The Bb chord on guitar is important to know. It’s a major-type chord consisting of the notes Bb, D, and F.

If you’re a guitarist, you’re bound to come across it every so often, so it's good to be prepared. Also be aware that if you’re looking to play A#, it’s actually the exact same chord but with a different name.

This post will offer you 8 ways to play Bb major, all of them as easy as possible. If you’re just here for a quick reference, you can find all the Bb fingerings below:

This post will offer you 8 ways to play Bb major, all of them as easy as possible. If you’re just here for a quick reference, you can find all the Bb fingerings above. 

This Bb chord fingering is about as easy as it gets. You only need two fretting fingers, and they’re on adjacent strings on the first fret. If you play this voicing, you’ll find it has a nice, deep resonance.

The only challenging aspect to this chord is that you can’t let the three high strings ring out. You can avoid this in two ways. The first is to selectively strum (or fingerpick) the top three strings, and the second is to strum more fully while muting the unwanted strings.

In this case, I strongly recommend the first method. The ability to strum selectively is important. Beyond playing this Bb voicing, being able to strum with more control will open up a lot of doors for you. If you’re having trouble with this, be sure to isolate your right hand until you have it down.

If you can’t seem to strum the top three strings without hitting the G string, you can always mute that string with your third or fourth finger. This is a little awkward, so again, I don’t think it would hurt you to practice strumming with more precision.

These are the two main ways to barre the Bb chord. The first one is an E-shape barre chord, while the second one is an A-shape barre chord. Neither voicing is easy per se, but if you take the time to learn to barre well, you’ll find these shapes extremely convenient.

The following barre chord tips and tricks should really help you if you tend to struggle with this technique:

     •    Lower your thumb on the back of the neck. You’ll find this gives you more leverage.

     •    Keep a close embrace between your barring finger and the metal of the fret. You shouldn’t be directly on top of the fret, but you want your finger snug against it, pushing into it.

     •    Use the larger muscles of your left arm, back, and shoulder as opposed to the pressure created by squeezing your thumb and index fingers together.

     •    Pull back on the body of the guitar with you right arm, effectively pushing the neck into your barring finger.

If you find yourself having trouble with barre chords, do yourself a favor and check out Barre Chords Made Easy and How to Conquer Barre Chords. Both describe how to improve your barring technique as fast as possible.
 

As you probably know, there’s more to learning chords than looking at a chord chart. The Bb chord on guitar is one of the harder ones, and for a few reasons.

For one, the most common Bb shapes are technically harder than other chords (C, G, D, etc.). This is because Bb sits awkwardly on the guitar.

In a way, you could say that the normal way we tune our guitars (EADGBE) doesn’t facilitate Bb. It doesn’t sit on any of the open strings.

Another reason Bb is tricky is purely mental. Most guitarists are a lot more familiar with keys like C, G, and D than they are with a key like Bb. As a result, it’s easy to avoid learning these notes and chords, making them a weakness.

However, if you are looking to get more comfortable with Bb in general, I suggest you learn some jazz guitar. You’ll find that many jazz standards are in flat keys (as opposed to sharp ones), so you’ll encounter all kinds of B-flats, E-flats, A-flats, and so forth.

(And if you are interested in learning some jazz guitar, my absolute favorite book is Joe Pass Guitar Style.)
 

Many common chord progressions involve the Bb chord on guitar. I’ll list a few of them below, but feel free to mix and match these progressions to make your own!

Bb – Eb – F
Bb – Gm – Eb – F
Cm – F – Bb
Eb – Ab – Bb
Fm – Bb – Eb

 

If you’re like most guitarists, you have issues with certain chord changes. I’d go so far as to say that changing chords is one of the hardest things to do on guitar. Most people struggle to do it, and very few learn to do it well.

My two cents is that although changing chords is inherently tricky, if you practice the right way it won’t be too bad. For me, the key is slow practice and making each chord feel homey.

Slow practice allows you to jump between chords without being overly concerned with musical time. The secret is to slowly and carefully switch between two chords until the whole movement becomes assimilated. I would also put the pick aside while you’re doing this—just focus entirely on the left hand.

Making each chord feel homey is another helpful strategy. Often what seems like a chord change issue is really a chord issue. This means you may be moving from a familiar chord to an unfamiliar one, and the root of the problem is that you’re bad at fretting the unfamiliar one.

If that’s the case, try isolating the unfamiliar one for a while. Just fret it and hold your fingers there, memorizing the feeling of the chord. The more a given chord feels like a home base for you hand, the faster you’ll be able to switch to it.

If you’re interested in more advice on chord changes, check out my post on How to Change Chords.
 

The Bb chord on guitar is one of the harder chords out there, but it’s worth your time to learn. Be sure to reward your efforts by enjoying the chord’s sound and comparing all the different voicings.
Best of luck with all these 8 awesome shapes!

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