re: Can somebody explain barre chords to me?

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not really. major and minor, are just two modes of a 7 mode system: ionian and dorian. we call them major and minor because it simplifies the system. in actuality you have heard the other scales and know them well. when you hear jeff beck or eric johnson, they usually play in dorian, or a pentatonic transition from dorian to minor, or dorian to major. al dimeola and john mclaughlin use mixolydian a good bit, and yngwie and blackmoore use phrygian almost exclusively (especially as phrygian dominant of harmonic minor). the chords are the representation of a sound you want to convey. you could have as many notes in a chord as you can clearly produce, but in the end, all you are trying to do is represent a sound. you can accurately play a major chord with 3 notes. some chords require more than that because too many similar notes would not let it be accurately represented. in essence you are trying to play the notes that would not let you confuse it for another chord. conversely, sometimes it is good to play as minimal of a chord as you can as it allows you to move around easier, which is why the pentatonic is so widely used as well.

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Actually, yes. We're saying the same thing perhaps in different ways - I was initially describing the major scale 7 note system based on the interval sequence and subsequent modes (which as you point out includes Dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aolian, locrian).


I didn't want to get into the 7 modes and the tonalities of each, and yes you do have a point in that some of these 7 modes can sound "exotic", but I was referring to quarter-tone type of sounds found in other cultures.

I was trying to answer the poster's question without having to get too technical.