Barre Chord Tips!

I have several students working on barre chords at this time, so I thought it might be worthwhile to give some tips for helping both them and you (the reader!) along.

Let me first say that I know that barre chords are HARD to master--especially on an acoustic guitar.  And I can clearly remember how frustrated I used to get working on them myself when I was a wee lad!

So let me be honest and assure you that this frustration is normal--I want to encourage you to not give up, and to keep on working on these barred forms of chords.

Here's a couple of things to remember as you work:

1) In essence, you want to form your thumb and index finger into a capo shape--this is where your leverage comes from to get good, clean notes along your barre.  You may cramp up for a while, but that cramping will decrease as you build up strength in your hand and wrist muscles.

2) Instead of holding your index finger perfectly flat, rotate it backwards a little onto its side--I show this in the video link below.  Also see the picture above, and pay attention to the hand position that this fellow has.

3) Move the elbow of your left arm (or right arm if you're left-handed) close to your body, so that it's touching your waist.

4) If you keep hearing muffled strings, it means that your either not getting a good barre with your index finger, of that your other fretting fingers are muting other strings.  You will want to make sure that you are using the very tips of your fingers to form the barre chords.  Calluses and practice will get you there!

5) Don't expect your barred chords to sound great in the beginning--correcting buzzes and muted notes is all part of the learning process.  You just gotta hang in there, and keep working at it!

6)  Make it a habit to work some barre chords into songs that you already know.  Learning to make those transitions between chords will eventually shape you into the great guitarist that you are destined to be.

7) See my video below for some exercises that can help you with making clean sounding, strong barre chords.

8) Finally, have your music instructor check the overall "action" on your fret-board.  If the "action" is too high, a reputable guitar store can lower the strings so that they are closer to the fret-board (but not so close that they buzz against the frets!).

Keep up the good work--and Happy Pickin'!

VIDEO--Barre Chord Tips