Thanks for the explanations. I should probably go rewatch Christopher Schlegels videos on Chord Theory in the Guitar Fundamentals Course.

Originally Posted by: Slipin LizardHi Kasperow. Firstly, I think you're getting your terminology slightly wrong. When we say "down the neck" in guitar-terms, we mean moving towards the headstock of the guitar, and "up the neck" to mean moving towards the pickups & bridge. This is because even though we are physically just moving side to side, we are going down in tone (moving towards lower tones on the guitar) when we move our fretting hand towards the headstock, and up in tones when we're moving towards the pickup and bridge.[/QUOTE]
Yeah. I got them confused. My bad. The important thing is that you understood what I meant :)

Originally Posted by: Slipin LizardOk, now that's sorted out, what you're talking about is an "open" chord. "Open" chords are called "open" because they incorporate open strings. They are not considered "movable" as you're suggesting, because if you move your hand higher or lower on the fretboard, you're changing the notes that are fretted while leaving the open strings the same. Nothing says that you can't do this, but you're not going to have a major chord with the new position. For instance, G Major is made up of the notes, G, B, and D. If you now want A Major, you need the notes A, C# (C sharp), and E. Using the G Major shape in your example, notice how even though there six notes, one for each string, its actually just G, B, D, G, D, E starting from your low E string going to the high E string. Moving the shape to the fifth fret, you'll have A, C#, D (the open D string), G (the open G string) E, and A. The open strings now clash with the fretted notes trying to make the A Major chord, so this "open" chord for G Major works just in the one position for G Major.

Barre chords are considered "movable" chord shapes because they do allow you to move the shape up and down the fret board and create the same chord in a different key. Guitarist also use "capos" clamped on to the neck of the guitar, effectively raising the entire pitch of the instrument. So if you clamped a capo at the 2nd fret, using your example, the open strings D and G would now be raised to E and A respectively, so your "open" G chord played at the 5th fret would actually make A Major.

Its still fun though to experiment with open shapes any where on the fretboard. Most times, the chord will sound terrible, but you can sometimes come up with neat sounds if you omit a few strings. Other times, you get lucky... for example, play a normal C Major chord, then slide it two frets up so the root note is now D on the 5th fret, 5th string (A string). Play only the top five strings (leave out the open low E) and you have a nice, airy sounding D chord!

Okay, I think I've got it now.

[QUOTE=haghj500]Kasperow

I think Bar chords and Open chords may be mixing you up. Let’s say you are making an F major chord. On the first fret your 1st finger covers all the strings, your 2nd finger G string 2nd fret or the note A. 3rd finger A string 3rd fret or the C note, and last the pinky D string 3rd fret or the F note.

Now keep your fingers in that shape or pattern and slide them up 2 frets. You are now making the G major chord. Still not moving the shape, move up two more frets and you are making an A chord two more B, one more C.

Open chords do not work that way. Let’s say you are making an open D chord. Keep the shape and slide up 2 frets, it still sounds good, but it’s not an E chord. Make an open G, now slide it up 2 frets, It does not make another open major chord and it kind of sounds bad.

Learning the notes on the neck as you are learning other things now will advance you later by more than you may realize at this point.

So by this explanation, the F Major is the only Major Chord that works this way? I just thought it also worked to move the A Major towards the bridge to get a B Major, and moving that chord further up the neck to get a C, D or E, but it would appear that I was wrong in that regard...