Example 4-1

JDuckworth

Blues Newbie
When Griff plays this example, on the B flat 7 he is fingering two strings and not barring anything. Is he playing the top two open strings and the two he is fingering, then moving to the E flat 9 with the barr? It just sounds like he’s hitting more than two strings on the first part but I don’t understand why he would do that if he is.
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
When he first demonstrates the little chords he strums across all 4 strings.

Then he demonstrates just playing the 2 notes on the 4th & 3rd strings with a pick and then by plucking them with a pick and middle finger.

When playing the 2 note "chords", he's not pressing down on the first 2 strings, but his finger may be still lightly touching them to mute them out (at least for the 2nd string).

(When he first demonstrates them in A he puts more "arch" in his fingers to emphasize he's only playing those 2 strings.)

For the slow and fast play-alongs he is strumming the all 4 string version, so he is pressing down the barre on the top 2 strings.

At no time are the top 2 strings played open.

They are either played using a barre in the 4 string version or muted by releasing pressure in the 2 string "plucked" version.:)
 
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