How To Play Major Barre Chords Based on E

1. Play an open E chord, but instead of using the normal 2-3-1 left-hand fingering, use fingers 3-4-2.

2. Lay your first finger down across all six strings on the other side of the nut (toward the tuning pegs).

3. Take the entire left-hand shape from Step 2 and slide it up (toward the body of the guitar) one fret so that your first finger is barring the first fret and your E-chord fingers have all advanced up a fret as well.

4. Try playing the notes of the chord one string at a time (from the 6th string to the 1st) to see whether all the notes ring out clearly.

At first, you might not get a clean sound of the notes and your left-hand fingers are going to hurt and that's certainly normal. It can be very frustrating but extremely rewarding. All great guitar players also went through all of this so don't give up.

To help you master the barre F chord, check out the following tips:

• Make sure that you line up your left-hand thumb on the back of the guitar neck under the spot between your first and second fingers. This position gives you maximum leverage while exerting pressure.
• Instead of holding your first finger totally flat, rotate it a little onto its side.
• Move the elbow of your left arm in close to your body, even to the point that it’s touching your body at the waist. As you play open-position chords, you find that you usually hold your elbow slightly away from your body. Not so with full barre chords.
• If you hear muffled strings, check to see that your left-hand fingers are touching only the appropriate strings and not preventing adjacent ones from ringing. Try exerting more pressure with the fingers and make sure to play on the very tips for extra clearance. Calluses and experience help you get a clear sound from a barre chord.

Remember that this chord form is movable so try moving your F chord up and down the neck to different frets. You may notice that playing a barre chord at higher frets is easier than you do at lower frets (1st fret for example). Thus, you may need to exert more pressure when fretting this kind of chord form at the bottom of the neck.

If you are using an acoustic guitar, you might have a hard time getting clean tones with this barre chord form. Try to use an electric guitar instead. Electric guitars have lighter strings gauges(thickness of the strings) and the action(distance of its strings to the fretboard) is lower compared to an acoustic guitar.