practising chords part 2

[peter_traj]

hi everyone, i have some more questions about chords,here i go.
ive been prctising 12 bar blues and some simple progressions eg, house of the rising sun,love me do by the beatles. i am using bar chords because i find it easier to move up and down the fretboard. i use the open chords for E, 6th string root for F,Gb,G,Ab,A and then the 5th string root to play the Bb,B,C,Db,D.
is this common practise? i do this mostly because i have a LOT of trouble barring a chord past the 12 fret. for eg, i tried to play a 1,4,5, progression in D using the 6th srting root only and found it near impossible to fret the 5th note on the 17 th fret.when i play the same progression using 6th and 5th string roots its much easier but sounds totaly different. what i noticed is that when playing barre chords on the 6th and 5th string you end up freting some notes an octave higher. so a root 6, C barre chord at the 8th fret sound different to a C at root 5 , 3rd fret, which also sounds diffrent the an open chord C. the 1st string is usually the one that sounds the higher octave and i realise that you could just not pluck it, but the chords still have their own colour.i am thinking that it doesnt really matter which way you do it so long as you get the sound you want. am i right in saying this? thanks again and i look froward to your reply
sincerly ,peter

[szulc]

What you ar using is two of the five barre forms an 'E' type and an 'A' type. Now you need to learn the other three 'C', 'G', 'D'.

The CAGED system uses the five open Major Chord Forms based on the open position chords CAGED. First learn the five open position chords 'C', 'A', 'G', 'E' and 'D'. Now just like the 'E' and 'A' forms you can use your index finger as a barre and move theses shapes up the neck, these are harder than the 'E' and 'A' forms but after some finger repositioning they are all possible.
Now once you have theses forms down start making them into minor chords by lowering the 3rd or Dom7th chords by adding the b7 (usually replacing the fifth or root).
Remember that just because you CAN barre all the way across the neck doesn't mean that you have to or should voice all six possible notes of each of these barre chords. Most of the time less is more and you will be voicing 4 or less notes most of the time.
The 'C' form has roots on the 'A' and 'B' strings, the 'G' frm has the roots on the 'E' strings and the 'D' form has the root s on the 'D' string and the 'B' string.

So now you can add these to your practice the easiest to add to your repitorie is the 'D' since it is just the 'A' form on the next set of strings (The 'A' form is just the 'E' form and the next set too!)

Then learn the 'G' form then the 'C' form which is just the 'G' on the next set of strings.

You could practice these in fourths by starting on the 'G' form then going through the cycle
G
C
F( 'E' form moved up 1/2 step)
Bb ( 'A' form moved up 1/2 step)
Eb (''D' form moved up 1/2 step)
then repeat starting with
Ab ( 'G' form up 1/2 step)
Db ( 'C' form moved up 1/2 step)
Gb ( 'E' form moved up 1 whole step)
Cb(B) ( 'A' form up 1 wholde step)
Fb(E) ('D' up 1 whole step)
A ( 'G' form up 1 whole step)
D ( 'C' form up 1 whole step)
G ( 'E' form up 3/2 steps)
C ( 'A' form up 3/2 steps)
F ( 'D' form up 3/2 steps)

By now you should get the idea. You can continue this indefinately ( you will have to move down to a lower part of the neck eventually, but once you get the hang of this it will reallly help your understanding of chord relationships)

Don't forget to Have fun

[peter_traj]

thanks buddy,
your reply was EXTREMELY helpful and now im off to practice. thanks again,
peter