Barre chords are enemy #1 for many guitar players. These challenging chord shapes tend to come up right when you think you’re getting the hang of playing, making you feel like a total beginner again. Plus, they really hurt your index finger and tax your muscles. As a result, many guitarists avoid barring like the plague.

The good news is that barre chords don’t have to hold you back. They do pose a problem, but they’re a problem that can be solved. All you need to do is apply yourself to the solution instead of ignoring the issue. Like any other aspect of guitar playing, they’re more of a mental obstacle than a physical one.

Here are 3 tips to make barre chords easier for you!

Ever used a capo in your playing? It’s basically a way to switch between different keys while playing the same (usually easy) chord shapes. In fact, it’s usually the tool guitarists use to avoid playing barre chords.

What you need to realize is that your index finger, thumb, and arm, acting together, form a biological capo. This capo has many advantages over a manufactured capo: it’s attached to your body, it can easily shift between frets, and its pressure has “vertical variance” (i.e. you can lay your finger across all six strings but only apply tension to the first and sixth).
 

Conquering the Pain
 

Naturally, most of us focus on the disadvantages of our fleshy capo. Probably the most serious among them is the pain we associate with barre chords.

Three types of pain immediately come to mind: the tactile pain of one’s finger pressed tightly against six strings (most severe for acoustic steel-string guitar players), the muscular pain of exerting the necessary barring force (ideally spread across many muscle groups), and finally the emotional pain of attempting a seemingly-hopeless endeavor, inextricably mixed with the tactile and muscular pain mentioned above.

The good news is that your pain can be overcome. And the solution is simple. You need to barre constantly. Barre first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening. Barre while you’re watching TV. You might even start barring while you’re reading this post! Every time you sit down to play, you should be barring at some point.

If you practice barre chords frequently enough, they’ll become second nature. You won’t feel the pain any more—you’ll have become the capo

I’ve found that it’s much easier to learn new things that you’re enthusiastic about. If you love to learn languages, you’re going to be much better off learning Greek than the average person. This doesn’t mean you’re smarter. It just means that you go about it with the right sort of attitude.

So it is with learning barre chords. If you’re trying to learn them just because someone told you to, then you’ll definitely struggle and get frustrated. However, if you genuinely love the sound of certain barre chords, then you’re probably going to enjoy the process of learning them and master them quickly as a result.

Let’s take the infamous F barre chord on the first fret, represented below:

This is arguably one of the hardest chords to play on the guitar. Many players fear this chord above all others. Fretting right next to the nut requires a lot of force, which can really tire out your left hand. One option is to avoid it temporarily, using an alternative you can find right here. However, you’re going to want to play the six-string F chord eventually.

Is it possible to learn this chord without torturing yourself? I would say yes, and, as you might guess, the key is to get yourself to like if not love it. It’s all about changing your perspective at will.

You need to approach the F chord like an eager child, practicing it frequently and fearlessly. Make the shape a kind of home base for you left hand. Learn to appreciate the feeling of your finger embracing the strings. Listen carefully to the notes both strummed and arpeggiated. It’s your new favorite chord—deal with it!

The more you can create a positive spin on learning the F barre chord, the sooner you’ll feel comfortable with it. Don’t think that comfort is just a technical parameter, either. On the contrary, your physical capabilities on the guitar largely follow from your mental ones. That’s an important point, so I’ll repeat it below:

Your physical capabilities on the guitar largely follow from your mental ones.

Barre chords are best addressed as a frame of mind. You need to physically practice them, of course, but you simply won’t do that without a productive philosophy. So why not embrace them?

Any fan of this site knows that I’m a major advocate of mental practice. This sort of practice can take place away from the guitar, and there are many different ways to do it. If you’re skeptical of the effectiveness of mental practice, you might like to read this interesting article.

There are two main ways to mentally practice barre chords. The first involves what we might call “narrative control.” This refers to your mental ability to cultivate a productive guitar-playing attitude.

In the case of barre chords, good narrative control would entail replacing thoughts like, “I’ll never get the hang of barre chords,” with thoughts like, “If all these other guitarists can learn to barre, then so can I.” Once you have the right frame of mind, you’ll end up practicing barre chords a lot more and fearing them a lot less.

The second type of mental practice deals with memorizing chord shapes. Naturally, you don’t need a guitar in your hands to learn what barre chords look like on paper, as well as the theory behind them.

In the case of the F major chord we discussed above, this would be knowing the note you’re fretting on each string (low notes to high: F, C, F, A, C, F). You might also learn that F major chords always contain the notes F, A, and C, where F is the root, A is the major third above the root, and C is the perfect fifth above the root.

Most guitarists combine technical practice with theoretical practice, working out their guitar-playing muscles and learning the shapes simultaneously. However, you should be willing to divide and conquer here, since both of these barring elements are faster assimilated if you isolate them in turn.

You might be surprised by how much you can improve away from the guitar. I’d go so far as to say that if you do mental practice right, then your time-investment will have at least an equal return compared to physical practice.

If you want more tips on mental practice, you’ll definitely appreciate this post.