Every beginner hits the same wall, and it’s usually called B♭ or E. These are barre chords — chords where one finger has to press more than one string at once — and they feel impossible right up until the day they don’t. The good news: there are only a couple to learn, the technique is the same for all of them, and once you can barre cleanly you unlock a whole row of chords by simply sliding the same shape up the neck. Let’s take the fear out of the two that trip everyone.
Most beginner chords use one fingertip per note. A barre is different: you lay one finger — almost always the index — flat across two or more strings at the same fret, so it presses them all together like a second nut. Your other fingers then add the remaining notes on top. That’s the only new idea on this page. It feels awkward because the side of a flat finger isn’t as strong as a fingertip, but a few minutes a day fixes that quickly.
Tune up first. A barre chord that buzzes is often just an out-of-tune string fooling you into pressing harder. Get the four strings right before you blame your finger.
Each diagram is a little map of the top of the fretboard. The four columns are the strings, left to right: g–C–E–A (the same order you strum). The thick line at the top is the nut; each row down is the next fret. A dot means “press here”, a long bar means “one finger flat across these strings”, an ○ above a string means play it open, and an ✕ means don’t play it. The numbers below are the shape written out as frets, g to A.
B-flat (also written B♭) is the chord that teaches everyone to barre, so it’s worth meeting first. The index finger lies flat across the bottom two strings at the first fret, then two fingers stack above it:
The gold dot is the root note, B♭. The bar is your flat index finger.
Finger by finger:
Here’s the payoff that makes barre chords worth the effort. Because the B♭ shape doesn’t use any open strings, the whole thing holds together as a unit — so you can slide it up the neck and it stays a chord, just a higher one. Move the entire 3·2·1·1 shape up one fret and it becomes B; up another and it’s C; and so on, one half-step per fret:
| Slide the B♭ shape to… | g | C | E | A | You get |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st position | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | B♭ |
| up 1 fret | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | B |
| up 2 frets | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | C |
| up 3 frets | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | C♯/D♭ |
| up 4 frets | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | D |
So learning to barre once isn’t learning one chord — it’s quietly learning a whole row of them. That’s why guitarists and ukulele players obsess over getting a clean barre: it’s the key that opens the rest of the neck. (Want to do this from any chord without counting frets? The app’s chord tools include a transposer that shifts a whole song into a new key for you.)
If B♭ is the first barre, E major is the chord with the worst reputation on the whole instrument. The notes (E, G♯, B) sit in an unfriendly spot, and there’s no single “easy” version — just trade-offs. Here are the two most common shapes; try both and keep whichever your hand dislikes less.
The official shape (4·4·4·2) asks for three fingers crammed onto the 4th fret of the g, C and E strings, with the A string at the 2nd. It sounds full but feels cramped. The neat trick: instead of three fingers, barre the g–C–E strings at the 4th fret with one finger (your ring or index) and add the A string at the 2nd with another — turning E into a small barre chord too.
The stretch shape (1·4·0·2) trades the cramp for a long reach: index on the g string 1st fret, pinky stretching up to the C string 4th fret, the E string left open, and middle on the A string 2nd fret. Many smaller hands prefer this one. Neither is “cheating” — they’re the same chord, and even pros pick by feel.
A buzzing barre is almost never about strength — it’s about where and how you press. Five fixes, in order of how often they’re the culprit:
It will feel impossible, then suddenly won’t. Barre chords are a strength-and-shape skill that builds over days, not minutes. Two minutes of clean B♭ a day beats twenty minutes of frustrated squeezing once a week.
Once B♭ and E feel possible, these are the next barre shapes that turn up in real songs. The numbers read g–C–E–A, and remember the B♭ shape simply slides:
| Chord | Shape (g·C·E·A) | The barre |
|---|---|---|
| B♭ | 3 2 1 1 | index across E&A, fret 1 |
| B | 4 3 2 2 | index across E&A, fret 2 |
| E♭ | 3 3 3 1 | index across g·C·E, fret 3 |
| E | 4 4 4 2 | barre g·C·E, fret 4 |
| C | 5 4 3 3 | B♭ shape, slid up to fret 3 |
See the pattern? B♭, B and C are the same shape at different heights. That’s the whole secret of barre chords: learn the move once, then just choose where on the neck to put it.
Practise them in real songs. A barre chord drilled on its own is dull; a barre chord inside a song you like sticks. Load a four-chord progression with one barre in it, or strum along in the app, and let the music do the reps for you.
Keep your chord chart handy, stay in tune, and drop your new barre chords into a progression — that’s where the practice turns into playing.