Hey Friend,

Barre chords, the great equalizer. Okay, maybe that's going a bit overboard, but you gotta admit, trying to play barre chords for the first time can certainly bring you to your knees!

I started you out with "the pinch." Over time, you have to build up the muscle strength in your fretting hand so you can get clear notes from each string. In the tab exercises to come, I've laid out both the root 6 and root 5 barres you'll make with your index finger. 

Nope, these aren't easy, but when have you ever had it easy when it's something so good? 

Then I talked about "the reach."

It's one thing to press strings down. It's quite another to make a chord out of it. Now you're getting into stretching your fingers across the fingerboard, and for a lot of people, this is awkward. 

The reason it's awkward is you're now having to contort your hand and arm in a way that isn't the most natural. You've got to get used to the hand position, to bending your wrist a little further than you would while playing some of the open first position chords. You might also have to lower your elbow just a bit to help your fingers make the reach.

Let's walk through getting fingers in place for an "E shape" C major barre chord.

First, with your thumb pad placed on the back of the guitar neck, slide up to the eighth fret position. Curl your index finger above the fingerboard and place your fingertip on the sixth string (E) at the eighth fret. Reach for it... Reach for it...

There! Pluck the string.

This is the C note and the bass (or root) note of the chord. For this first note, make sure there is enough curl of your finger so the note rings out clearly and doesn't touch the fifth string. Don't worry, you're going to be able to relax this finger in a minute, but this is part of the exercise - I want you using your fingertips so that your fingers don't touch the other strings. 

Now we'll add the five note, which is the G note. Keeping your index finger on the C note, place your ring fingertip on the fifth string at the tenth fret. Make sure these two fingers don't lean on any other string. Strum these two strings..

Now bring your pinky fingertip up to the fourth string, tenth fret. Press down and pluck just the fourth string. You should hear the note ring out clean and clear. This is a C note as well, so you have added the octave note from the scale and effectively doubled the sound of the chord.

But guess what... This is still just a C5 power chord. Do you see why? 

Yup, you've still only played two notes - the one and the five notes. That's why you need the final ingredient of a major chord -  the three note. This rounds out the color of the chord, and is the main influencing note of a chord. It's the note that makes a chord sound happy, sad or indifferent.

Bring your middle fingertip in to the third string, ninth fret. This note is the E note, the three note from the scale. Pluck it - nice and clean, right?

Now hold that position for a moment. Let your hand feel where everything is. Strum the strings. Don't worry if the chord sounds horrible - it will until you get your hand used to this position.

But you have all the ingredients for the E shape major barre chord. You can slide it up an down for different chords based on what you need. Move the shape down to the fifth fret, you're now playing A major. All the way down to the first fret - hello, F major!

We're not done, but this is a start. I'll have the tabs ready for you tomorrow. Until then, enjoy "the burn..."

Peace~

Dave