Barre Shapes, Step by Step

When to read this: after Session 19, “How a Barre Works”, “The Daily Limit”, “The Four-String Shape at Fret 5” (10 minutes); after Session 25, “The Change to the Four-String Shape” (5 minutes); after Session 28, “The Full Barre at Fret 5” (10 minutes); after Session 31, “The Change to the Full Barre” (5 minutes). None of this reading is part of a session’s 50 minutes.

What You’ll Learn

This handout is about barre shapes: how a barre works, the daily limit on barre work, and the two barre shapes this course presses at fret 5, with the change to each.

Session 19 sends you to “How a Barre Works”, “The Daily Limit” and “The Four-String Shape at Fret 5”. Session 25 sends you to “The Change to the Four-String Shape”, Session 28 to “The Full Barre at Fret 5”, and Session 31 to “The Change to the Full Barre”.

Do not read a later section, or press anything in it, before its session.

How a Barre Works

Before the first press of a barre shape at fret 5, do the string-height check of Guitar Setup Check, under “The String-Height Check”: Session 19 has you do it before its presses.

A barre is not a squeeze. The pressure comes from the weight of your arm, not from pinching the neck.

Finger: lay finger 1 across the strings just behind the fret wire, rolled slightly onto its bony edge (the side nearer your thumb), with the tip reaching just past the last string it has to cover.
Thumb: rest your thumb lightly on the back of the neck, roughly behind finger 1 or finger 2. It steadies the hand. It does not press.
Arm: let your elbow hang close to your side and let the weight of your arm draw your hand gently back, so the finger sinks into the strings. Your strumming arm resting on the guitar’s body keeps the guitar still.
Press, pluck each string once, release completely, shake out the hand. Never hold a barre against a clock.

The Daily Limit

Barre work: no more than 5 minutes a day in total. Pain rule: tender fingertips are normal. Pain in the wrist, forearm, thumb joint or knuckles, numbness or tingling, any sharp pain, or pain that lasts into the next day means stop. The full rule is in START HERE.

Barre work is every barre of any size, in a drill and in a piece, on practice days and on the session day. By Session 19 that is the simplified F, Dm7 and A (four strings).

A barre row is a count of presses: press, pluck, release. It is never a hold against a clock. Under each week’s plan, the line that begins with the words “Barre rows this week” names the barre rows and their minutes. Beside a piece that holds a barre chord, the line that begins with the words “Barre count” gives the piece’s barre minutes.

If you reach the limit before the day’s barre rows are done, stop the barre rows and go on with the rows that hold no barre. The minutes left over are never moved to the next day.

The Four-String Shape at Fret 5

Moveable chord shape (moveable shape) — A chord shape that uses no open strings, so the same finger pattern makes a different chord at each fret. The chord is named after its root, wherever the shape is placed. (Session 19)
Partial barre chord — A barre chord in which finger 1 lies across some of the strings, not all six. The simplified F is one: its barre holds strings 2 and 1. (Session 19)

A (four strings) is the simplified F moved up four frets: finger 1 across strings 2 and 1 at fret 5, finger 2 on string 3 at fret 6, finger 3 on string 4 at fret 7.

A (four strings)

EADGBe

Finger 1 (index) barres strings 2 (B) and 1 (high e) at fret 5
Finger 2 (middle): string 3 (G), fret 6
Finger 3 (ring): string 4 (D), fret 7
Do not play strings 6 and 5
Strum strings 4 to 1 (four strings)
Notes, string 4 to string 1: A, C#, E, A

Tuner check: Pluck strings 4 to 1 one at a time, slowly. The tuner should show A, C#, E, A. A different letter means a finger is on the wrong string or the wrong fret.

This block is for reading here: play it in its session and in the week’s row, not from this handout.

A moveable shape is named after its root. In the four-string F shape the root is the note under finger 3 on string 4: with the barre at fret 1, finger 3 is at fret 3 and the chord is F; with the barre at fret 5, finger 3 is at fret 7 and the chord is A.

The shape is pressed, never held: press, pluck the four strings one at a time, release, and shake out the hand, counted in presses. While the shape is new at this fret, press it for 2 minutes a day at most. It stays at fret 5 for the whole course, and no piece holds it before Session 25.

If a string is dead or buzzing:

What you hear	Cause	What to do
String 2 dead	Finger 1 does not reach far enough	Move it a little further across
String 1 dead	It has fallen into a crease of finger 1	Shift the finger slightly up or down and roll onto its edge
String 3 dead or buzzing	That is finger 2, not the barre	Move it closer to the fret wire
String 4 dead or buzzing	That is finger 3, not the barre	Move it closer to the fret wire

If the tuner shows the right letter but the note is dull or buzzing, do not press harder. Move the finger closer to the fret wire and try again.

One check, inside a day’s barre minutes: press A (four strings) and pluck the strings one at a time, three times. Pass: all 4 strings ring, 3 times in a row, lifting the hand in between. This is the mark for the end of the course. In the weeks of Sessions 19 and 20, the session’s own Self-Check Question asks for 2 presses of 3, and that question decides the week. If not: find the string in the table and move the finger it names; never press harder.

The Change to the Four-String Shape

From Session 19 this course does its new barre work at fret 5, not at fret 1, for two reasons. Close to the nut the string has less give, so it takes more effort to press; and the frets are at their widest next to the nut, so a shape is about one fifth narrower at fret 5 than the same shape at fret 1.

