Barre Chords

Typically reserved for the index finger, any finger can be barred across two or more strings when needed for some chord voicings. When using a barre in single-note melodic passages, solos, melodies it should be reserved for the index finger only as this allows you the use of your other fingers and not comprise your hand position. The exception would be for musical reasons, such as fast rhythmic double stop passages or the end of a phrase where you have time to recover.

A barre, allows you to transpose any open position chord to other keys/chords along the fingerboard by re-fingering the open position chord to allow finger one, the index finger free to play the open strings when transposed along the fingerboard.

Just What is a Barre Chord?

Barre, the old English spelling vs. bar which refers to a measure of music, is used to indicate a placing of a finger across two or more strings. If covering all four strings it's called a *full barre*, if fewer than four strings it’s a *partial barre*. This is a classical guitar technique used for guitar, ukulele, mandolin, and other fretted string instruments regardless of style. In classical guitar notation there are actual music symbols for indicating both a full barre, the letter C with option Roman numerals CVII for the fret position and a partial barre using a ¢VII with a line through it like a cent sign. Pretty rare for anything other than traditional classical guitar music notation.

Typically reserved for the index finger, any finger can be barred across two or more strings when needed for chord voicings. When a barre, used in single note melodic passages/solos it should be reserved for the index finger only as this allows you to still use the other fingers and not comprise your hand position. The exception would be for musical reasons such as fast rhythmic double stop passages or the end of phrases where you have time to recover.

A barre allows you to transpose any open position chord to other keys along the fingerboard by re-fingering the open position chord to allow finger one, the index finger, to be free. This allows transposition along the fingerboard to other keys. It is essentially a movable capo.

A, Bb Movable Form

A Major or just play A, the Canadian chord ( eh! )

Using the open position, A major chord as an example 2100. Re-finger the chord using fingers three and two. The actual chord hasn’t changed, but finger one is now available to play the two open strings when transposed to other frets (keys).

A few more of the A, Bb Movable Form chords.

Am

Am - pronounced A Minor - is one of the few open position chords that only require a single finger to play.

A little history about Am or A minor. It was discovered deep in the Kanawha & Hocking Coal and Coke Co. coal mine in Carbondale , West Virginia, USA by, wait for it… Am.

A7

A7 — pronounced A Seven — like Am is one of the few open position chords that only require a single finger to play.

Am7

Am7— pronounced A Minor Seven — is all open strings and then transposed to an additional key along the fingerboard requires a full barre of finger one.

Only a few of the open position chords, when transposed up the neck actually need a full barre across all four strings A7 0100 and C7 0001 are two that when transposed to Bb7 1211 and C#7 1112 need a full barre across all four strings. You can actually see it in the text notation that is common for notating chords in email and on-line.

Barre Chords are actually that simple.

Here are a few tips for playing the barre chords on a ukulele or any fretted string instrument.

• Don’t barre more strings that you need to. Although it’s pretty easy to press the strings down on a ukulele, there is no need to do more than you have to.
• Get a ukulele with a radius fingerboard. It really helps with playing chords in general. Pono ukuleles from Ko’olau Guitar and Ukulele are the only mass-produced ukuleles that I know of that have a radius fingerboard on a large percentage of their instruments - including all of their Pro Classic series. It is well worth it. The one other option is a custom instrument built to your specifications.
• For a barre with using the index finger, roll the finger slightly towards the nut, staying close to the fret. The side is the index finger is lot straighter than the palm side.