Embellishing barre chords
A barre chord is a movable shape: the same grip works in every key, so a single embellishment you learn here transposes all the way up the neck. Barre shapes also unlock options an open chord cannot reach. Because the root is no longer the lowest string on the A-shape, you can sound a note below the root, and because nothing rings open you control every voice. This page lays out the two workhorse shapes, the E-shape and the A-shape, in major, minor and dominant forms, with every single-finger move colour-coded.
All open-chord embellishments →What changes on a barre
The moves are the same intervals you already know from the open chords: add the 2 for an add9, push the 3 to the 4 for a sus4, drop a root to the b7 for a dominant seventh. What changes is reach. A barre frees you to slide any of these colours into any key, and it unlocks two things an open chord cannot do. First, the lower strings give you bass notes beneath the root. Second, and less obvious, you can reshape the barre: lift it on one string and fret a note BEHIND it. An open chord's nut is a fixed wall, but your barre finger is not, so the major 7, the b7 and the b5 are all reachable just behind the barre on the treble strings. The diagrams below show the fret window each shape sits in.
E-shape
Root on the sixth string. This is the open E, Em and E7 shapes turned into a barre, so every open-E move you know transposes straight up the neck.
Major (E-shape)
- Base chord
- Safe (in scale)
- Blue note (b3, b5, b7)
- Risky (changes function)
See all 9 moves one by one
The movable Major (E-shape) barre, shown rooted at the fifth fret. Slide it to any fret to change key; the scale degrees stay the same.
Stretch the fourth-string finger up two frets to the 2. The barre add9 is bright and modern; the extra reach is the only cost.
Add the third-string finger one fret above the 3 for the 4. Strum the suspension, lift back to the barre for the resolve.
Raise the second string to the 6. A breezy, slightly retro colour that sits well in the middle of the voicing.
Drop the fourth-string octave root down a fret to the major 7. Wistful and floating; do not park on it for long.
The classic move: lift the fourth-string finger back two frets to the b7. The barre turns into a dominant that pulls to the IV. A blue, restless seventh.
On the treble side: stretch the first string two frets above the barre to the 2. A bright add9 ringing on top of the chord, the high-string answer to the bass-side colours. The 6 above is also a treble move, on the second string.
Lift the barre on the first string and fret it one fret behind, at the major 7. A barre can reach behind itself, something an open chord's nut never allows.
Fret the first string two frets behind the barre for the b7. A blue, dominant top note that pulls the chord toward the IV.
Drop the second string one fret behind the barre to the b5, the blue fifth. A gritty tritone reached by reshaping the barre.
Minor (Em-shape)
- Base chord
- Safe (in scale)
- Blue note (b3, b5, b7)
- Risky (changes function)
See all 2 moves one by one
The movable Minor (Em-shape) barre, shown rooted at the fifth fret. Slide it to any fret to change key; the scale degrees stay the same.
Add the 2 on the fourth string. Spacious and cinematic, the barre-minor add9 is everywhere in moody pop.
Pull the fourth-string root back to the b7. The natural seventh of a minor chord, mellow and modal.
A-shape
Root on the fifth string, which leaves the sixth string sitting BELOW the root. Mute it for a clean voicing, or sound it to put the 5 in the bass, an option an open chord cannot reach.
Major (A-shape)
- Base chord
- Safe (in scale)
- Blue note (b3, b5, b7)
- Risky (changes function)
See all 8 moves one by one
The movable Major (A-shape) barre, shown rooted at the fifth fret. Slide it to any fret to change key; the scale degrees stay the same.
Drop the second-string 3 down to the 2. An open, ringing suspension that resolves back with one finger.
Push the second string up a fret to the 4. The A-shape sus4 is a staple of strummed barre rhythm.
Raise the first string to the 6. Bright and major; many players prefer this to the plain barre.
Lower the third-string octave root to the major 7. Soft and reflective, the A-shape maj7.
Pull the third string back two frets to the b7. The A-shape seventh, a blue, dominant pull toward the IV.
A reach, but reachable: the first string at the major 7 above the barre, on top of the chord. The 6 above (first string) and the sus2 and sus4 (second string) are treble moves too.
Lift the barre on the first string and fret behind it for the 4. The barre reaches back past where an open chord's nut would stop you.
Fret the first string just behind the barre for the b5, the bluesy tritone sitting on top of the chord.
Minor (Am-shape)
- Base chord
- Safe (in scale)
- Blue note (b3, b5, b7)
- Risky (changes function)
See all 2 moves one by one
The movable Minor (Am-shape) barre, shown rooted at the fifth fret. Slide it to any fret to change key; the scale degrees stay the same.
Raise the first string to the 6 for a Dorian, m6 colour. Sultry and modal; use it deliberately.
Pull the third-string root back to the b7 for the warm minor-seventh sound, the backbone of soul and neo-soul barre playing.
Below the root
An open chord's root is usually its lowest note, so nothing can sit beneath it. A movable A-shape puts the root on the fifth string and leaves the sixth string free to sound a note BELOW the root. That is where slash chords and inversions come from, voicings an open shape simply cannot reach.
The movable A-shape base barre, shown rooted at the fifth fret. Slide it to any fret to change key; the scale degrees stay the same.
Let the sixth string ring at the 5, a fourth below the root. A fuller, rootier low end, the classic A-shape power voicing.
Fret the sixth string at the 3 for a first-inversion bass. The slash-chord bass note that makes descending bass lines glide.
The 4 in the bass leans into a suspension from below, wanting to fall to the 3 or the root.
Open the sixth string for the 2 (the 9) underneath the chord, an airy, unresolved low colour.
How to practise barre embellishments
Pick one shape and one fret, say the E-shape at the fifth fret for A. Hold the full barre, strum four times, then apply a single embellishment for four strums and release back to the barre. Because the shape is movable, practise the same move at two or three different frets so your hand learns it as a relative shape rather than a fixed grip. Then slide the embellished shape through a progression: the add9 and sus4 moves in particular let you keep one finger working while the barre holds everything else in place. The dominant-seventh and the A-shape below-the-root voicing are the two that most change the character of a strummed part.
The open chords too
Every embellishment here has an open-chord cousin. Start from the foundational open shapes for the clearest view of each move, then bring it to the barre.