No Bull Barre Chords for Guitar: Learn and Master the Essential Barre Chords that all Guitar Players Need

I struggled learning/playing barre chords and recently bought this book by James after having tried other authors' books on barre chords. For me, James course design and method worked best and were more efficient and effective. Well structured and paced, easy to understand and learn, etc. this also motivated me to complete the course chapters and exercises. In the end, it was a great learning experience. The best: i now enjoy playing barre chords. Likewise, the pictures on hand and finger positions were very well taken/chosen and truly helpful.

Useful book. Easy to learn

I recently purchased No Bull Barre Chords, along with a couple of other books on learning barre chords. After getting started with another author, I picked up No Bull Barre Chords to see what James Shipway had to say. His approach was so to the point that in the first 15 minutes I learned and understood the entire system of E-shaped barre chords and how to use them to play the major, minor, and 7th chords all the way up the guitar neck! I was truly astonished at the simplicity and effectiveness of his approach (and the magic of barre chords in general), and was able to grasp the other barre chord shapes and chord variations in short order. I can highly recommend this book to others in the early stages of their guitar journey.

I'm really struggling to learn barre chords. This book wasn't the magic bullet I hoped for BUT...it has good practice advice and it helped, not as much as an actual instructor helped though. There's nothing better than playing with an instructor to guide you. But at the time I was doing video lessons with him so I was really struggling to wrap my head and hands around these barre chords. It definitely helped me to keep trying and I will keep it for reference if/when I get stuck again. It's laid out nicely, large print and as advertised "no bull", just good information.

Just like the cover says, no bull! This is one of four James Shipway books I have and his precise, cut-to-the chase approach is great for those of us not steeped in music theory. The tips and tricks he employs are simple and easily understood by anyone looking to increase their understanding of the instrument.

I have perused the book and it meets my requirements to read, learn and study on my Guitarist journey! James Shipways books are easy to read, follow and study guitar. They have given me incentive to progress and try new techniques and skills to move past plateau, mental blocks and incentives to play guitar better and IMPROVE!!!

After many years of dreading barre chords and putting off learning them, I came across this book. I found it very helpful. In no time (a few weeks) I had my E string barre chords down and then moved to the A string. A little more challenging for me, but the book made it easy to learn the Major, Minor, and 7th positions for all the chords on both strings (6 shapes and I owned my fretboard). There’s more, including D string shapes (which I admit I haven’t gotten to...yet?). The audio tracks are great to practice with, though I wrote down the exercises in my journal and did them many times before I could keep up with the audio tracks. My only wish was that the audio tracks were a little longer, so I could get in a few more repetitions of the exercises before I have to start it over. All in all, I’m super satisfied with my purchase. I love this book so much, I even brought for my wife, who is a much better guitarist than me, for her birthday this year!

This book is easy to understand, a little more difficult to perform on the guitar. I would advise picking up the Cage system book first as its just as hard and demanding on your fingers but is better for learning the entire guitar fret board, which in turn will make this book amazing addition to that knowledge set. If you know nothing about music theory I would recommend starting with Music theory 1 and Circle of 5ths, as these two have a ton of information that you can use right now no finger strength required. Order of recommendation Music Theory 1 Circle of 5th Cage System Bar Cords Music Theory 2 Music Theory 3

Clairement écrit et aisé à comprendre pour les débutants avec quelques pépites solides pour les joueurs intermédiaires également.

Escribe muy sencillo y explica perfecto, tengo algún libro más de james y la verdad que me encantan

Unlike the reviewer that called this a good book if you run out toilet paper I found it EXCELLENT. I knew some barre chords, mainly E shape. But was terrible at A shape barre chords. This book gave many helpful tips and in combination with a hand strengthen exerciser (sold separately) I’m proficient at both e and a shape barre chords using both medium and light stringed guitars. At the time of this review I have only finished chapter 3. Major, minor, dominant 7 will become your friends. I absolutely love A shaped barre chords now thanks to this book!!

I bought this book as I'd already bought James' theory trilogy last year. I found these to be easily the best books I've read on learning theory. James' writing style and way of explaining things made it a real pleasure to master a potentially daunting subject. This book is the same. Again, his easy style, knowledge and teaching ability really do make learning the basic shapes very straightforward. In chapter one, his explanation of how the "E" shape works makes it a doddle to jump up and down the fretboard applying it to each note. At the very least you do need to know the notes on the low E string, but nothing more in depth is required at this stage. He also shows how easy it is to quickly adapt the major shape into minor and "7" shapes in this chapter. Even at this early stage, you now have a clear pathway to playing hundreds more songs than the basic CAGED chord shapes allow. The subsequent chapters of course follow on in the same style. It's inescapable that the major part of learning barre chords is the physical aspect of barring and fingerings accurately to get that elusive clean sound. The book is full of tips and explanations of what to do and what not to do to achieve this. It won't cut out the hours of work required, but it will ensure that your practice is always focused and on point. At the end of each chapter there is a mini quiz and tracking checklist. The quizzes really do work well in helping reinforce your learning, or to let you know where you need to go back and relearn things. There are also downloadable backing tracks, which are ideal for forming and changing chords in a musical way. Much better than using those tedious metronomes, in my opinion. Very highly recommended and I for one will be buying all James' books ASAP.

Some great advice and a simple to follow book