To play an F major, you don't need to barre all the strings, so in my opinion exercizing by barring a whole fret without other fingers is just the fastest way to hurt (or/and discourage)yourself. It does require some, yes, but the real trick is not to try to barre all the strings. The error people tend to make concerning barre chords is to believe it requires strength. Remember to set yourself a long-term window for improvement - 'in four months I should be able to do this' - keeping in mind that playing music is a life-long thing! In any case, you'll get quicker results than if you just slugged away at chord changes, in my experience.įinally, for the independent movement of the LH fingers not 'tied down' with the bar, bar up higher up on the neck and play scales with the remaining three fingers. This is going to help all of your guitar work, especially the left hand, and if you've been completely extending, you've also been working those small muscles that are essential for barring. Since this exercise is 'isometric' (no weights) you can't hurt yourself, so go until you are completely slowed down with the extensions, and you have significant 'sensation' in your forearms. If your hands aren't developed, you'll start to feel it in your forearms, probably, after 20 or 30 repetitions. Easy, eh? Now do it two hundred times, as fast as you can, making sure you snap the fingers open and close all the way each time.Extend the fingers of both hands all the way out.'arching', so that the middle strings get good pressure), and that your left thumb is offset towards your elbow - this helps the whole left arm put more pressure on the strings.ī) Do this exercise once a day for four weeks to strengthen those tiny muscles around the first finger big knuckle, and I believe that you'll see a dramatic improvement in your barring: Here are a few things that will help more quickly then simply slogging through difficult changes until your hand hurts:Ī) Make sure that your first finger is close to the target fret, is pushing through its middle knuckle (i.e. So those two things add up to a big strength and coordination challenge for the left hand. The other three LH fingers must be independent of the first finger, even though it is working very hard to maintain the bar. Tiny muscles around its big knuckle (not the big muscles in the To get good purchase on the neck, the first finger (LH) must use the But there are two critical physical reasons why bar chords are hard for beginners, and they don't address these directly: There are some good ideas in the other answers (for example, working higher on the neck first, to get the chord right, then working your way down). Rest for a while, and do the same thing on fret 6, and so on until fret 1.ĭo this every day for 2 weeks-and you'll be able to play barre chords with ease. Keep holding the barre on fret 7 for the whole exercise! By the time you get to string 1, your hand will hurt like hell, but that is the purpose - to get your hand strong. Hold your barre on fret 7 and with the other three fingers, do this pattern, picking one note at a time: -8-7-9-7-10-7. When all notes are clear, move to fret 6. Just hold all the strings on fret 7 with your first finger and nothing else and check if all the strings sound clear. I've been doing them for a week or two and-it's a miracle-barre chords started sounding good! 1. I was struggling with my barre chords, but then my teacher showed me two great exercises.

Bar chord a major ten thumbs