Barre Chords for Beginners: Getting Past the F Chord

Open chords carry you a long way. Then a song asks for F or Bm and everything stops. The strings buzz, your hand aches, and the chord sounds worse than anything you've played in weeks. That's normal. A barre chord asks one finger to do the work of several, and it takes a hand some time to learn how. It's more about position than strength, and there are smaller steps on the way.

What a barre chord is

A barre is one finger, usually the index, laid flat across several strings at the same fret. It does the job the nut does for open chords, or the job a capo does when you clamp one on. Your other three fingers make a familiar open shape in front of it.

Because nothing in the chord is an open string, the whole shape can slide. Same fingering, different fret, different chord. Two shapes cover most of what you'll need for a long time.

The E shape: root on the 6th string

Play an open E chord, but finger it with your middle, ring and little fingers so the index is free. Slide all three up one fret and lay your index across all six strings at the 1st fret. That's F.

The index holds the 1st fret across every string. The middle finger takes the G string at the 2nd fret, the ring finger takes the A string at the 3rd fret, and the little finger sits under it on the D string at the 3rd fret.

The chord is named after the note under your index finger on the 6th string. Move the same shape up the neck and you get:

Barre at fret	Chord
1	F
3	G
5	A
7	B
8	C
10	D

For the minor version, lift your middle finger and let the barre hold the G string. At the 1st fret that's Fm, at the 3rd it's Gm, at the 5th it's Am.

The A shape: root on the 5th string

The second shape comes from the open A and Am chords, and its root is on the 5th string. The 6th string isn't played. Start with the minor version, because it's the easier of the two. Here is Bm:

The index holds the 2nd fret from the 5th string to the 1st. The middle finger takes the B string at the 3rd fret, the ring finger takes the D string at the 4th fret, and the little finger takes the G string at the 4th fret. It's the Am shape, moved up two frets with a barre behind it. Let the tip of your index touch the 6th string so it stays quiet.

This shape is named after the note under your index on the 5th string: B at the 2nd fret, C at the 3rd, D at the 5th, E at the 7th. So the same fingering at the 3rd fret is Cm, and at the 5th fret it's Dm.

The major version keeps the barre and puts the D, G and B strings all at the same fret, two above the barre. That's a tight squeeze for three fingers. Leave it until the minor shape is comfortable.

Setting up your hand

• Roll the index slightly onto its edge, the side nearer your thumb. That edge is firmer than the soft pad and has fewer creases for strings to fall into.
• Sit the barre just behind the fret wire. The further back it is, the harder you have to press.
• Put your thumb behind the neck, roughly opposite your index or middle finger, with the pad flat against the wood. A thumb hooked over the top of the neck pulls the fingers flat.
• Let your wrist drop below the neck so the other fingers can arch and land on their tips.
• Use your arm as well as your grip. Let the weight of your arm draw the hand gently back toward you so the thumb isn't doing all the work.

Then pick the strings one at a time. A dead string tells you where to adjust. Often it has landed in a crease of your index finger, and shifting the finger a few millimeters up or down fixes it. It also helps to know that in the F shape the barre only has to sound three strings: the 6th, the 2nd and the 1st. The other three are held by other fingers, so that's where the pressure can ease off.

A clean barre comes from where the finger sits, not how hard it squeezes.

Stepping stones

You don't have to go from open chords to a full six-string barre in one jump. Each of these is useful on its own.

Fmaj7: no barre at all

Ring finger on the D string at the 3rd fret, middle on the G string at the 2nd, index on the B string at the 1st, and the high e string open. Strum only the four thinnest strings, from the D string to the high e. It has a softer sound than a plain F, and in many songs it will stand in for one while your barre catches up.

The small F: a two-string barre

Same as above, but flatten your index so it holds both the B and high e strings at the 1st fret. This is a real F major chord on four strings, and it teaches your index to barre without asking it to cover the whole neck.

The full shape, higher up

Strings are harder to press down right next to the nut, which makes F the toughest place to learn this shape. Try the full E-shape barre at the 5th fret first, where it gives you an A chord. When it rings there, move down a fret at a time until you reach the 1st.

If barre chords are much harder on your guitar than on others you've tried, the strings may be sitting high above the frets. A repair shop can check that and adjust it.

Practicing without wearing out your hand

Barre practice tires the hand quickly, so keep it to a few minutes at a time and then play something else. A tired thumb muscle is expected at first. Sharp pain, or pain in the wrist, means stop and rest.

1. Place the chord and pick each string slowly.
2. Fix any string that doesn't ring by adjusting position before adding pressure.
3. Let go completely and shake the hand out.
4. Place it again. Landing the shape is the skill, more than holding it.

Once the chord rings most of the time, practice moving to it. C to F and Am to F are good pairs to start with, and the one-minute change drill in how to practice guitar chords works just as well here.

When F finally rings, you have more than one chord. Slide it to the 3rd fret for G and the 5th for A, lift a finger for the minors, and the same hand position follows you all the way up the neck.