One of the hardest things for a beginner guitarist is to conquer the barre chords. These are some of the trickiest chords you need to master, but there are some simple tricks that can help you learn to play them with ease. It will take some time and you’ll need to be prepared to practice hard, but you can improve your playing with these tips.

What Are Barre Chords?

Barre chords require you to press all the strings down at once on a single fret. You usually do this by using just one finger, the first finger, while leaving the other fingers free for playing the rest of the strings accordingly. Barre chords are tricky, but once you master them, you’ll find playing the guitar much more enjoyable.

Generally, the key to mastering barre chords is all about gaining finger strength and composure. The following tips can help you strengthen your finger muscles as well as get your playing style more suited for barre chords.

Build Finger Strength

When it comes to playing barre chords, the most important part is having enough finger strength to do it. It is a good idea to start doing little finger exercises, since this can almost instantly make playing the chords easier.

You can start with the following exercise:

• Start slowly by placing your finger on the thinnest string and holding it down for a count of five.
• Continue by holding down the thinnest string plus the second thinnest string. Do this again for a count of five.
• Keep going forwards by always adding one more string to hold down and counting to five.
• Once you are holding down all the strings, you can start going backwards and remove one string from your position.

In addition, you should try to do this with all of your fingers. Although most of the time you will be using your first finger to play barre chords, it can sometimes be easier to hold down the strings with another finger. For example, read this Street Musician blog post for tips on using your thumb for playing barre chords.

Repeat this exercise as often as possible. It is something you can casually do when you are watching TV or hanging out with your friends.

See What Other Players Are Doing

You can learn a lot more about playing the guitar by watching other people play. When it comes to mastering the barre chords, you need to find the right wrist and elbow positions to ensure that your hand doesn’t start aching afterwards. In order to find the best position, seeing what other guitarists do can also help you a lot.

Video sites like Youtube offer plenty of guitar videos and watching other people play can teach you a lot about finger movement and posture. You can also check out one of our guitar lessons to understand playing barre chords better.

The Best Songs to Practice Barre Chords

There are also a number of songs, which are especially good for practicing barre chords. Once your finger is getting used to playing barre chords, include these following songs to your practicing routine:

• Ben E. King – Stand by me: you can actually play the whole song by using just four barre chords.
• Sublime – Santeria: a good song to practice the basics.
• The Beatles – Hey Jude: a bit more difficult, but great for enhancing your skills further.

Hopefully, with the above tips you get off to a good start. Remember to practice your barre chord positions daily, especially because this is the best way to gain finger strength. Don’t give up! It will feel difficult at first, but you’ll get there eventually.

Are you a guitarist? Check out our full range of online guitar lessons

Are you a saxophonist? Check out our full range of online saxophone lessons

Subscribe to Pro Music Tutor from as little as £7.99 per month