more barre chord questions

johnboy8

i like to switch between electric and acoustic guitar,and i find barre chords to be easier to remember songs and you dont have to worry about open strings and that kind of thing.my question is can barre chord be used for every song,ie i was playing sympaty for the devil the other day and the chord chart i have has e d a e chords in open position,when i substitute these chords for barre chords the e barre chord(root 5 e at the seventh fret seem to high)so i tried the c shape barre chord at the forth fret and it seemed better.(hope i am explaining this well)is this an ok way of playing this or is there a better way,or am i complicating the whole thing to much.as i said i prefer barre chords because they seem to be fuller(especially on the electric).thanks.

Blackhorse Slim

Barre chords generally sound better on electric than on acoustic - on an acoustic I would try to use open chords as much as possible. But using barre chords instead of open chords is not 'wrong', assuming you are playing the right chords. The decision is yours - if you want to get as close as possible to the original you can try to hear which position the guitarist on the record is using, but it's just as valid to play the same chords in a different position, depending on what sounds better to you or even which is more comfortable.


Having said all that, I try to use open chords as much as possible, even on electric - but sometimes just playing 3 or 4 strings for each chord so it doesn't get too muddy.

johnboy8

thanks for that.i do try and incorporate open chords in as well especially if the open chord is closer or its half way to the next chord,but i love the sound of barre chords,you can go mental with your strummng and not worry about open strings.

niallk

try playing barre chords leaving the top two strings open. Loving this technique at the moment on the acoustic or electric. For example the chord 577600 or Amaj7 or something sounds beatiful. Move our hand around the board while letting the Top strings, B and E ring out: nice.