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Playing Barred Chords-Tips for Beginners
For a Beginner, playing barred chords on the guitar can be daunting and discouraging. But this type of chord is a "must learn" in the world of guitar playing if you want to be good. These chords are used all the time. Blues guitar rhythm barre chords and power chords are very popular uses along with jazz or classical playing styles. The proper name is a barred chord. Often you will see them referred to as bar chords or barre chords. The power chord is really just an offshoot of a barred chord played with 2 strings. Often the guitarist will form the entire barred chord but only play two strings, or a power chord. The barred chord gets it's name from the fact that your index finger acts as a bar. It is placed (barred) across all the strings on a given fret. This is actually nothing more than a human capo! And the capo is nothing more than a movable guitar nut, that white piece of plastic that is at the end of your guitar neck where the strings sit inside and are guided to the tuning pegs. So you see, you can think of your finger as being that plastic nut because that is really all it is. Or, if you are familiar with the capo you can think of your index finger as a capo. This might help you understand barred chords better but it doesn't really make playing them easier, does it? The biggest hurdle in learning these chords is the pain! You must contort your wrist and fingers in such a way that you will often get cramps in the early weeks. But with each practice session comes more flexibility and strength. The last thing you want to do though is develop bad habits. So with that being said, the first thing you want to do is sit up straight and bring your hand under the guitar with your wrist bent as if you were doing curls with a straight barbell. Then bend your wrist, curling your hand up and keep your thumb down. Your thumb should not be any higher than halfway up the back of the neck. Rather than wrapping your thumb over the neck, it should be down low and pushing against it. Your palm should not be touching the neck. When playing barred chords a beginner would do best to see a photo illustration or have someone show you. This way you will not develop any bad habits. When done properly, your index finger will naturally want to create a bar across the fret. On the other hand, if you do not have your thumb, palm or wrist positioned properly, it is an almost impossible struggle to get it down right. So learn it correctly from the start, practice properly and you should find playing barred chords a breeze! Once you get the first one down you'll have an arsenal of more chords than you ever thought possible. But that's a whole different road that we'll travel after we've learned to play a few barred chords. Have fun!
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Contributor's Note
Besides this intel, I have many other online undertakings. I also write about and have websites on: Coach Handbags, Batman Movie Joker Collectibles and Guitar related topics such as teaching, gigging, buying and selling. You could say I've gotten tangled up in the web! Ray Sherman.
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Play Barred Chords
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May, 2012
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