Barre Chords.
Eventually, you've gotta learn how to play them.
Nobody ever said that learning how to play the guitar well, is easy. It most certainly isn't impossible, but you do have to work for it. This means that you need to be stronger than your excuses. Sitting on beginner "cowboy" chords, just because they’re easy, does not mean that barre chords are somehow less important. Quite the contrary. In fact, they are way more important.
I started learning how to play open-string (cowboy) chords when I was around 13-14 years old. Someone showed me a power chord, and it just made sense to me. I had no idea that the power chord was nothing more than the lower end notes of a barre chord. To me, the power chord was just a simple shape to play rock chords.
My guitar teacher, Tony, told me that power chords are good, but I needed to start adding barre chords to my vocabulary. He said that I was “limiting myself by only wanting to play open-string chords”. There simply was no getting around it. I had to learn how to play the dreaded F chord, the Bm chord, the Fm chord, the Bb chord - and all of the other variations therein, if I wanted to get better as a practicing instrumentalist, and to be able to play a lot more songs.
I remember that I just pushed myself to make those barre chords sound as good as I could get them until they slowly got better. I found that it was much easier to play these barre chords on my electric guitar than it was on my acoustic. I practiced learning the shapes and their names until I could play them as well as the open-string chords. This most certainly did not happen overnight. It took a long while. I began adding more and more songs to my repertoire, that used barre chords - which also helped me better understand my keys and basic chord structure theory.
How many barre chord shapes are there?
Well, believe it or not, there aren't that many. Barre chords (in my opinion) are either 6th or 5th-string root chords (as you will see below). Both roots have their own unique shapes for the major, minor, dominant 7th, minor 7th and major 7th.
The 6th-string root barre is used for the major and minor triad chords, and the dominant and minor 7th chords, but it is not always required to use the barre chord shape for a 6th-string root major 7th chord. That's because the most common 6th-string root major 7th chord is built using individual notes, without using the barre shape.
The 5th-string root chord shapes for major, minor, dominant, minor and major 7th, all use the barre shape.
So - four plus five equals “nine barre chord shapes” that you need to know. Of course there are exceptions to this. There are numerous chord shapes that use partial barring of only two, three or four strings. This usually happens when you start adding more jazz or extended chords to your vocabulary.
What is the easiest way to practice barre chords?
Again - nothing is easy when it comes to practicing. That's why it's called practicing. Playing is what you know, practicing is what you don't know.
However, one of the more practical ways to practice the barre chord shape is to place your index (1st) finger across all six strings on the first fret. Yes, it's going to feel very uncomfortable. Push down and strum all six strings slowly and individually. This technique will probably be easier on an electric guitar. I recommend that you practice on an acoustic guitar so you can truly strengthen your left hand fingers properly.
Continue to play all six strings until every note is clear without any buzzing. You want to give each note its full value. Move up to fret two and repeat up to about fret six or seven - then go back down the fret board to fret one. You will definitely feel it in your thumb muscles and maybe even in your wrist. Do this every day for at least 10-20 minutes. Start practicing a few of the barre chord shapes and make sure you listen for every note. Don't cheat or shortchange the chord just because you can't get one or two of the notes. Get every note, nice and evenly.
Here are some of the “G” barre chord shapes for you to practice.
G Major (G)
G minor (Gm)
G (dominant) 7 (G7)
G minor 7 (Gm7)
G Major 7 (GΔ)
Remember the location of the root notes for every chord shape. Barre chords are considered “movable”, which means every shape can be played in all twelve keys.
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