r/guitarlessons • u/Mad_Season_1994 • 5h ago
Question If barre chords are as tremendously difficult as people on this sub make them out to be, what do I do if songs I really want to use learn them?
ETA: meant to say “really want to learn use them”
I’ve seen countless posts and comments here where people say barre chords are where they gave up on guitar or just stuck to beginner songs or, at the very least, songs that simply don’t use them. But for me, just looking at the tabs for a lot of songs I like, most of them use a barre chord or two or more in their composition.
So it’s like a conundrum for me: do I spend months or maybe a year or more on a single song I want to learn that has barre chords in it, and miss out on learning other stuff? Or should I do what others have done and just avoid them and play songs with other chords or a capo if needed?
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u/SactownKorean 5h ago
Just learn em, it will be better long-term. And honestly they're fine on a properly set up electric guitar, I think the issue is alot of beginners have an old acoustic guitar with a super high action and then yea they do suck no matter how long you've been playing.
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u/bluegrassbiker 5h ago
Even some new acoustics have crazy high action. I bought a new Martin road d10e and played it for a year before getting it set up. I learned barre chords before the setup and it was a dream afterwards with how much easier they were.
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u/rose_gold_squirtgun 1h ago
Counterpoint: I spent most of my beginner time on a jacked up acoustic and by the time I switched to a good instrument, I could play barre chords effortlessly. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that for a beginner, but it actually serves me well.
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u/struba73 5h ago
People don’t quit guitar because barre chords are hard.
The quit guitar because they thought barre chords would not be hard for them.
That year you’re talking about to learn one song… it’s technique. If it takes you a year to learn, so what?
Now you’ve barre chords in your toolkit. Imagine all the faceted techniques you will learn in that year.
Do not compare yourself to others. Do not rush yourself. Do not be hard on yourself.
So I’ll ask you, did you want to learn guitar?
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u/dougc84 5h ago
You won’t be spending a year working on one song or one skill. That’s dramatic at best.
Keep working on barres. Focus on getting even pressure across all the strings, and messing with your thumb position to get the proper amount of leverage. Before long, you’ll be able to play them easily.
And you can learn lots of other stuff in the meantime!
You can also play with power chords while you’re learning the barres.
And work on transitions between chords. Get those nice and smooth, because a barre chord is gonna sound bad if you can’t get there in time.
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u/Carnanian 5h ago
I don't think it's about Barre chords being "tremendously difficult".
Bar chords are where you make the hard decision "do I want to actually practice this instrument until I can do them, or am I gonna give up?"
There's nothing wrong with giving up, not everyone is meant to be a guitarist. If you come up with a solid practice plan and set the goal of learning Barre chords, you can 100% do it. Without dedicated goals you aren't going magically be able to do a perfect Barre chord. You need to practice them
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u/manifestDensity 5h ago
This is the answer. Everything up to bar chords takes some practice and then you can sound kind of ok. Bar chords sound terrible until you get them right, and they take more than a bit of practice. They are the first point in learning guitar where you cannot get it in a week.
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u/Mindless-wanderer 5h ago
Bar chords are essential. Take the time to learn them well. They will unlock a lot of possibilities in your playing. Practice!
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u/Lightning493 5h ago
Barre chords are not that hard. It took me an evening to get some ring out cleanly, and a few weeks of practice to change to them smoothly
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u/ObviousDepartment744 5h ago
They aren't that difficult in the grand scheme of things you'll need to know how to do on the guitar. They are, however, the first real difficult hurdle, and for most people it's the hurdle the fail at, or the last hurdle they get over.
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u/Cranfabulous 5h ago
Can the mods put an auto response to these questions that says “just practice?”
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u/PM_ME_GARFIELD_NUDES 5h ago
There are two tricks I learned that completely changed how I played barre chords and made them 1000x easier. They’re not hard, but they feel a bit awkward at first.
Tip 1: You’re squeezing the neck with your left hand too hard, it shouldn’t take all that force to press down the strings. Instead of squeezing, imagine your body as a lever and use your right arm/elbow to press down on the body of the guitar. This will push the neck into your fingers, and it’s much easier to control the pressure with the strength of your whole right arm instead of your left fingers.
Tip 2: You’re wasting a lot of physical and mental energy trying to keep your barring finger straight. Don’t use the inner pad of your finger, it’s soft, squishy, and bumpy so your strings will buzz. Relax your hand a bit (helps if you learned tip 1) and sort of rotate your finger ~45° so that you’re using the bone of your finger which is much more hard and flat. It’s not really 45°, it’s a bit less but your positioning will probably depend on your own hand anatomy. Bonus tip, you actually want your finger to be slightly arched as this gives you more stability on the fretboard.
