2. Barre Chords: Why They're Hard (and How to Fix Them)

Barre chords are named after the open chords they came from. Flatten your index finger across all six strings, play an E shape behind it, and slide the whole thing up the neck — at the 1st fret that is F, at the 3rd fret G, at the 5th fret A. One shape, twelve keys. The A shape does the same thing from the 5th string: at the 2nd fret it is B, at the 5th fret D.

That is exactly why they are worth the trouble, and exactly why they are the first real wall most players hit. Your index finger has suddenly taken over the job the nut used to do for free, while your other three fingers hold a chord shape on top of it.

Fixing a buzz

A buzzing string almost always means the pressure is in the wrong place, not that you need more of it. Work through these in order.

• Move closer to the fret. Your barre should sit just behind the fret wire, not in the middle of the gap. Halfway between frets you need roughly twice the force for the same result.
• Roll onto the side of your finger. The pad of your index finger is soft and has creases at the joints — exactly where strings disappear. Rotate your hand slightly so the bony outside edge does the pressing. The difference is immediate.
• Check which string is buzzing. If it is the 2nd string, your finger joint is landing on it; roll further. If it is the 6th and 1st, your finger is bowing in the middle; pull your elbow slightly in towards your body to straighten it.
• Move up the neck first. Strings sit higher above the fretboard near the nut, so a barre at the 1st fret is genuinely harder than the same shape at the 7th. Learn the shape at the 5th fret, then walk it down.

What your thumb should be doing

For open chords most people wrap the thumb over the top of the neck, and that is fine. For barre chords it usually is not. Put the thumb flat on the back of the neck, roughly behind your middle finger, and you get a clamp: the thumb pushes forward, the index pulls back, and your arm does the work instead of your finger muscles.

If your hand is tiring after four bars, the thumb is nearly always the reason. A tired forearm is normal at first. A sore thumb joint means you are squeezing rather than levering.

Practising the right thing

Do not start by switching between barre chords. Start by holding one.

1. Hold an F barre at the 1st fret for ten to fifteen seconds. Strum once, listen for dead strings, adjust, hold.
2. Release, shake your hand out for as long as you held it.
3. Repeat five or six times, then stop for the day.

Then move to the chromatic exercise: play the same E-shape barre at every fret from 1 to 12 and back down, one strum each, listening for the fret where it starts to buzz. That fret is your current limit, and it moves down the neck surprisingly quickly. Two minutes a day beats twenty minutes on a Sunday, because what you are building is grip endurance, and endurance responds to frequency far more than to duration.

When to use something else instead

A full barre is not always the right answer. If a song calls for an F and you are still fighting it, the Chord Dictionary lists every other way to play that chord, and several of them need no barre at all. Common escape routes:

• Drop the low strings. The top four strings of an F barre — x x 3 2 1 1 — carry the whole chord. In a band or with a capo you will not miss the bottom.
• Use a partial barre. Many shapes only need the index across two or three strings, which is far less work than six.
• Move to a different position. The same chord higher up the neck often has an easier grip and sits better under a vocal anyway.

None of these are cheating. Session players use partial voicings constantly, because a six-string barre is often too much chord for the arrangement. Learn the full barre because it makes every key available to you — but use whichever voicing actually serves the song.