Good songs to learn barre chords with?
 

As the title says, are there any good song that you can recommend that would help me get my barre chords flowing. I know how to play most of them, but I've had a really hard tome to get it to flow right in the song, I simply can't change quickly enough.

I've read that Hey Jude and Hotel California is supposed to be good, but I found the chord progressions to be too quick in the former and in the latter there were only two barre chords.

Help would be much appreciated.

Nirvana, Offspring, Green Day

basically any 90s punk/grunge type stuff.

^yeah, 'Where is my Mind' by the Pixies has a nice 4-chord progression that requires a significant but still minimal amount of changing. It even features some easy but interesting rhythmic strumming that, once you master, can make you feel like you really know how to play

Oh wow, I feel pretty lame as I love playing "where is my mind"....

Dude, classic starter songs for learning barre chords: any Blink 182 song, its super simple. Try Damn it and All the Small Things, and another classic is Blitzkrieg Bop from the Ramones. Oh, and its not barre chords but you're not a guitar player until you know that intro riff to Smoke on the Water.

Nirvana uses more power chords, though.

so? the OP mentions having difficulty changing fast enough. practicing power chords will get you used to moving the root of the most vastly used barre chords all around the neck.

also, just because the songs are originally recorded with power chords doesn't mean you can't fill them out and play the full chord when you're playing along.

Boy's Don't Cry.

A normal
F#
C#
A barre

The perfect barre chord song, or as others have mentioned The Pixies Where Is My Mind, Nirvana are always great to learn, About A Girl was the first song I learnt with barre chords and it did me good.

Thanks for the help, will check it out :)

You mention that a song had only two barre chords, but of course any C, A, G, D - almost whatever chords you wouldn't normally play as barre chords are also playable as barre chords if you want the practice. ;)

"Time" by Pink Floyd is a pretty good one. Maybe not the easiest song to start out with, but good barre chord practice all the same.

I don't think that is the chord progression of Boy's Don't Cry. I am pretty sure, that it is A, Bm, C#m, D. That is a really fun song to play though, and the chords are so damn catchy!

I would say that any song where you have to play the individual notes of barre chords is a good one. Hotel California is one of those.

Yeah, you're right. My bad. I used to know all the barre chord names religiously, now get confused with them sometimes, but I know what to do when handed a guitar if you get me.

The D is barred on the 5th fret though.

I love playing Boys Don't Cry, I like the little lead guitar riff as well. Really great song to learn for barre chords.

What you should really do is take notes Ab through G# and learn there 6/5 root bars up and down the fretboard. Sound hard, but with a little practice you will be able to pickup up any simple rock progression in no time.

Aye, but I find the open chords to sound better than their barre versions. Could be because I'm used to it, don't know. But as you said, it's great practice.

Boys Don't Cry and Hotel California is pretty good to practice on, thanks. It's a bit of a struggle in the beginning, but I have the feeling I could get the hang of it within a few days/weeks.

I could try out Green Day and Blink-182, but I prefer to play music that I actually like :p:

what about 'not for you' by Pearl Jam?

E, F#, G (all as the E shape sliding up the neck)

over, and over, and over again.

If the parts where you have to play individual notes (in Hotel California) are hard, you can just pick any not within the chord and it should pretty much sound okay. For the beginning, he just holds down the Bm chord and picks notes in the chord. If playing the same exact notes seems to get in the way of practicing the barre chords, you can always do this.

Also, Open vs. barre depends on the song. Sometimes barre will sound better and other times open will sound better.

Playing the triad is always nice also. They sound full but dont get muddy and are much easier on your fingers.

I'm not sure if I posted this already, but 21 Guns by Green Day. It's almost all barre chords, and it's not that hard...

Under the Bridge by RHCP is the first barre chord song that I tryed. It's got a good variety of shapes in there (for a beginner anyways) and everybody recognizes the tune so it's pretty easy to learn. Everyone digs Under the Bridge. The intro is good for fingerpicking practice and the song as a whole is great for getting your pinky involved and getting it stretched and strong. It's got some basic hammer-ons too which is good practice. If you can play that whole song through, the way Frusciante plays it... AND do it on an acoustic... then you can be pretty sure you've moved from beginner status to intermediate or at least you're on your way to intermediate.

I have been playing creep by radiohead. The progression isn't very fast but if you use barre chords its a nice workout for the fingers.

All along the watchtower by Bob Dyllan?