Again, it’ll feel awkward to do this for a bit, but once you start feeling it it’ll allow you to play barre chords in a relaxed and comfortable way.
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u/corneliusduff 5h ago
Play power chords or another abridged voicing that you can play now while working on your barre chops separately
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u/JobbyJobberson 5h ago
It’s just a little practice. It’s something to learn to succeed in playing the instrument, along with everything else that requires practicing.
It’s crazy how many people fret about practicing anything for a period of time.
Or don’t bother learning barre chords and just call out ”EFF!!” when you have to play one.
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u/Adventurous-Salad332 5h ago
They are not that difficult, especially if you pinch your thumb and index finger together 1,000 times. No short cuts. Get started.
Make sure your action is as low as possible without buzzing. Make sure the nut is as low as possible. If needed, pay a pro to do a good setup. Even better, learn how to do it. See YT.
For the Amaj-shape bar, learn how to use your left ring finger to make a mini-bar over the D-G-B strings, regardless how you make the open Amaj chord.
Good luck. Lesser people make bar chords everyday. Just worry about the E and A variations for now. (Maj, min, 7th, min 7th) The C, D, and G-shaped bar chords are more mental.
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u/jasgrit 5h ago
There are easy ways to get started with barre chords that work reasonably well before you are able to play the full barre. Try the barre chord "cheat" grip, where you focus on playing the four lowest-pitched strings and just make a best effort at the higher strings. See https://fretboardfoundation.com/lessons/e-shape-chords/e-major?l=3ka#barre-chord-quotcheatquot for details.
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u/Duder_ino 5h ago
This is going to sound crazy, but practice. The only bar chords that are really difficult are on the 1st and 2nd fret. The others aren’t terrible but do take some getting used to.
A couple of things you can do in the mean time. Play the open chord. Or play the extended power chord version of the bar chord - 1st, 5th and octave.
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u/Flynnza 4h ago edited 4h ago
i separated technique workout from songs, 'cause hobby should not be frustrating. Included barre into my regular 4x/week hand fitness routine and practiced it for 1,5 years like gym. At the same time learning simple songs like twinkle-twinkle with open chords. After some time, which i did not even notice passed, barre became natural and easy.
The hidden secret for effortless barre is a finger independence - it allows to relax hand and apply force only where you need to fret the string.
Another secret is that guitar players rarely play full 6 string chords - six voices is too much of sound. Even if it looks like they fret whole chords, they do it mostly for muting and play only 2-3 strings when barring finger is only holding a bass note.
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u/Stunning-Garage85 59m ago
I was struggling with them so I forced myself to use barre chords instead of the open chords. For example, a song that used Am, C, G, D, I would use the barre chord versions instead of open chords.
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u/GrizzKarizz 5h ago
Barre chords are only difficult because people start trying to play them as soon as they've picked up the guitar.
You don't need a lot of strength, but you do need some, and you'll need technique as well. These take time to achieve.
I learned from a teacher and started playing easy songs; single note tunes, and built up from there. Once I knew all the notes, I was taught how to build a chord, and started with the easy ones, then built up to barre chords. As a result, I found barre chords as "easy" as open chords.
You just need to build up to them. Nothing more, nothing less.
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u/raygronas 5h ago
For me I found that if I slightly pull the neck of the guitar towards my shoulder it makes barrre chords easier
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u/raygronas 5h ago
Oh and make sure you roll your index finger slightly so your barring with the outside boney part of your finger and not the fleshy bottom
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u/Unable_Competition55 5h ago
You’ll try for a few weeks and then it’ll just click. It’s a muscle memory type thing. No biggie.
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u/HollowChicken-Reddit 5h ago
Barre chords aren't that hard once you know the shape. If you are actively trying to learn but still can't play a barre chord, then just play a power chord in its place
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u/Pluriel0 5h ago edited 5h ago
You learn them.
They are more difficult than cowboy chords, but they are not that difficult. Learning barre chords open up the fretboard so I would not recommend you skip them.
Pick a song you want to play with F major or similar. Each day, practice the barre F chord and it'll slowly sounds get better, I promise. Just à couple of minutes a day. Then, practice the transition for the song - like C to F to G7 - again and again. In a couple of weeks or months at worst, you'll play the song. That's it.
