Mark,
If you go to My Account, I’m going to private message you.
John

If you are speaking of bar chords, the only bar chord I play that uses all 6 strings is the E bar shape. The A bar shape only uses 5 strings, and most of the others only use 4 strings. Brian recently did a lesson on the CAGED system, and that will answer your question nicely.

There are different ways to play almost every chord shape, and many different ways to play the same chord. Hard to answer further without knowing what you are interested in. But just one example: on an open a chord, most people play with index middle and ring finger, on 43 and 2 strings respectively. I often bar it with my index finger on all three strings. Also play it with two fingers from time to time, with one of my fingers stopping two of the strings. And I think I have used the middle finger to bar all three. Depends on where I am coming from, and where I am going. That’s just one simple chord, one shape on the fretboard.

With electric you very rarely play all 6 strings as they are amplified the trick is to mute the ones you don’t want and miss out and or mute the ones that your not interested in.

Hi Mark

We have all been there. I can remember how happy I was when I found E and Am had the same fingers in the same shape, bonus they sounded pretty good together too. Went out and bought a chord bible with a few thousand chords, then my head hurt as much as my finger tips, arm, wrist, back etc.

Now fifty years later I love chords and know far more than were in that silly book.

Gordo

Hi Mark, what always helped me is to try to understand what you’re actually doing/playing. First, you have to understand the ‘formula’ of each chord. E.g. a major chord consists of the Root (I call this the ‘1’ note in the major scale), the major 3rd (‘3’) and the perfect 5th (‘5’). A minor chord for example is built from the root (1), flat third (b3) and the same perfect 5th. Just as an example. You can make it more complex by adding 7th, 13th, 9th, whatever. But let’s just take the basic 3 notes that make a chord.
Now, the second step is to understand the intervals between each string. As you may know, going from string 6 (the lowest) to string 5, is like moving up 5 frets on the neck, which is a perfect 4th (or the ‘4’ note in a major scale). That’s true for every string you move towards your knees, except for the strange ‘B’ string (if you’re in standard tuning that is). So between the 3rd and 2nd string (The ‘G’ and ‘B’ strings), there’s only a major 3rd, which equals 4 frets, or 4 half steps if you like.
So, when you have your root at one of the lowest 2 strings (which is the case with the E- and A-bar shapes), then at the same fret, one string higher, you’ve got the ‘4’ note of that scale, so one fret lower is the … major third! That’s the second note you need for your 1-3-5 chord! Another string higher is flat 7 (b7), another 5 half steps away from the ‘4’ (4-b5-5-b6-6-b7). So on the 4th string, it’s kind of hard to reach that ‘5’, that’s why you will make the root again, 2 frets to the right. Another string higher (3rd string), you have the b3 (another 5 half steps further (b7-7-1-b2-2-b3). So most of the time, you make your 3rd again on that string… I can go on and on, but when you know the formulas of you chords, and you know the interval on your strings, you can make whatever chord you like!
Hope that helps!
Good luck