# B, the B major guitar chord

B major is the same five-string barre as B minor with the middle filled in: three strings pinned at the 4th fret over an index barre at the 2nd. Most players flatten the ring finger across those three, and it feels clumsy for a while. That’s normal. You’ll meet B wherever a song in E wants to build tension. Keep the low E out of the strum, and pick the five strings one at a time to hear that none of them died under a flat finger.

B

## How to play it

- Index finger flattened across the A string (5th) and high E string (1st), 2nd fret.
- Ring finger flattened across the D string (4th), G string (3rd) and B string (2nd), 4th fret.
- Don't strum the low E string (6th). It stays silent in this shape.

## Changes to practice

Holding B still is the easy part. Songs need you to _arrive_ at it in rhythm, so in Strumhold you practice B as changes, alongside the rest of the A-shape Barres set:

- [B ↔ Bm](https://strumhold.com/chords/b-minor/) B major to B minor [Drill](https://strumhold.app/#/drill/pair/B.maj.A~B.min.A)
- [B ↔ B♭](https://strumhold.com/chords/b-flat-major/) B major to B♭ major [Drill](https://strumhold.app/#/drill/pair/A%23.maj.A~B.maj.A)
- [B ↔ C♯m](https://strumhold.com/chords/c-sharp-minor/) B major to C♯ minor [Drill](https://strumhold.app/#/drill/pair/B.maj.A~C%23.min.A)

## Same root, different color

- [Bm](https://strumhold.com/chords/b-minor/), B minor
- [B7](https://strumhold.com/chords/b-7/), B dominant 7
- [Bm7](https://strumhold.com/chords/b-minor-7/), B minor 7
- [Bmaj7](https://strumhold.com/chords/b-major-7/), B major 7

## Hear yourself get faster

Strumhold listens to your guitar through your device's mic, a headset, or a line-in from your audio interface. You drill a chord change to a metronome and it scores every single change. Free, no account, works offline.

[Drill B in the app](https://strumhold.app/#/drill/pair/B.maj.A~B.min.A)