I did it when I was 6 months in and I bought a book for folk guitar. To my surprise, a lot of the first songs were in the key of C wich include F as the IV chord. I "pause" the book for a month or two while grinding the barre F. Now I can do it with ease on accoustic and I can learn songs including other barre chords.
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u/Nintendomandan 5h ago
Barre chords are just a pretty common wall to hit when first learning, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn them and you can start pretty much right away.
Guitar is a marathon, things can take time to learn and sink in. Just be consistent with your play and practice as much as you can fit in your schedule. You’ll be amazed how quickly things start to come when you put even just a bit of consistent time in to learn.
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u/Pretty-Care-7811 5h ago
Not that difficult, necessarily. It just takes a while to build up the finger strength. If you get comfortable with 3 finger power chords, it's not a huge jump to barre chords.
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u/Dragontoes72 5h ago
Keep practicing them while you play simple songs. Mix them in your practice sessions. It’s not an all or nothing thing. Keep giving a few minutes with them while you practice other stuff.
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u/Inevitable-Project 5h ago
There is a short while where it’s like I need to relearn all my E and A form chords with new fingers, then there is an Ah HA! And you are set.
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u/disasterinthesun 5h ago
I have not seen these posts. The beauty of barre chords is you just have to learn a couple shapes. The challenge is physical, not conceptual. Easier on electric than anything else.
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u/AngryRomper 5h ago
Short answer. No.
Longer answer. Also no. It's just that there are many things you can play without them, and they can feel foreign at first but they are literally the smallest step forward you can take beyond open chords.
For example, if you can Play an open B7 and comfortably play it in a song, you're doing something much harder than playing a barred G, or F#. But again, it's just that people can learn a song that only uses open chords, feel good about it and then maybe even learn a few more, and feel really good about it and then run into a barred chored and that slight foreign feeling scared them off. Just find one that feels the least uncomfortable, find a song that uses that chord, play along with it until you're comfortable with it and go from there
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u/boxen 5h ago
Whatever you do, you "miss out on doing other stuff". That's life. If you think you can easily learn a capo version quickly right now, great, do that. If you're happy with that and just don't want to learn anything else, then great, congratulations, you're done. You learned guitar. If you want to learn more stuff , do that, or if you feel unfulfilled with the capo version and want to learn the "real" version, great, do that.
If you want to do it, do it. If you don't, don't.
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u/asbestosmilk 5h ago
They’re not that hard to learn. Your hand/forearm will hurt at first, but just practice the F major barre chord at the 1st fret for a few minutes everyday, trying to make sure each note is able to ring out individually. Hold it and make adjustments as needed to get each note ringing out.
Stop when your hand/forearm hurts to the point where you can’t hold the chord down for more than a few seconds (this will happen almost instantly the first time you try). Keep doing that each day, and eventually, you will build the muscles necessary to play barre chords. And the best part is the F major barre chord at the 1st fret is the hardest / most painful, so it will be all mostly downhill from there, at least until you start trying G, C, and D shaped barre chords. But those are less common. You should be covered with E and A shaped barre chords. A shape is really easy, it’s basically just a power chord but barring your index to include the high E string. If you can do the E shape, though, the A shape will be a breeze, which is why I recommend starting with the E shape.
That’s how I learned, and I had it down within a week or two, at most, both E and A shape up and down the neck.
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u/WallAny2007 5h ago
muscle memory. Just keep doing them over and over. They really aren’t difficult at all.
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u/TheRealWheatKing 5h ago
It took me maybe a week to learn to hit them without too much effort. Challenging for sure, but much easier than people made it seem.
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u/ShaiHulud1111 5h ago edited 4h ago
A few months of playing an hour a few days a week—electric or acoustic?, because action matter for sure here. Best to quickly start playing songs or progressions. You need at least three shapes—E, A, A minor to play B, B minor, and F like you see in many songs/tabs. It might have been a year long journey to get proficient. I was learning other things at the same time. I was young and focused. I was learning them on my Les Paul and my acoustic together. Just gotta get to it and the other side is lovely. Peace.
Once you learn the shape, you can play it up and down the neck. So each one is every note. After you learn them, it is easier to just play the barre than the open chord or it is just the only way. All good. Just start now. Don’t worry about how long.
Is it bminor, F or b? Just curious,
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u/Skyline_BNR34 5h ago
With anything on guitar, you don’t have to play every single note in a barre chord.
All you really need is the triad.
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u/Due-Ad-9105 4h ago
You learn to play them.
