Whenever I teach beginners guitar, one of the first real stumbling blocks for most students seems to arise when they first encounter barre chords. After learning the basic open chords and fluently practicing switching between them, as well as perhaps learning a few simple riffs or single note picking exercises, barre chords arrive. Most students will have progressed well up to this point and then ‘Bam!’ – For some it may be like hitting a brick wall. Unfortunately, for many students, this is enough to keep them from making any further progress or even stop playing together.

Capo chords pose a technical challenge to the beginner for several reasons: lack of adequate finger strength, the requirement for accurate finger placement, and a necessary understanding of the fretboard that may not yet have been developed, are the main ones. Some of the most common questions beginners ask me regarding barre chords are ‘Do I really need to learn them? Are they really necessary? and ‘Is it worth the effort?’ Well, while of course it takes some effort to learn how to use barre chords correctly, being able to play and understand them opens up a HUGE variety of new playing possibilities in a relatively short space of time, so the answer to all those questions is a ‘YES! You really need to learn them!’ and in this article I’m going to explain why, and show you that they don’t have to be the headache that so many beginners encounter. They just require a little perseverance.

So what exactly are barre chords? Well, they’re actually not too difficult to understand. They’re basically just movable chord shapes that can be easily transposed up the entire neck, allowing you to play many different chords with just one chord shape. The reason you can do this is because, unlike open chords, barre chords do not contain open strings: as you move the chord around the neck, all the notes move relative to each other. With an open chord, you use your fingers to play certain notes, while other notes are played on the open strings. Taking E major as an example, your first finger plays a G# (1st fret, G string), your second finger plays a B (2nd fret, A string), and your third finger plays an E (2nd fret, D string). ). The other notes in the chords (Low E, B, and High E) are played with the strings open.

If you were to move this chord shape around the neck, keeping all three fret fingers in the same shape but changing positions, say, to the 5th fret, 7th fret, or 8th fret, the three open strings will continue to sound. the same open notes (E, B, E), so you won’t be playing a major chord anymore (although you can get some really nice-sounding chords by experimenting with this idea – I suggest you give it a try). The whole point of barre chords is that if you play a major chord, for example, and move it around the neck, it will always play a major chord, just built on a different root note, be it G, B, Db, F#. , or whatever, the same shape will always be the same type of chord: major, minor 7th, dominant 7th#5, etc.

To achieve this, you need to move ALL the notes in the chord together, even those produced by the open strings. How do you move the notes from the open strings? Using your first finger to “sweep” them, effectively move the nut by replacing it with your finger. It’s like using a capo, but your finger is blocking the strings.

So why should you bother learning barre chords? What use are they? Well, first of all, if you stick with just open chords, you’ll find that you’re limited as to where you can play chords. Most standard open chord shapes are way down on the first three frets, so if you’re playing something higher up the neck and then want to play a chord, it’s a little hard to get back to them. Also, some of the forms are actually quite complicated to play (C minor or G minor, for example) and, due to their low register and closed intervals, can often sound quite boring and muddy.

Capo chords allow you to take a few simple chord shapes and move them across the entire neck to create virtually any chord. Whereas with open chords you need to learn one chord shape for A, one chord shape for C, and one chord shape for D, with barre chords you can learn a major chord shape, and by simply moving it around, you can play EVERY major chord. Of course, there are different shapes for minor chords, seventh chords, and so on, but they’re only slightly different, and once you know the shape, you can play it in all 12 keys. And there’s more than one chord shape for each chord type, based on the five open chord shapes, which means that no matter what position on the neck you’re in, from the 1st fret to the 24th, you should always be able to find a voicing. . for ANY chord, be it C minor or Eb major, F#min6 or Dmaj7sus4, within a fret or two of where you’re playing. I hope you can see the enormous possibilities that understanding this can open up for you.

