If you've been playing guitar for a while, learning some of your favorite songs, chances are you've come across the infamous F major barre chord that has always given guitar players a hard time.
But don't worry if you've ever struggled trying to learn this barre chord shape, then today's lesson is just what you've been looking for.
In this lesson I'll be giving you a very simple step by step guide that will help you learn these barre chords in no time. While highlighting some common mistakes and tips that will make those barre chords ring beautifully.
Learning how to play barre chords is essential for every guitar player, because some songs cannot be played using just open chords like Hotel California for example.
Furthermore, what will happen when you want to play G minor for example? Or B Major, C# minor? You could argue that these chords can be played using a capo, but what if you're in a jam session and there are no capos? what if your capo breaks? that's where your barre chord knoledge will come in!
-The first barre chord shape all guitar players learn, is this one chances are you've already seen a diagram similar to this one before.
-We are essentially emulating a capo and barring the entire fret with our index finger.
-We call this a root on 6 barre chord shape because like the name suggests the root note of that chord is on the Low E string (the 6th string).
-This shape is movable and using my index as a reference, that' s how I can name what chord I'm playing.
Ex: If the root note is G (fret 3), I'm playing a G barre chord.
-Another thing you need to know is when we're dealing with root on 6 barre chords, we have a couple different shapes, but for the sake of this lesson we'll be covering the most commonly used one the E shape barre chord.
We call this the E shape barre chord because we get this shape from the E open chord shapes, here's how this goes:
1- Play an E major open chord.
2- Rearrange your fingers in a way to liberate the index.
3- Notice how this already looks like the barre chord shape, except my index is barring the open strings.
And from here, all you need to do is move everything 1 fret up, and you'll be playing an F barre chord.
Check out min @1:25 for a quick demonstration.
Now if you're like most guitar players, you probably won't have the strength to barre the whole fret right now, so here's how you'll practice this.
Here's the step by step guide for easy barre chords on guitar.
Step 1: Playing The Major Barre Chord Shape With Open Strings.
The goal here is to get you comfortable with putting the barre chord shape, without barring the whole fret.
-Place the E major open chord shape.
-Move everything up 5 frets.
-Put the index on fret 5 (without barring)
Notice how we're letting the B and high e strings ring out, this already sounds beautiful, check out min @3:10 for a quick demonstration.
Step 2: Move That Barre Chord Shape Around.
We're going to switch between fret 7, 5 and 0.
You can use any strumming pattern you like, or none at all, you could just isolate the fretting hand and really focus on just moving that barre chord shape around.
Check out min @4:36 for a demonstration.
Step 3: Playing Full Barre Chords.
Now that we are familiar with this shape, and we can move it around let's try to barre the whole thing.
Steps to follow:
-Fret the Barre chord with open strings shape we were using earlier.
-Slightly bring in the index
Pro Tips:
-Make sure you are using the tip of your finger to fret the barre chord.
-Try barring the chord with the bonier side of your index.
-As I' m bringing in the index, my other fingers do not move!
-My middle, ring and pinky fingers are curled.
-While barring try to keep your index as close to the metal fret.
Check out the video lesson min
@5:12 for a more comprehensive tutorial.
For a more in depth dive into barre chords mastery check out
''Barre Chord Elevation'', my complete step-by-step system to mastering Barre Chord faster than ever, even if you are just starting out.
It's really simple, for the minor barre chords, we can look at this in 2 ways.
1- We can come up with the shape using the E minor open chord.
2- Or we can simply play the major barre chord, but remove the middle finger.
Check out min @7:14 for a demonstration.
Disclaimer: You can use that middle finger to support the index improving the barre chord's clarity. This also helps when you've been playing for a while and your fingers are getting tired.
Now You'll be able to play any song you like, check out this lesson and learn how to
''Play Along With Your Favorite Songs on guitar'' using only the chord + lyric sheet.