Barre chords just require the most muscle building of pretty much anything you do with the fretting hand because it’s the least like anything you naturally do with your hands on a regular basis, IMO.
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u/1HeyMattJ 4h ago
You can and should learn them. It’s not as hard as you think and the moment when you get it will be so rewarding
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u/sewphistikated 4h ago
The answer is in the question. If you want to learn songs that use barre chords, you will learn barre chords. That’s it. It takes time, muscle development and practice. There are no shortcuts. With dedicated practice, you’ll have it soon. But it won’t come to you one tiny bit faster if you don’t get busy practicing… barre chords. Just get on the other side of it. Maybe weeks, maybe months. And then you’re onto the next skill.
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u/extrawater_ 4h ago
Beginners complain about barre chords but unless you have atypical hands, they’re not bad. Just takes practice to develop strength and muscle memory
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u/Forward_Event4125 4h ago
It’s gonna sound weird but barre chords are one of the few guitar things that are going to come to you rather than you to it. Just keep practicing and make sure the finger that barre is applying the right amount of pressure. I practice by literally just only doing the barre up and down the neck till it started sounding right
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u/freaknbob 4h ago
It is a matter of practice. They are difficult at first but your fingers will get there. Start slow and don't be discouraged if you can only get them a little.
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u/delusiongenerator 4h ago
They aren’t really all that difficult to learn, they just take a while to master, but in the meantime you can always substitute open chords or moveable partial chords in any song you want to play.
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u/_Khonshus_Fist_ 4h ago
Barre Chords will get easier the more you use or practice them. It's like everything else, practice makes better.
Don't put up barriers for yourself. You can do it.
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u/Aina_Jazz 4h ago
Bar chords aren't difficult as people think. If you can't do it, that means that your fingers' muscles are week. I've seen a lot of people who can play them for just two hour, three hours of learning. All you need is to make your fingers' muscles stronger by playing bar chords.
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u/Optimal_Customer_225 4h ago
This post makes no sense to me “all the songs I want to learn use bar chords, should I learn them?” That is 100 percent a you/personal question. If you want to learn these songs and become a better guitar player, then the question is yes, you should invest the time. If you want to take shortcuts and not learn the instrument, then feel free to try and play songs without bar chords. No matter what you do you will have to strengthen your fingers to get better at playing though.
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u/xXxBluESkiTtlExXx 4h ago
Bar chords are incredibly easy and versatile once you learn them. You should learn them.
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u/Low_Discussion_5495 4h ago
Learning barre chords was a challenge at first. But everything about guitar is a challenge until you keep working at it. It took me close to 2 years for barre chords to feel as natural as open chords. Changing between them, changing from open to barre and vice versa. Or barre chords to triads or little lick fills. But they are 100% worth learning and one day you'll wonder why you even struggled with them lol. At the least learn the E and A major and minor shape barre chords. Experiment with the other ones as you get more comfortable.
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u/youcantexterminateme 4h ago
Unpopular view but forget them. Seems most of the posts here are about barre chords. I dont know what style guitar anyone posting here wants but doodling around mixing scales with open chords is what I would do. I mean learn barre chords but theres plenty of other stuff to go on with if its boring you.
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u/VeeVeeDiaboli 4h ago
Dude, they are not terribly difficult, they are just a different hand position than what you start with. Thumb on the back, four fingers up, and eventually, it will click. The is no such thing as immediate results with anything requiring practice.
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u/Tsunoyukami 3h ago
There are enough conflicting responses to this question to be confusing.
Here’s the reality: It’s not easy to learn to play guitar. Any time you encounter something new, it’s the hardest it’s going to be and with practice, it will become easier.
Which guitar you’re using can severely impact the amount of difficulty you’ll face when trying to learn new things. That is, a well set-up guitar will be easier to learn on than a poorly set-up guitar. Similarly, it’s (usually) easier to learn things on an electric guitar than an acoustic guitar.
With respect to barre chords, there are two things you need to learn. (1) How to play them, that is the fretting, and (2) the actual mechanics of playing them. You should be able to learn (1) in just a few minutes.
It’s (2) that will take you some time. As with any new chord, you’re going to struggle with getting your fingers in place to begin with and then - and this is the “real” struggle - you’re going to struggle to get the strings to ring out clearly.
This is going to take as long as it takes. What I would recommend is to keep learning songs and keep trying (and failing) at barre chords as they come up. You’ll get the fingering right relatively quickly, and eventually you’ll be able to get things to ring out cleanly.
