How To Teach Barre Chords To Guitar Students In 5 Steps

by Tom Hess

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Seeing guitar students (who pay good money for lessons and practice everything their teacher tells them to) who can’t play barre chords.

And by “play” I mean:

…fretting the chords cleanly (without any buzzing) and effortlessly (without feeling like your arm is going to fall off from pain).

In my opinion, there is zero excuse for any self-respecting guitar teacher to not know how to get his students to play barre chords. 

Especially, since there is a process that makes learning (and teaching) barre chords virtually foolproof.

A process I refined from teaching thousands of guitar players and coaching hundreds of guitar teachers how to teach guitar.

Here are the steps:
 

How To Teach Barre Chords To Your Guitar Students Step #1: Tell It Like It Is

First things first: Don’t sugarcoat reality.

Meaning:

Tell your guitar students barre chords are harder to play than basic open chords. And barre chords will take longer to learn and master.

Then tell the good news:

You have a process that has never failed to help guitarists (who used it) play barre chords well. And you are there for your students every step of the way to ensure their success.

Next, remind your students that once they learn barre chords, they’ll have the chops to play hundreds of their favorite songs all over the guitar.

So, the rewards will be worth the effort.

If you skip this step (many guitar teachers do), your guitar students will often get frustrated with barres, give up too soon and may even stop guitar lessons with you.

That’s especially true if you are teaching a student who doesn't handle adversity well.

Watch this video to see what I mean:
 

After you set proper expectations, get into the process with step 2 on how to teach barre chords:
 

How To Teach Barre Chords To Your Guitar Students Step #2: Buff Up Your Guitar Students’ Index Finger

Remind your guitar students the role of finger calluses.

The stronger their calluses are, the less pressure (force) they need to hold the string down. That’s because the fingertip becomes more dense and can hold notes down with less effort.

But when you (and your guitar students) start playing barre chords, the part of the finger doing the most work (the index finger barre) doesn't have any calluses yet.

The solution?

Tell your guitar students to grind their index finger up and down the strings (with the part they’ll use for the barre) for a few minutes per day.

“Grinding” (moving the finger up and down) builds calluses much faster than simple pressure does.

They can do this at home, while watching TV or while warming up. The more often they do it, the faster they’ll build the callus.
 

How To Teach Barre Chords To Your Guitar Students Step #3: Add A Twist To Familiar Open Chords

Tell your guitar students to play open chords (and change between open chords) without the index finger.

Remind them of all the same tips you already (should have) taught them about changing open chords:
 

 

Tip: Also remind your guitar students to relax their index finger as the other fingers do all the work.

Don’t let the index finger curl up like a coat hanger or fly away from the strings.

This step prepares your guitar students for…
 

How To Teach Barre Chords To Your Guitar Students Step #4: Play Barre Chords With Top 2 Strings Open

This step teaches your students to form the barre chord shape with their hand…

…without the challenge of putting the barre down to play full barre chords.

Here is a simple chord shape your students can play when you teach barre chords to them:
 

 

How To Teach Barre Chords To Your Guitar Students Step #5: Help Your Guitar Students Use Less Tension

Now your guitar students are ready to play full barre chords.

Remind them to:

1. Put the barre (index finger) down last (not first) in the chord.
    
2. Use the weight of their arm to push the chord down instead of finger pressure.

This reduces the stress on your thumb and helps your students still hear every note of the barre chord.

When your students do it right, their shoulder, biceps and triceps feel very relaxed and the chord sounds very clear.

Watch one of my top guitar students - Guitar Practice Expert Mike Philippov demonstrate how to teach barre chords this in detail:
 

There you have it. 5 simple steps to teach barre chords to guitar students.

For some of your guitar students, you may focus on one or two steps per lesson. For others – you may go through all 5 steps in the same lesson.

Either way: the sooner you teach barre chords to your guitar students with this process, the easier playing them becomes, the better you look in their eyes... and the more likely your guitar students will be to take lessons from you for a long time.

Want to know what else you can do to keep your guitar students studying with you longer? Download this free eGuide: How To Keep Your Guitar Students From Quitting and I’ll show you 5 ways to inspire your students to take lessons with your for years.

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