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Barre Chords are frequently described as a major barrier to entry for beginner level guitar players. Don't believe the hype.
Let's look at how to crush Barre Chords and incorporate them into our playing.
Learning to Use Our Index Finger
Learning to Use Our Index Finger
The fundamental difference between barre chords and the open shapes we've learned so far, is what our index finger is doing. We're going to break what, so far, has been a cardinal rule of fretting. We're going to use the side of our finger, instead of the tip.
So - before we worry about the shapes, let's learn how to use our index finger here.
Lay your index finger flat across the strings, and do your best to press down all six strings at the 5th fret. Slowly pick all 6 strings and check that every string is ringing out clearly. If you got it, great, move on to the next section!
If you're having trouble, have a look at the position of your fretting hand's thumb. Orient it so that you can effectively pinch the neck between your index finger and thumb as hard as possible.
If you're still having trouble, let's test your hand for a second. I want you to pinch your guitar neck as hard as possible (without hurting yourself). Get a feel for the limits of the strength in your hand. It's probably stronger than you realized.
Occasionally a player does lack the strength required, but far more often, it's just a lack of experience with exerting force in this manner.
If you aren't able to get all six strings to ring, no worries. I just want you to try again tomorrow. If you try it every day, you'll get it in no time. I've never encountered a student that wasn't able to get accustomed to this barre technique after a little daily practice.
Remember - if it hurts, STOP.
The E Major Barre Shape
The E Major Barre Shape
Now that we've learned how to hold down all the strings with our index finger, the hard part is already over with.
Press down all the strings on the 5th fret, like we practiced, and then add your remaining fingers as shown.
This is the E barre shape! We call it an E shape not because it makes an E chord, but because it borrows the shape of our traditional Open E Chord.
The great thing about this shape is that you can produce all twelve major chords with this one hand positioning. How?
Which major chord we play is determined by our root note. That's the note in red!
If your root note is A, this shape will give you an A major. If your root note is C, you've got a C Major, etc.
If you don't know how to tell what note you're playing, you can learn about the note wheel HERE!
The E Minor Barre Shape
The E Minor Barre Shape
Here we have made a small modification to our E major barre shape.
We've simply removed our middle finger from the fretboard.
Some players like to rest their middle finger slightly on top of their index finger during this shape. This has the added bonus of reinforcing your barre!
This change to our shape changes the chord to a Minor Chord.
Just like before, you can change which Minor Chord is being played by changing your root note!
Once you've mastered these two shapes, you now have a way to play all 12 Major AND Minor Chords on guitar.
That's enough to play a solid chunk of the songs on the radio.
This also means that, for the Major and Minor Open Chords you've already learned, you now have 2 ways to play them.
The A Barre Shapes
The A Barre Shapes
If you've been playing around with the E barre shape, maybe you've noticed some chords are pretty far apart. For example, F# Major to C# Major.
One of the great things about guitar is that we have so many options for playing a chord!
This is where the A Shape comes in. Again, it's named after the shape of the A chord. We can play any Major or Minor Chord we want with these two shapes.
On top, we have the Major shape, followed with the Minor.
Knowing how to play a chord in both E shape and A shape configurations give you more options on how to play any given chord progression. For chords like G, where you already knew an open shape, you should have 3 ways to play it now!
This shape is actually a little easier to barre, since we can skip the low E string, but the Major shape is a bit more of a stretch than it was for the E shape.
If you're wondering why the shape has changed from our E Barre shape, click HERE to learn more about the B string.
The A Major Barre Shape
The A Minor Barre Shape
If you made it through all of that, you've learned the basic shapes behind 90% of barre chord usage on the guitar. Take some time and play around with the shapes on different spots on the fretboard, and try to name the chords you're playing.
Ideally, you want to be comfortable playing any of the 12 Major or Minor chords in the E shape and A shape positions. Go ahead and test yourself! See which ones are easy for you, and which take some thought. Those are the ones to practice.
For most people, it's going to be sharps and flats which cause the most trouble, since they are likely the least familiar.
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