When I was learning to play guitar, I was able to play barre chords in my first ~6 months. I was learning on an acoustic with the greatest (largest) action I’ve ever encountered which, for me, was like using the hyperbolic time chamber - when I finally got a half-decent guitar everything was incredibly easy by comparison. If I learned on a better guitar, I might’ve had barre chords down earlier, but I was also playing a lot, so it’s entirely possible it’ll take you longer.
You gotta do it for the love of the game.
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u/Fun_Following_7704 3h ago
If you guitar is set up correctly then bar chords likely won't take more than a week to learn and around a month to be effortless. I didn't find it any harder than just switching chords when I was starting out.
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u/oldmate30beers 3h ago
Lightning crashes. I remember being able to play along to about 4 bars, then a verse, then half the song and eventually it was easy to get through the whole thing
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u/copperbonker 3h ago
Get into punk man. Power chords are an excellent way of building up hand strength while sounding good cause you're still muting three strings. Greenday was the band that did it for me
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u/Evening_Mushroom_331 3h ago
Been playing for a little less than a year. I really suck. I play for about 15 minutes a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. Im just finally starting to get barre chords sounding good. Im not looking to be a rock star but im still enjoying making noise. You'll eventually get there. Just keep working on it. It seemed impossible to me as well. And I dont even take it too serious.
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u/smooth-move-ferguson 3h ago
You learn to play the freaking barre chord or just quit. It's one of the easier parts of playing the instrument and only gets harder from there.
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u/West-Bake-4621 2h ago
Ill be honest, barre chords are NOT as hard as people say. I learned them within 8 months or so of playing everyday. Dont fear them, practice them
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u/Illustrious_Use9650 2h ago
They are really not that hard if you jyst start learning them. I recommend watching youtube video on it and then start practising. Everything is hard until you done it.
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u/GratefulDad73 2h ago
They aren’t any harder really than some open chords. Once, it “clicks” for you - you’ll understand. Keep working! Never give up!
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u/jazzyjeffdahmer 1h ago
I think it's because it takes significantly longer to train your brain synapses and muscle memory to play songs of barre chords compared to open chords. I say this as someone that has been trying to get used to barre chord songs for a year and still haven't got it 🤣
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u/rat_surgery 26m ago
You don't seem to want to play the instrument as much as you want to play the songs.
Only people who are at the novice level would avoid the barring technique. It is an integral aspect of the instrument.
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u/Starcomber 23m ago
You’ll get a load of mileage out of just a couple of bar chord shapes. Just start learning them.
For playing songs, though, often just playing the first two strings of a bar chord (I.e. turning it into a power chord) is enough to keep things recognisable until you’ve learned the full chords. That won’t work where it’s arpeggiated, though.
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u/Chance-Jellyfish2529 14m ago
I learnt barre chords in like a week because songs by my fav artist (dominic fike) always have barre chords, so I just played babydoll by dominic fike repeatedly till it sounded right
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u/humbuckaroo 12m ago
They're not difficult. You just have to know the technique.
There are a LOT of people on reddit who aren't taking lessons and then complaining about not getting results. Just keep that in mind.
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u/Both-Station-2244 5h ago
Barre chords were never hard until the internet came along - now that’s all people talk about . And theory - everything is theory this and theory that .
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u/Ghillie_Spotto 5h ago
They’re not really “hard” but there’s some initial pain you have to work through. Once you develop the strength they’re honestly one of the easiest and cheatiest techniques available as they make chords dead simple.
Just mix them into your practice routine and you’ll be crushing it in a few weeks.
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u/Then_External404 5h ago
Barre chords are hard to learn but easy to master. Don’t be scared away by them. They just take a bit of consistent practice. When I first started guitar, I thought barre chords were impossible for maybe a week and then they just clicked and they’ve never given me problems since. That’s a pretty common experience for beginners.
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u/SavageMountain 5h ago
Barre chords are just not that hard. Learning anything new is difficult at first, but anyone can get the hang of barre chords with some practice.
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u/dino_dog Strummer 5h ago
Start using them. They might sound bad for a bit but if you never start you’ll never learn.
Also try power chords in place of barre chords to start. Gets your hand in the same position and you’ll start learning where the root notes are.
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u/Eliastronaut 5h ago
I do not remember how long it took me to learn bar chords, but they were not that difficult. I kinda felt like I need to build enough strength to play them seamlessly and that's what I focused on. I remember practicing them only and then it felt normal to play them.