How To Play Barre Chords With No Strain

By Chris Glyde

The bar chord is one of the most useful and versatile chord types you can play.

At the same time, for the majority of guitar players, it’s very difﬁcult to play these chords

for a long period of time without the hand cramping up, straining or getting tense. In this

article, we’re going to talk about all the aspects of your playing that are causing you to

strain when playing barre chords. By the end, you should know how to free up your

hand and get the most from this chord type! Without further ado, here is problem 1:

1) You press to hard with the barre ﬁnger.

The biggest problem for most players is the amount of pressure they use on the bar

ﬁnger. If you apply too much pressure on the barre ﬁnger, you will cause your wrist to

come out farther than it should, thus making the barre chords more tense. If you

struggle to play the barre chords for longer than 10 minutes, this is probably your

primary problem.

The Solution:

You need to start scraping the side of your ﬁnger the barre is laying on. Scrape the

ﬁnger by simple taking the area of the ﬁnger on which you place the strings and scrape

it against the strings. Make sure your scrape is vertical, or from the ﬂoor to the ceiling,

like the arrows in the picture below demonstrate.

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You should do this every time you practice, for two months. Then keep doing it every

time right before you play barre chords. This will ensure that, without needing to apply a

lot of pressure, your notes are ringing out.

2) You overextend your barre ﬁnger

Pic 1: wrong Pic 2: wrong

The second problem in most students’ barre chords is that they over extend their

barre ﬁnger (ﬁnger 1). Overextending the bar ﬁnger pulls the wrist forward. Pulling the

wrist forward can cause tension, strain and permanent damage to your wrist if not taken

care of.

Picture 1 is a demonstration of a major bar chord on the low E string where the

player is overextending their ﬁrst ﬁnger (The Barre Finger). Picture 2 is a demonstration

of a bar chord on the A string. Once again, the player is overextending the bar ﬁnger.

The correct position for each chord is placed below.

Pic 1: Correct Pic 2: Correct

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The Solution:

This is easy: Make sure the barre is only as high as it needs to be when playing.

When you’re playing a barre chord on the E string, make sure that the barre ﬁnger

doesn’t extend past the top of the low E string. When playing a barre chord on the A

string, make sure the tip of your barre ﬁnger doesn’t go past the A string.

3) You have a death grip on the guitar using a pinch

method

Using your hand like a vice around the neck of the guitar is a common problem

for most guitar players. This is a massive problem with barre chords. The thumb should

be entirely relaxed while playing barre chords. You should be able to pull the thumb right

off the back of the neck if a callus is formed on the bar ﬁnger and you manage the

pressure correctly.

Here’s an example of the barre chord using the death grip example:

You can see in this video that the thumb is in a hitchhiking position and pointing

backwards. This will cause the thumb and the palm on your left hand to tighten,

resulting in a lot of excess tension.

Here’s the correct method to play a barre chord:

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When you compare the two pictures, do you notice the difference?

The thumb is clearly much more relaxed in the second picture. If you look at the

space between the thumb and the ﬁngers in both pictures, you’ll notice the difference in

approach as well. The ﬁrst one looks like the player is pinching. Does the bottom picture

look that way? No it doesn’t. It’s much more relaxed. You should be aiming to imitate the

bottom picture.

The Solution:

Once you’ve begun to develop a callus on your ﬁngers, you’re also going to need

to focus on relaxing the thumb. How can you relax the thumb? This is simple: The

counter force to the ﬁngers on your fretboard will no longer be the thumb; it will be your

body.

As you play the barre chord, the guitar will press into you, the headstock will shift

backwards and it will be like you are hugging the guitar. This is where the tension

should be while playing the guitar: on your body, not on your palms.

****Most of you probably do this with your open chords and don’t even realize it. That’s

why your open chords are so easy to play: you’re using proper tension

management.****

Important tip – what your thumb should look like:

Everyone has a different body type, with different-shaped thumbs. Some of you

may even have injuries. How do you determine for your hand size and shape what your

thumb should look like while playing guitar the majority of the time?

You can put your hand in the air and relax it. What it looks like in a state of

relaxation is what it should look like when you’re playing the guitar. Here’s a picture of

my thumb during a state of relaxation:

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As you can see, it’s straight, with just a slight dip. Compare that to the picture of

my hand for a barre chord:

It is fairly straight, with a little more of a bend than my relaxed hand to

accommodate the curl of the fretboard.

If you can get all three of these principles down, you can get rid of any strain,

tension or concern of getting carpal tunnel while playing guitar. You will be playing more

freely than ever, and you can apply these principles all over your guitar playing, to free

up your left hand.

About Chris

Chris Glyde is a full-time guitar teacher based in Rochester, New York. Visit his

website for Guitar Lessons In Rochester.

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