Easy Barre Chord Exercises

Now let's take a look at some exercises you can use to practice your barre chords chords with the metronome. There are 3 overall elements to this: the mechanics of fretting, the navigating and naming the barre chords, and finally switching between the different voicings.

Once again, the idea is to figure out which area you need to develop, then hone in on that. So I'm going to show you a bunch of different examples of exercises, and then you can come up with your own exercises that can help you improve something specific.

Because barre chords are physically demanding to play, we'll do a workout here where we press down the chord, then release, then press down again, and so on, using a minor barre chord shape.

We'll also call out the names of the chords, and shift between several combinations of barre chord voicings. Over time, you can increase the distance between chords, and shift at faster tempos.

Anders Mouridsen
Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Styles:
Rock
Difficulty:
Easy Barre Chord Exercises song notation

You need to be registered to ask our instructors a question.

Questions & Answers

For me the A shape barre chords are by far harder. I have really a hard time trying to press three string and make them sound decently with the ring finger. Should I try something else or stick with this excercise? 7 months ago
Josh Workman 7 months ago

Hi Alessandro, thank you for the question. Other than building up strength over time, you could also make sure that you are placing the fretting hand fingers as close to the actual metal fret as possible (less effort to press strings) and really supporting the grip with your thumb behind the neck, rather than wrapping around it. Try placing the thumb directly behind the index finger. This should give you the most support.