partial CAGED chords.

[alon z]

hey everybody!

I must point out that during this period I don’t always have time to watch a lesson, so I use my free time to practice by Tablature Breakdown with audio only, since I don’t have the option of video due to technical reasons of my internet.

Well, after much practice on CAGED tops and bottoms, I’m intrigued to know what to choose.

When I learn a new tune such as SHORTS25, and already at the beginning of the tune I make a full A-SHAPE,

When going back down the strings, it’s much easier for me to make a top A-SHAPE, than to stay with a whole bar chord.
I mean, both are possible, but after already knowing about the option of chord parts, should I choose that or stick to a whole chord?

This is a specific question, but very general regarding the rest of my practice.

thank you all!

[Alan I]

Hi Alon,

There are others here much more expoerienced than I so I will be interesed to hear their comments on this.

But one of the issues with full barre chords is that when palying with others, like in a band setting, the full chord can get messy because you are playing bass, middle and treble! In band setting you will already have the bass covered with the bass player so you don’t need to duplicate.

[Richard W]

Hi Alon,

Yeah, very rarely in Brian’s arrangements do you have to make a full bar chord. He’s almost always using a partial chord shape. Often he is visualizing a chord fragment across three adjacent strings. Sometimes even just two strings. Makes it so much easier to get around.

I think this realization that, in practice, full bar chords are not the best option can be a big step forward for players.

Richard

[sunjamr]

I 100% agree. And most pro guitar players in bands just play rhythm chords on the top 4 strings. In that case, you don’t need to know CAGED. C is the same shape as D, G is the same shape as E. So you are left with the AED system. Easy peasy.

Sunjamr Steve

[Derek F]

That’s really true. Also doing a full barre sequence through a long song can get very tiring, even though mentally it is sometime easier to grab the full shapes. The idea of concentrating on AED is a real shortcut and I will work on this. Thanks

[alon z]

Thanks! I really had to make sure I wasn’t skipping any necessary steps.
Feels much more confident to play partial chords knowing clearly that this is also the way of the guitarists.

Unrelated question:
I get an email when there are comments on what I wrote.
Is it possible to receive an email for every post in the forum?
Thank you.

[alon z]

Just found “Topics Freshness” –> better than email.

[Jean-Michel G]

Thanks! I really had to make sure I wasn’t skipping any necessary steps.
Feels much more confident to play partial chords knowing clearly that this is also the way of the guitarists.

All depends on what you play.
If you play with a band where someone takes care of the bass, you can certainly forget barre chords.
But if you are on your own playing a fingerstyle arrangement, I’m afraid you won’t be able to completely avoid barre chords…

[KenG]

Finding this topic very interesting, had never thought of partial barre chords. So…..following.

Never Stop Learning. Ever.

[Author]

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