If you don’t have long fingers (most of us do not) and/or the neck or your guitar is quite wide, then you will find this easier to practice and perfect than some of the tougher 6 string barre chord shapes. The reason why, is mainly because it is a 5-string barre chord shape – meaning, your ‘barre’ finger doesn’t have to barre across all 6 strings but instead only needs to barre across 5 strings leaving out the low E string. Check out my intro video, bar chords on guitar for more on this shape. This is one of the most common barre chord shapes you will ever use, and it is one of the easiest to learn. When you include all the chord extensions and variations of each barre chord, there are a lot of shapes out there that you can practice but instead of starting on a random shape and hoping it will be useful to you, start with the A minor shape. The amount of pressure needed depends on how good your technique is and how well the guitar you are playing has been set up.
Pressure is the final thing we add and if we have good technique, we only need a small to a reasonable amount of pressure to make the barre chord sound good. When you practice barre chords, be very, very careful about how you learn them as doing so, the wrong way can cause injury and possibly long-term arthritis.Īlways, always remember to get your fingers set up and placed in the ideal position before adding pressure. This can be a strain in the muscles or tendons which can put you out of action with your guitar playing for weeks or even months. If you keep doing something with bad technique and lots of pressure, it will eventually take its toll. This causes pain in the fingers, wrist, and forearm and will tire the muscles out quickly at best and can possibly cause injury at worst. Usually, the guitarist uses bad technique and far too much force to try to play them.
#GOOD LOVE IS ON THE WAY TAB ACOUSTIC FREE#
The biggest problem with barre chords is that a student is usually told (or not corrected) when they think they need to press harder to make the barre chord sound clear and free from buzzing. In this post, I’ll share with you some tips from my barre chords course that will hopefully make your journey of learning barre chords far more enjoyable and far less frustrating – all while promoting great technique which will stand you in good stead for your guitar playing.ġ) Technique Always Comes Before Power with barre chords
We all know barre chords are really important to your long-term progression as a guitarist and even though a lot of songs can be played using a capo, there are 1000s of classics which need barre chords. Most teachers and resources out there teaching barre chords are really poor. Unfortunately, many guitarists really struggle with them and usually, this isn’t their fault but it is the way that barre chords are taught. Barre chords are one of the most infuriating parts of learning guitar for most beginners.