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66 Part II: Setting Up to Play the Blues TEAM LinG
Figure 4-7:
A B% chord
at the first
fret uses the
A form.
Most blues guitarists play the chord by using the double-barre version
because it’s easier and faster. Figure 4-8 shows the alternate fingering.
Figure 4-8:
The
alternate,
doublebarre
fingering for
the A-form
barre chord.
Even if you opt for the four-fingered version of the chord in the lower frets,
you find you must resort to the double-barre version as you venture up the
neck (past the fifth fret or so) because the frets become too small to cram three
fingers in the space of one fret. So though it’s possible to play the A-form
barre chord with the top string sounding, most people play just the inside
four strings, using the double-barre method.
Moving the A-form around the neck
The A-form barre chord corresponds to the open fifth-string A, so when moving
this chord around the neck, you can determine the chord’s name by its fifthstring
note. Memorize the names of the notes on the fifth string up to the
12th fret, just as you did with the E-form barre chord and the sixth string.
Figure 4-9 is an exercise that uses only the A-form barre chord. I’ve put in the
fret number under the staff, but you should be able to use just the chord’s
name to tell you where to place the chord.