There you go… the barre chords

In this section, we have some good news and some bad news.

Which do you want first?

The bad news is that, in this section, there are no easy chords. We have arrived at the barre chords section. When you try the first chord, you will want to put your guitar aside and go and play basketball or something with your friends.

It is at this point where many guitar students become stuck.

As you can see, I am fantastic at giving encouragement…!

Indeed, this is the reason why I would recommend you spending some time practicing the previous chords and only starting the barre chords when you feel comfortable with the chords we have learnt up to now.

But wait! I also have some good news for you. In this section, you will find some tips for playing these chords, and I assure you that it is only a matter of spending more time practicing.

Certainly, the time you will need to take to play barre chords will be longer than that spent for the chords learnt in the previous sections, but with some determination you can begin playing songs with these chords.

In the Box, you will find songs which  only use one barre chord, so you can carry on practicing the easier ones and start introducing your first barre chords.

Also, there is other good news for you in this section. If you persist and you are able to add the barre chords that you find in this section to the easy chords you have already played, you will be able to say that you play guitar.

Yes! By adding these chords to your guitar skills you will be able to play the chords of the vast majority of the songs that you know.

So, don't panic and let’s get started with the first barre chord: F major.

To play this chord, you need to barre the first fret, which means that one finger is used to press down multiple strings in a fret (like a bar pressing down the strings).

In the case of F major, your first finger will barre the first fret while your second finger will press the second fret of the third string, your third finger will be in the third fret of the fifth string, and your fourth finger will press the third fret of the fourth string.

As you can see, it is really the same shape as E major, except that you press the string with different fingers and barre the first fret.

Don’t worry if not all of strings sound properly - this is normal at the beginning. The strings that are muted will not make a sound and you will only hear those strings that you press correctly. The chord will not sound like it should, but because you are muting you will be taking some notes out and it is much less important than not playing an incorrect note in the chord.

Learning barre chords is always a pain for guitar students, but after a few months you will be a pro.

Meanwhile, you can play songs without barre chords at the same time as you practice F major, so you can have fun playing during this period!

Regardless, the real problem with this chord is not the shape itself because, after a few seconds of switching your gaze between the chord diagram and the neck of your guitar, the chord will sound (more or less). The problem is trying to play a song, and moving from any given chord to F quickly.

Many people use a simplified version of F in order to avoid barring any fret. This option is pressing the first fret of the second string with your first finger, the second fret of the third string with your second finger, and the third fret of the fourth string with your third finger. If you strum only the first four strings (leaving untouched the two lower strings), it will sound more or less like an F major.

In fact, this chord really exists. It is Fmaj7. However, I do not recommend using this shortcut because, sooner or later, you will need to learn the barre chords and the correct F major shape will allow you to play many other chords.

Yes, if you play the same shape that you use for F major but barre the second fret instead of the first (all your fingers will go up a fret), you will go half a step up and you will be playing F# major. By barring the third fret, you will play another version of G major; by barring the fourth fret, you will have G# major, and so on…

Instead of looking for shortcuts, I could give you some tips to make your first transitions to F easier.

For instance, you can look for songs where you should play F major from a C major, because both chords’ shapes share a finger position: the third one in the third fret of the fifth string.

So, when you are playing C major, you should keep your third finger pressed and move the other ones. The movement you should make is to switch your second finger a string down, from the fourth string to the third, to add your fourth finger to the third fret of the fourth string and, finally, and as quickly as you can, to barre the first fret with your first finger.

In this way, you do not need to look for the position of all your fingers but rather only move two of them (the second and the fourth) and barre the first fret.

Try to suppress your desire to throw your guitar away, because if you practice it you will be able to do it faster than you think.

Another common transition is moving from D minor to F major. To do so, you should notice that you have one finger that maintains its position between the two chords: your second finger. So, when you are playing D minor and you need to go to an F major, you should maintain your second finger and move your third finger from the third fret of the second string to the fifth string again in the third fret, and add your fourth finger to the third fret of the fourth string. Remember to also add your first finger in order to barre the first fret.

The next step would involve practicing the transition from A minor to F major, which is quite frequent as well. In this case, when you are playing Am you should let your second finger fall down one string to the second fret of the third string and bring your third and fourth fingers to the third fret, to the position that you already know, and barre the first fret.

Another frequent transition that you should learn is from A sharp major to F major. The two chords share the first fret barred, so you will have to shift the other fingers.

We will introduce this transition after we have practiced A sharp major.

When you have learnt F major, you can play F minor. In this case, you will have F minor simply by maintaining the shape of F major but letting go with your second finger. So, the complete shape involves barring the first fret, while your third finger will be in the third fret of the fifth string and your fourth finger will press the third fret of the fourth string.

The next chord you should learn is B major. It is not an elementary chord, but it is easier than it seems at first glance. It is played by barring the second fret and pressing the second, the third and the fourth strings in the fourth fret.

It is actually like an A major, but two frets up the neck and barring the second fret.

You have two ways to do it.

Once you have barred the second fret with your first finger, you can use your second finger to press the fourth fret of the fourth string, your third finger to press the fourth fret of the third string, and your fourth finger to press the fourth fret of the second string.

This is a nice and the appropriate way to do it, but I would recommend that you play this chord in another manner: making a double barre chord.

It sounds nice, doesn’t it?

I know that, at this point, you would probably like to avoid this extra barre, but this way will be easier for you - believe me! You can play it by barring the second fret with your first finger, and barring the second, the third and the fourth strings with your fourth finger (even with your third finger if you can). This chord is tricky because you have to bend your finger backwards to press the second string while not touching the first one. It is weird at first, but it does not matter if you partially bend your fourth finger and touch the first string (without pressing). If you do it this way at first, the first string remains mute. You are losing a note of the chord, but it is not really important at this point.

You have to be careful, anyway, and only start barring from the fourth string down. So long as you do not start barring from the fifth string or from the third, everything will sound right.

Once you play this chord, you can play A sharp major by shifting the whole shape one fret down while barring the first fret.

Additionally, you can shift the complete shape up through the neck of the guitar while adding a semitone to each fret. By barring the third fret, you will have another way to play C major; barring the fourth fret you will play C sharp major; barring the fifth fret you will have another shape of D major; barring the sixth fret you will play D sharp major, and so on.

Playing A sharp major is other way to practice F major, as they share the first fret-barring and you can maintain it in the same position as you shift the other fingers.

The last chord you should complete for your set in these first months is B minor. In fact, there are many other chords, but when you get used to playing this one, as well as the previous ones, you will be ready to play tons of songs.

To play B minor, you need to barre the second fret and make a shape quite similar to F major with the other fingers, although a string down with all of them. This means that your second finger will press the third fret of the second string, your third finger will be in the fourth fret of the fourth string, and your fourth finger will press the fourth fret of the third string.

Again, when you play this chord you can play A sharp minor by shifting the whole shape one fret down while barring the first fret.

Moreover, you can also shift the shape up and add a semitone to each fret. Barring the third fret, you will have C minor; barring the fourth fret, you will play C sharp minor; barring the fifth fret, you will play D minor; barring the sixth fret, you will play D sharp minor, and so on.

At this point, you can open up the complete Box and other tab websites with confidence of playing most songs.

Thank you for your patience, and I hope that some of the advice you found here has been helpful to you in learning to play guitar.