Advanced Lead Guitar Techniques - The Barre Chord

Jun 23
07:37

2009

Ricky Sharples

Ricky Sharples

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The barre chord marks the division between a guitar player and a guy who just fools around with the guitar. This essay gives you some essential information you will need to make learning this first advanced guitar technique relatively painless.

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If you have been playing the guitar for a long time but have never tried any advanced lead guitar techniques maybe you still have a yearning to increase your guitar know-how. Learning more advanced lead guitar can widen your horizons as a musician. The first thing you need to do is find out what techniques lead guitar players use to make the music that impresses the audiences.

Before you get stuck into string skipping and intricate tapping,Advanced Lead Guitar Techniques - The Barre Chord Articles make sure you have the basics in your fingers. By basics I mean stuff like barre chords. There are two kinds of barre chord: the half barre and the full barre. The half barre does not necessarily only barre three strings - it could be two, three, four or five - it's just a name. The full barre, however does cover all six strings.

Barre chords are used in all kinds of guitar music and you might be wondering why I have counted it as an advanced technique for lead guitar players. The barre chord is probably the most challenging guitar technique because it asks you to exert some physical force, release that force and then exert the force again. This applying and releasing pressure is controlled by muscle memory after we have practiced barre chords for a while but if we learn how to use patience and repetition in learning how to play barre chords, this experience will help you as you learn more advanced lead guitar techniques.

The key to effective barre chord technique is holding the first finger of your fretting hand straight without allowing it to curve. You place it lightly across the strings and gradually allow it to assume a straight position rather than forcibly making it straight before it even touches the fretboard. The same with finding the amount of pressure you need to use to play a clean barre chord. Just ease the pressure on, allowing yourself to hear the muffled strings as you strum. As your left hand gradually finds the correct amount of force to use, the strings will play clean notes.

So patience and repetition are two qualities that all guitarists, lead guitar players or not, need to develop. There is no guitar technique that cannot be brought to that effortless playing that we all admire when we watch an accomplished guitarist. If you ask a professional guitar player about the boring and tedious kind of practice we need to advance our lead guitar technique he will tell you that all guitarists have faced it and continue to renew their efforts every day.