Hey Friend,

Yesterday we talked about "the pinch," strengthening the muscles in your hand that give you the vice-grip clamp-down on the strings. The pinch is something you'll develop over time, but I have a feeling you want to play barre chords now!

Another challenge that you will face is "the reach." It's one thing to be able to press strings down, but does that give you the barre chord? No, it does not.

You still need to add the E or A chord shape in order for them to become the barre chords we know and love. And that requires reaching across the neck with all four of your fingers. At least your thumb gets to stay where it is - well, with some minor adjustments.

When you first start playing guitar, there's a natural tendency to try and hold the guitar neck like a baseball bat. It's very comfortable to lay the neck in the crook of your hand with you thumb and index finger easily wrapping around it. 

It also doesn't help that we see professional guitar players using this hand positioning. We see that and think its the proper way to hold the guitar.

The problem is, they've been playing for years and have found positions that work... for them.

These are skills and habits that have been formed over years of practice and playing. What you haven't seen is the developmental years - the years these guitarists invested finding and improving their tone.

So you have to first train your hand to form the chords properly. Once you're comfortable playing them the right way, you can then relax your technique. Your hands will find a natural position that achieves the goal every time.

To begin forming full barre chords, I like to point to the power chord as a form of training wheels. This isn't to say that they are of lesser value than a barre chord, or that once you can play a barre chord you'll never use a power chord again. They each have their place.

But if you can play power chords, you have a short cut. This allows you to blast past any potential road block a barre chord could present when you're trying to learn a song (I'm looking at you, F and B major!)

Let's look a little closer at the power chord as a foundation for mastering the barre chord.

You see, the power chord provides for two of the three notes in a triad, the first and the fifth notes. These two notes are the most powerful notes frequency-wise - that they complement each other quite well. Together they have a harmonic quality that strengthens to resulting sound. It works so well the power chord is able to stand on its own dynamically (sound quality).

So you can easily substitute a power chord for a barre chord if you need a quick shortcut.  You play them in the same positions as you would a barre chord, and using them as away to train for barre chords makes sense. Power chords teach you "the reach," getting you to reach across the neck with your index and middle fingers while adjusting your thumb to allow the fingers to reach the lower strings.

That's one of the reasons I wrote Easy Power Chords. I wanted to show you how to get past barre chord intimidation so you can play the songs you want, now. You can check out Easy Power Chords right here if you want to learn more.

We'll talk about some examples tomorrow and continue with building out the barre chord.

Peace~

Dave