With guitar there are several movable closed position major chord shapes. You can play a barre and move around an E shape or an A shape or a D shape or a C shape, etc, etc. The only limit is your imagination and finger flexibility. The same appears true for the mandolin. However, the number of commonly played shapes seems less.
So far, in my limited experience, most movable major shapes take the form of the open position G chord (0023) or the similarly shaped, but upwardly shifted C chord (0230). Is it generally true that mandolin major barre chords are typically constructed from one of these shapes or their variants? I know there is an E shape (1224), but I haven’t seen that mentioned much up the neck. The chord library at Mandolin Cafe doesn’t even mention this first position version of E. Instead it defaults to a C shaped chord at (10 6 7 4). Why no love for the E shape?
Another question regarding the common movable G shape (and its chop chord variant)… Let’s move that shape up to an A. The most commonly used chop chord for A that I see is (9745). The same chord could also be fingered (2245). Is (9745) preferred or is that just my perception? While (9745) seems more popular, (2245) seems like a stronger major chord by putting the tonic on the lowest struck string. (9745) makes that lowest string a 5th. Or is (9745) more popular not for tonal qualities but because it is easier to finger and chop by not having to cover two courses of strings with one finger. If that is the case, I get it. Cleanly holding down four strings with one finger is a bear.
Thanks for any chord insight.