a quick note on what those bar chords actually mean. So the sixth string major bar chord is actually in the form of an E major chord so if you think of your typical E major type chord what I'm essentially doing is playing that chord with these three fingers instead and I'm relocating it to another location on the guitar and I'm filling the gap where the open string would be with the bar. So like with an E major chord if I turn that into a minor I simply take my first finger off that's what we're doing here when we take this middle finger off. So this takes on the form of an E minor chord. The same is true for that five string version the major chord that I showed you is essentially an A major chord and the minor is essentially an A minor chord. So even though they're bar chords they still take on the form of chords that you already know you're just extending them with the first finger instead of open strings. Chord number six now we're going to learn an alteration on those chords so we're going to look at what's called a dominant seven chord. This comes up a lot if you play blues music. So dominant seven we're going to start off with a major bar chord so go back to your A major bar chord across all six strings. To turn this into a dominant seven we need to add a note known as the flat seven. That note is the G note which is this note here the fifth fret of the D string. Now because of the way I'm playing this chord I'm not actually sounding that note so what I need to do is take my little finger here which is playing the A note so it's playing it an octave and take that away so this G here on the fifth fret sounds through my fingers. This is the chord you will see a lot in blues music like I said it's a great substitution for a major chord if you want some interesting textures to your playing. Chord number seven we can also do a five string variation on that dominant seven shape so if I go back to my D major bar chord here which is rooted off the fifth fret of the A string so that's the A major chord shape with all three fingers. What I want to do is take away this middle note now because this is quite an awkward shape to play I'm going to take my middle finger off as well I'm going to put my third finger on the seventh fret of the D string and my little finger on the seventh fret of the B. You'll notice this note here this C note on the fifth of the G is actually ringing through this gap. Chord number eight is a six string minor seven chord so let's take that dominant seven we just learned put it back on the A to make this a minor seven we need to flatten the major third note which is this note here so like you did with a minor bar chord just take that off so what I'm sort of doing here is like an A minor bar chord but I've taken the little finger off as well so it's just the bar across all six strings and the seventh fret on the A. Chord number nine is a five string minor seven chord so let's go back to that D dominant seven chord you just learned now what we need to do here is flatten the major third which is actually this note here that my little finger is playing so to flatten that I kind of need to get it into that A minor type shape so when we did that five string minor chord that's a good starting point for this shape but we're taking this little finger note off here so far all of those chord shapes you've learned are just in one position but they're shapes so this means you can move them anywhere you want so those major minor seventh and minor seventh chords can literally be played in any position on the guitar so if you're learning a song and you see a B minor seven chord you can take either that six string minor shape you learned or that five string minor shape look for a B as the root note so that could be here on the seventh fret of the low E string or the second fret of the A string when it comes to using bar chords in a practical way all you're basically doing is learning a few choice shapes and slotting them into the root notes that they're needed on so this is the one reason they're not as scary as they seem because once you've got the shapes under your fingers you can pretty much move those anywhere you want and the final chord shape we're gonna learn is just a fun rock chord this is what's known as a seven sharp nine chord this is a great chord to add to rock blues and funk type tracks and it's otherwise known as the Hendrix chord so I played that rooted from an E note which is the seventh fret of the A string so that makes it an E seven sharp nine so while the name E seven would instantly make you think of that dominant seven chord it's a slight variation on that because I'm not actually playing it in that form I'm actually playing some of the notes but I'm restacking them so what I'm actually playing here is the seventh fret on the A string which is my E note then I'm playing the sixth fret on the D string which is my major note so this is my major third this is a G sharp then I'm playing this note here on the seventh fret of the G which is the D note that's my flat seven from the E dominant seven chord and then I'm playing this note up here on the eighth fret of the B which is a G note this is my sharp nine that's a really fun chord to put into blues progressions and rock progressions because it just has a really cool Hendrix style sound it's a big part of the Jimi Hendrix guitar sound so you go there are 10 central chord shapes that you could move anywhere on the guitar and now really unlock the fretboard and your options when it comes to learning songs just by learning those are shapes you can really get to grips with any chords you may see coming up in your favorite songs as you learn them what's really interesting with this approach is if you now see a chord in a track that you're not familiar with the chances are it's probably loosely based off one of these shapes there are always going to be exceptions to that because there are so many chords out there but with these chord shapes you've learned today you can pretty much tackle anything you want thank you guys so much for watching I hope you've enjoyed this lesson let us know down below in the comments how you've gotten on with these chord shapes and also let us know if there are any essential chord shapes you think we've missed out don't forget to check out blackstar amplification on youtube for more free video lessons just like this one and if you're looking for a guitar teacher in your local area please head to mgr music dot com check out the network of great teachers all around the uk waiting to help you guys out thanks so much for watching and i'll see you soon