As I mentioned earlier, there are five shapes for each type of chord (major, minor, seventh, etc.) and they are based on the open chord shapes: C,A,G,E, and D. Some of these shapes are more practical than others however. Forms E and A are the most common and are relatively easy to play, in major, minor, and seventh variants. Many guitarists get by just knowing these two ways, and while they’ll certainly cover most of what you’ll need to play, I would definitely recommend going the extra mile to learn the others. After E and A, the next two most common are the C and D forms (although the C minor form is very complicated, and the D form, both major and minor, can also be a bit complicated). Then there’s the very rarely used and hard to play G shape although again, it’s worth knowing if only for reference, and can be used for some nice chord embellishments. As you can see, there aren’t really that many forms to learn: the E and A forms (major and minor) will cover most things, so that’s 4 forms. The major C and D forms are definitely worth learning, as is the minor D form, so that’s 7 forms. Even if you include the really difficult ones, that only takes up to 10 chord shapes. Just by learning these 10 shapes, you can play ALL major and minor chords, ANYWHERE on the fretboard. Pretty amazing right?? Add in the variants for sevenths, sixths, and other extensions (which are easy once you understand how they’re constructed) and suddenly you have a WONDERFUL variety of chords at your disposal. Well worth the effort.

So how do you go about actually learning these barre chords? Well, first you need to be familiar with the open chord shapes they are based on, or at least the most common ones mentioned above, i.e. C, A, E, and D major, and A and E minor. And maybe D minor too.

Now, since you’re going to be using your first finger as a barbell, you’ll probably have to adjust your fingering to accommodate it. Let’s take a look at a real example to explain this.

Let’s take the open E major chord. Most people would play this by playing the G string on the 1st fret with their 1st finger, the A string on the 2nd fret with their 2nd finger, and the D string also on the 2nd fret with their 3rd finger, leaving the bass. The E, B, and high E strings are opened and all six strings are strummed. To start moving this chord shape around the neck, we need to free up the first finger to use as a barre. To do this, simply shift each fretted note to the next available finger, so the G string is now played on the first fret with the second finger, the A string on the second fret with the third finger, and the D string on the second fret. with your fourth finger. The first finger is now free to lock the open strings.

Now we are ready to start moving down the fretboard. Let’s start by going up just one fret. Slide all three fret fingers up to the next fret. Now you also need to move the open strings up one fret. To do this, place your index finger on all six strings. You want to press firmly with the meaty part of your finger, near the fret, applying even pressure across all strings. This will no doubt feel quite uncomfortable at first, as you need to develop enough strength in your hand, as well as toughen up the skin on your finger. This will come with practice. Once you have the barre in position, try playing the chord to hear how it sounds. This is now an F major chord. If you move it up another fret, it becomes F# major. One more and it’s G major. Now you can move it to any fret and it will be the major chord built on the root note which, for this shape, is the note on the low E string, fretted by the barre index finger. You can now do the same for all other barre chord shapes.

When learning capo chords for the first time, two common problems can arise. The first is that ‘open’ (barred) notes do not sound correctly. This is caused by not applying enough pressure with the locking finger. This is really just a strength issue – you just need to keep practicing until you build up the necessary strength and stamina. It will take a little time. Try doing lots of different finger exercises and practice things other than barre chords. This will help you gain strength in your hand and you will find, over time, that it becomes easier to keep applying the required pressure on the strings making each note sound clearly, without causing any discomfort to your hand.

The other common problem people have is accidentally muting strings, causing those notes to sound dead or not sound at all. This problem isn’t unique to barre chords, it can happen with other chords as well, but something to do with having to keep your index finger straight while applying even pressure to all six strings seems to make it a more common problem with chords. with barre than in most other chords. types This is just a finger positioning issue. You need to watch your fingers very well when you play and make sure that they are not touching any strings that they should not be touching. Only the tips of your fingers should be in contact with the strings in most cases (obviously not in the case of the barre finger), so keep them curled away from the fingerboard and the other strings. Remember to keep your hand as relaxed as possible when playing barre chords.

You will almost certainly find that the most difficult place to play barre chords is near the nut; the F major chord we looked at earlier is one that most people have trouble with at first. This is partly because there is less ‘play’ in the strings here, so more pressure is required, and also the frets are further apart, so your fingers have to stretch more. As you go up the neck, you’ll find they become much more comfortable to play, until you get past the 12th fret, where it starts to get a little tight. Of course, you should practice playing barre chords in all registers in order to master it.

So after reading this article, I hope you can now appreciate the fact that barre chords are an essential part of any guitarist’s toolkit. Once he has them under his belt, he’ll never look back, and he’ll find himself wearing them all the time and wondering how he ever managed without them. Like most things on the guitar, mastering it is really just a case of practice, practice, practice. Stick with it and the effort will be worth it and you will have a whole new world of guitar playing possibilities open to you.