Barre chords, and when a capo replaces them

What a barre is

In an open chord, some strings are held down and the rest ring free. A barre chord holds down all six at once: the index finger lies flat across the whole fretboard and the other three fingers build a shape behind it. The flattened finger is doing the job the nut does on an open chord, which is why players describe it as a movable nut.

That is also its advantage. An open E is stuck at E, but the same shape with a barre behind it can be slid anywhere: barre at the first fret and it is an F, at the third a G, at the fifth an A. Two shapes learned properly — the E form and the A form — give you every major and minor chord there is, in all twelve keys, without learning anything else.

• F
• Bm
• B
• F♯m

Why it is hard, and what actually fixes it

Almost everyone's first instinct is that they are not squeezing hard enough. That is nearly always wrong, and squeezing harder is what produces the sore hand and the buzzing string at the same time.

Three things fix a buzzing barre, in order of how often they are the problem. First, position: the finger should sit just behind the fret wire, not in the middle of the fret space, where far more pressure is needed for the same result. Second, the finger itself — rolled very slightly onto its outer edge, the bony side, rather than flat on the soft pad, which has creases at exactly the wrong places. Third, the thumb, which belongs low and flat on the back of the neck, opposite the index finger, not hooked over the top.

If it still buzzes, check which string. It is nearly always the second or the third, and it is nearly always sitting under a knuckle crease, which is a position problem rather than a strength problem. Shift the finger a couple of millimetres along the fret and it clears.

The capo

A capo is a clamp that holds every string down at one fret. It does exactly what the barre finger does, permanently, and for a few euros. Put it at the second fret and the guitar is now, from that point up, an ordinary guitar tuned two semitones higher — every open shape you know still works and every one of them sounds two semitones above where it used to.

That is the trick. A song in F requires an F barre. But F is one semitone above E, so a capo at the first fret and an ordinary open E shape sound as an F. The song in B♭, D♭ or F♯ that looked like a wall of barre chords becomes a song in G, C or D — shapes a beginner learned in their first week.

• G
• C
• D
• Em

What the suggestion on a song page means

When a song page says capo fret 1 and lists a set of shapes, that is the result of a search, not a rule of thumb. Every fret from the first to the seventh is tried; for each one the whole chord list is transposed down by that many semitones, and the fret that leaves the greatest number of shapes as open chords wins.

If no fret improves on playing the song as written, nothing is suggested. And when the page says every shape becomes an open one, it means exactly that — the song is playable end to end with no barre at all.

One thing the capo does not change: the song still sounds where it always did. A capo shifts what your hands do, not what the listener hears. If you want the song itself to move — because it sits too high or too low for your voice — that is transposing, and the key is where to start.

Is using one cheating?

No, and the question is worth answering plainly because it stops a lot of people from using one. A capo is not a beginner's crutch — it is standard equipment, and a great many well-known recordings were made with one on, sometimes because the shapes are easier and just as often because open strings ringing in an unusual key is a sound you cannot get any other way.

The honest caveat is that a capo cannot replace the barre forever. Some songs need chords the capo cannot reach, and the barre is also the gateway to moving shapes around the neck deliberately. Use the capo to keep playing music today, and practise the F for five minutes a day alongside. It comes, and it comes suddenly.