Learning how to play barre chords is a well known stumbling block for the vast majority of students taking guitar lessons for beginners. With the use of a guitar capo it is possible to avoid having learning barre chords while still being able to play songs in many different keys however this still represents a restriction to aspiring guitarists and limits his or her freedom to play songs on guitar. I, like most guitar teachers, believe that's its definitely worth your while to put in the required amount of effort to master barre chords simply because of the increased sense of freedom you'll enjoy on guitar. With sustained practice over time there's no reason why you wouldn't eventually be able to do them. In fact, they'll seem just as easy as to play as open chords!
What Do Barre Chords Feel So Difficult To Learn?
There are 2 reasons why beginners struggle with barre chords on acoustic guitar
1. The shapes require you to exert more pressure on the strings in order to complete the barre and so you need to increase the amount of strength in your hands. This takes some time to gradually build up and in a way it's very much like having to work out in a gym in order to increase your muscle strength.
2. Barre chords require a greater degree of stretching from your fingers. Obviously to perform a barre chord you need to use your first (1st) finger to form the barre across all strings on the fretboard, you then make use of your remaining fingers to form the chord in front of it. The formation of the first finger barre immediately puts you hand in a compromised position and reduces it's ability to stretch, when you also couple this with having to press down that much harder... you can begin to see why barre chords are so much more difficult to master than open chords. And we haven't even begun changing between chords in a progression yet!
Well the answer is this. Firstly you must get into the habit of trying to perform some barre chords on guitar for around 5 minutes every day - even though they may seem impossible for your fingers to do at first, just keep trying. When coupled with time, this action alone will do much of the work necessary to allow you to eventually master them. Many people who learn guitar online may attempt to do barre chords only a few times before giving up with the desperate belief that they are simply impossible or that their hands are too small, too fat... whatever! The real truth is that these chords lie perfectly within your potential on guitar IF ONLY you'll keep at it.
You can do some specific exercises to build the strength up in your hands, muscles and tendons (even buy some "finger gym equipment" like ...) but the simple fact of trying barre chords every day is normally sufficient to naturally build the extra strength required for these chord shapes.
The second thing is stretching and I would certainly advise anyone learning acoustic guitar to devote some of their daily practice time to stretching exercises on guitar. They are simple to do and will have begin to reward you with massive benefits across all aspects of your guitar playing after only a couple of weeks. You can find the site for my Top 10 Guitar Exercises here. A final word of caution when performing finger stretching exercises... don't push things too far! At a certain point you'll find your hand starting to hurt and it's at that point that you should stop and try again the next day. You can't rush this kind of progress so don't, stay safe and don't push things too far to the point where you could actually injure yourself.
There's no difference between acoustic guitar barre chords and electric barre chords - only that it's more common for students to learn the 4 basic barre chord shapes on acoustic guitar an no more. These 4 shapes will be enough to open up all the guitar songs which were previously closed to you. On electric guitar there are a huge range of movable barre chord shapes to learn especially if you're into playing jazz guitar. Generally it's easier to perform barre chords cleanly on electric guitars as they strings are lighter and set closer to the fret board. This means that you'll have to exert less pressure to push the chord shape down before all the notes will sound cleanly. It will also reduce the likelihood that you'll experience any buzzing noises from muted strings.
Please see the video article here for setting up your guitar correctly, it contains many important set up considerations which will make barre chords easier for you to perform.
Major Barre Chord Shapes - Minor Barre Chord Shapes
On the 6th string (low E) of your guitar you need to learn a major barre chord shape and a minor barre chord shapes. Wherever you place your index finger (the fret number) along the guitar neck will decide the name of the barre chord based upon the note of the 6th string where your barre is placed. For example, the note on the 5th fret low E string is A, so if I placed my index finger barred on the 5th fret and formed a major barre chord shape I would produce an A major barre chord. If however I formed a minor barre chord shape I would produce an A minor barre chord.
You'll also need to learn a major and minor barre chord shapes for the 5th string and the process for naming them remains exactly the same except that they notes are are coming from the 5th string (A string) and no the 6th. It's easier to see this principle in action in video lessons or barre chord diagrams rather than guitar tab.
As soon as you learn all 4 shapes try to come up with some simple barre chord progressions to practice going from one shape to the next. The great advantage of barre chords is that they are movable. To get a different chord you don't need to change the shape of the chord, only where you play that shapes along the guitar neck.
Songs that contain barre chords are not normally labeled as 'easy guitar songs' however with a bit of practice you'll be able to bring many songs from the more remote keys of D, A and E into your guitar playing capabilities! Learning how to play barre chords will take you one big step further out of beginner level guitar and open up a new world of guitar songs for you to enjoy.
