Hi Cynthya. Another way of putting what Spyder says:
If the original chord is a barre chord, then the whole formation, bar and all, must move up or down to retain the quality of the chord. However, if you just use fragments of chords (something I recommend you look into), you can move those fragment up or down and retain the original quality, but in a different pitch. That's the beauty of guitars. But as Spyder points out: beware any open strings in the original fragment.
Never feel that you must constantly be looking for and playing six-note chords. It's not necessary to make music. It just so happens guitars have six strings, but a simple chord requires only three notes/strings. As you add notes to that chord, you add strings. Most of my finger style lessons are fragments of larger shapes. I like to be as sparing as possible when I look to arrange tunes ... just enough to say 'that's the flavor'.
Yes, if you're looking to be a strummer rather than plucker, keep working away on the open chords. They're the basis of everything of course, since all those open shapes simply move up the fretboard for all other chords. Some can be barred, some not, but it's where the notes ARE that's important to lock in.
Learn songs that you like, experiment with them; don't feel like you have to duplicate anything; don't keep playing things you know don't sound quite right. Find the problem and fix it. Refine the flow. Listen.
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