How to Play Major 7 Barre Chords on Guitar

Last week we looked at playing open major 7^th chords. This week we are going to cover major 7 barre chords.

Why learn Major 7^ths as barre chords?

You may wonder what the point is of learning major 7^th chords in the form of barre chords. There are a couple of good reasons for this:

1. Learn just a couple of different shapes and be able to play every major 7^th chord
2. Easier to construct for chords that don?t use any of the open strings of the guitar
3. Add a new skill to your repertoire to expand your capabilities

What are Major 7^th Chords?

If you aren?t sure what a major 7^th chord is please visit the link below. The lesson at the link covers how to play open major 7^th chords and what a major 7 chord is.

• What is a major 7^th chord and how to play open major 7ths

But just briefly:

A major seventh chord is a major chord (using the root, major 3rd and perfect 5^th ) with a major 7^th added on.

This is not to be confused with a dominant 7^th which is a major chord with a minor 7^th added on.

Major 7th Barre Chords with 6^th String as the Base

Like always with barre chords, the construction of the barre chord for any type of chord with the 6^th string (Low E string) as the base, is the shape of the relevant E.

For example, a major barre chord on the 6th string uses the shape of the open E chord. A minor barre chord on the 6^th string uses the shape of the Em chord. And so on.

So for major 7^th barre chords the shape of the Emaj7 is used.

• Click here if you haven?t learned the open Emaj7

For example for an Fmaj7 barre chord the 1^st fret is barred by the 1^st finger and the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th fingers make the shape of the open Emaj7 chord on the following frets. See the diagram below for the Fmaj7 barre chord.

Now you can use that same shape anywhere on the fretboard to play whatever major 7^th chord you would like.

Major 7^th Barre Chords with 5^th String as the Base

As with all “5^th string barre chords” the barre chord is based on the respective open A chord. So, for a major barre chord the shape use by the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th fingers is that of the open A chord.

For our major seventh chords the shape is based on the open Amaj7.

• Click here if you haven?t yet leaned the open Amaj7

So for example the A#maj7 below the first finger barres the strings on the first fret and the 2^nd, 3^rd & 4^th fingers make the open Amaj7 shape.

And voila ? you can now use this anywhere on the fretboard on the 5^th string to form your major seventh barre chords.

What Next?

You guessed it ? practice!

The more you practice these chords the easier it will be to transition into them. Try learning them first until you are comfortable playing them and try transitioning from major chords. Then try transitioning from minor chords and then dominant seventh chords.

The more transitions you can master the more fluid and rich your playing will become.

As always if there are any questions or comments or something I have missed here please feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below.

Next week we will take a look at minor 7^th chords.

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