Barre Chords

Barre chords are one of the most essential aspects of playing the guitar. The term barre chord simply refers to guitar chords that require the fretting multiple strings with a single finger. Barre chords are “movable chords” which can give a guitarist great flexibility in playing chords along the fretboard. They are used  in song transpositions as these chords are easy to locate and play in different keys.

Another advantage of playing barre chords is that it gives the guitarist more control over their playing style and sound. For example, quick and sharp muting with the fretting (left) hand can be made very easy with barre chords.

However, barre chords are the bane of most beginners due to undeveloped finger muscles and coordination. With a bit of guidance and help, I hope this lesson can help you get started with the most basic yet important barre chords. This lesson deals with mostly major chords. If you want to learn how these chords are formed, please read the major and minor chords lesson.

Half barre

Let’s start the lesson on something relatively easier. The diagram below shows the fingering for a half-barre F major chord. The half barre is performed by using the index finger to fret the 1st and 2nd strings at the same time, What you should do here first is to let our index fingers get accustomed to fretting 2 frets at the same time. Make sure that the 2 fretted notes can be played with clearly without any buzzing sounds. You might need to wriggle and adjust your finger in order to do this properly.

Diagram of F major half barre                    (1) Use index finger to barre 2 strings                      (2) Add the middle finger

(3) The F major half barre

Once you are able to do that, add your middle finger to and make sure all 3 notes can be played clearly with no buzzing sounds. Lastly, add your 4th finger and make sure again you can play all 4 notes clearly. At the end of the day, your finger muscles and coordination WILL improve.

Movable Barre Chords

The full barred chord is a technique that can be very taxing on a beginner’s hand. By the end of this lesson, you will learn how to practice barre chords effectively. We will use the F major barre chord for this study. Contrary to how most guitar gurus teach the barre chords, instead of using the index finger to barre all 6 strings before adding in other fingers, I will teach you a more effective way to practice the full barre chord.

Important tip: Start by placing the 3rd, 4th and the pinky fingers into position first.

Then add in the index finger to complete the barre chord. Everyone’s index finger and hand will be shaped slightly differently. Hence, you really have to experiment around abit to get the correct posture and position of the fingers for a clean sound. Typically, the barre is made using the side of the index finger. What is important is that each note of the barre chord sounds clear with no buzzing or muted sounds when played.

Tips on practicing barre chords     - Make sure that each individual note of the barre chord is sounded loud and clear. If there is         any buzzing or muted sounds, it is probable that part of one finger is blocking another string or       a string is not pressed down hard enough.       - Build up your finger muscles and grip by placing the index finger of the left hand across the       fretboard and pressing all 6 strings at the same time.       - The position of the thumb is very important. Ideally, the thumb should be placed at the       thickest part of the fretboard and not wrapped around the neck.         -Take things slow. Once you feel that your fingers hurt too much, it is time to take a break. My       personnal experience on learning barre chords took me 2-3 weeks. What I did was I had the       guitar on my lap while watching Charmed! on television. During advertisements, I would       practice holding barre chords. I had even practiced the first thing I woke up in the morning for       5 minutes before washing up when I first took up the guitar. In no time, I was able to play the       F major barre chord with no sweat.

-Last hint, always obey the first point!

Common Barre Chord Shapes

These are some other movable chord shapes that are very essential any guitarists. Practice these movable chord shapes by applying the same methodology in learning the F major barre chord and you will soon be playing barre chords seamlessly.

Common Barre Chord Shapes                                           Bb Major                                                      B Minor

D Major                                              A Minor

The idea behind many of my lessons is to break things up into chunks for more effective learning. It is important to taking learning in a step by step manner to build up the your finger muscles and hand coordination. At the end of the day, being able to play barred movable chords will enable you to play most of the popular songs on the radio.