The change drill for this shape is D to A (four strings) and back: one strum on each chord, a new chord every 4 beats. It is a change drill, not the change test. Every minute of it counts as barre work.

Copy of Session 11: one strum to a measure

Count:  1  (2) (3) (4)
Strum:  D

Strum on beat 1 and let it ring; move during beats 3 and 4.

D to A (four strings): nothing stays down, and the hand moves up the neck. Fingers 2 and 3 keep their shape: finger 2 goes from string 1 fret 2 to string 3 fret 6, and finger 3 from string 2 fret 3 to string 4 fret 7. Finger 1 goes from its tip on string 3 to lying across strings 2 and 1 at fret 5.

Move your whole hand along the neck, thumb travelling with it. This is a shift, not a stretch.

If it pulls, stop that item for today; if it aches, stop playing for today.

Nothing stays down, so lift all the fingers together, form the new shape in the air and land it as one shape.

The shape is lifted and placed, never slid along the strings.

This shape has no open string, so its sound ends when you lift; that is expected.

Tempo: a new chord every 4 beats at 50 BPM

Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. This week, take one step at most.

A run is clean when every note or chord lands on its count, every string that should sound rings, and you do not stop.

If a string of the shape does not ring after the change, find it in the table under “The Four-String Shape at Fret 5”.

One check, with the metronome sounding at the figure your drill has reached: D, A (four strings), D, A (four strings), D, one strum on beat 1 of each measure. Pass: the change 4 times without stopping, each chord down by its click. If it does not pass, and nothing pulls or aches: go back to the presses under “The Four-String Shape at Fret 5” for the rest of the drill’s barre minutes that day; never add a minute.

The Full Barre at Fret 5

Full barre work: no more than 2 minutes a day in the week of Session 28 and 3 minutes a day from Session 29, at fret 5 only. It counts inside the 5 minutes of barre work.

Before your first full barre, do the string-height check of Guitar Setup Check, under “The String-Height Check”, again, and read the four steps under “How a Barre Works” in this handout once more.

Full barre chord — A barre chord in which finger 1 lies across all six strings. This course uses one, A (full barre), at fret 5. (Session 28)

The full barre shape is the open E chord moved up the neck. Finger 1 lies across all six strings and does what the nut does for the open chord, and fingers 2, 3 and 4 make the E shape above it. At fret 5 every note of E is five frets higher, and the chord is A.

A (full barre) is the E chord moved up five frets, with finger 1 across all six strings at fret 5 in place of the nut: fingers 2, 3 and 4 make the shape that fingers 1, 2 and 3 make in E.

A (full barre)

EADGBe

Finger 1 (index) barres all six strings at fret 5
Finger 2 (middle): string 3 (G), fret 6
Finger 3 (ring): string 5 (A), fret 7
Finger 4 (little finger): string 4 (D), fret 7
Strum all six strings
Notes, string 6 to string 1: A, E, A, C#, E, A

Tuner check: Pluck strings 6 to 1 one at a time, slowly. The tuner should show A, E, A, C#, E, A. A different letter means a finger is on the wrong string or the wrong fret.

This block is for reading here: play it in its session and in the week’s row, not from this handout.

The first press is built from A (four strings), at the same fret. Finger 2 stays on string 3 at fret 6. Finger 1 lies further across at fret 5, from strings 2 and 1 to all six strings. Finger 3 moves one string towards the ceiling at fret 7, from string 4 to string 5. Finger 4 lands on string 4 at fret 7.

The full barre is pressed, never held: press, pluck the six strings one at a time, release, and shake out the hand. It is counted in presses. Until Session 31 it is a press only, and only at fret 5.

The full barre never has to pass: the pain rule comes first.

If a string is dead or buzzing:

What you hear	Cause	What to do
String 6 dead or buzzing	Finger 1 does not reach far enough	Move it a little further across
String 2 or string 1 dead	It has fallen into a crease of finger 1	Shift the finger slightly up or down and roll onto its edge
String 3 dead or buzzing	That is finger 2, not the barre	Move it closer to the fret wire
String 5 or string 4 dead or buzzing	That is finger 3 or finger 4, not the barre	Move it closer to the fret wire

If the tuner shows the right letter but the note is dull or buzzing, do not press harder. Move the finger closer to the fret wire and try again.

One check, inside a day’s full barre minutes: press A (full barre) and pluck the strings one at a time, three times. Pass: at least 5 of the 6 strings ring, 3 times in a row. This is the mark for the end of the course: in the week of Session 28 there is no pass mark, and you count the strings that ring. If not: find the string in the table and move the finger it names; never press harder.

The Change to the Full Barre

Full barre work: no more than 2 minutes a day in the week of Session 28 and 3 minutes a day from Session 29, at fret 5 only. It counts inside the 5 minutes of barre work.

The change drill for the full barre is E to A (full barre) and back: one strum on each chord, a new chord every 4 beats, in the pattern one strum to a measure. Its block is under “The Change to the Four-String Shape” and is not printed again here. Every minute of the drill counts as full barre work and as barre work.

Play E with the fingering you have always used: no second fingering of E is taught.

E to A (full barre): nothing stays down, and the hand moves up the neck. Every finger takes a new place. Finger 1 lies across all six strings at fret 5. Finger 2 goes from string 5 fret 2 to string 3 fret 6. Finger 3 goes from string 4 fret 2 to string 5 fret 7. Finger 4 lands on string 4 fret 7.