How Guitars Work

The fourth shape we’ll be looking at in this lesson series, is the E shape. Arguably, this is one of the most useful, and commonly used shapes, especially in pop music. Just like the other shapes, the E shape is fully moveable up and down the fretboard to make other chords.  In this lesson, you’ll learn how to: join the G shape and the E shape on the fretboard create and move chords using the E shape play major chords with the E shape change major chords into minor chords with the E shape The G shape is connected to the E shape by the notes we play with our anular and little fingers. Those notes become the barre, or our new nut of the guitar, and from there we play an E shape. One thing to note with the E shape is that when we play an E chord, in the first position, the root note (E) is actually just played as the open E string. Therefore, if you are playing any other major chord using the E shape, and you want to include the sixth string, you have to use your index finger to bar the f

The third shape we’ll be looking at in this lesson series is the G shape. The full range of notes in the G shape are almost impossible to play because of the stretching involved, so we need to break it down into two smaller parts to make it practical to play. In this lesson you'll learn how to: create and move chords using the G shape(s) join the A shape and the G shape on the fretboard play major chords with the G shape(s) change major chords into minor chords with the G shape(s) If you have some knowledge of guitar as a beginner, and I asked you to play a G chord, you would probably play this shape: This is a G chord, played using the G shape. The root note (G) is played on the first and sixth strings.  The third interval note (B) is played on the fifth string, and the fifth interval note (D) is played on the open fourth string, and the fretted second string. You might also see a G played with an additional note played on the second string. This adds another fifth interval note