Bar Chords – Part 1

Bar chords are one of the biggest obstacles that confront the beginning guitar player. As it is, getting your fingers coordinated, synchronized and strong enough to play chords with some open strings in them can be difficult enough. Most students get the hang of at least a few open chords in a couple of weeks. I like to get students started on bar chords as soon as possible, with the understanding that it will probably take many months before they start getting comfortable with them.

A bar chord is played with your 1st finger pressing down across all 6 strings (technically called a barre in classical guitar terminology). Your finger must be slightly arched to follow the contour of the fingerboard, as close to the fret as possible, with the pressure slightly on the thumb side of the finger, not in the center of the finger.

A big factor in the difficulty of bar chords is that your 1st finger has an entirely different job than the other 3 fingers. While the 1st finger is extended nearly straight, the other fingers must be arched into the frets like on most other open chords. A good way to practice this is to try the F chord barred at the 1st fret, as diagrammed below. Hold your 1st finger down in the bar position and move the other 3 fingers off and back on the strings together, trying not to lift them more than about a half an inch off the strings.

In the 1st step of this exercise, you try to keep the 3 fingers in the same formation as they move off and on. The 2nd step would include opening your fingers up, or pointing them toward the ceiling as they come off, then reforming them as they go back on.

This is just a quick overview of the mechanics you need to play bar chords. Check the article The Chord Squeeze in the Exercises section for more information. In Part 2 we will explore different shapes of bar chords and the some of theory behind them.