Rene Izquierdo Barre Exercise
This sample lesson from a masterclass at CGC Academy offers a Rene Izquierdo barre exercise.
Barre or Bar Chord
One of the more difficult left-hand techniques on the classical guitar is the infamous barre technique (or bar chords). A tendency for many players when first learning the barre technique is to apply too much pressure in the left hand, adding tension by squeezing with the thumb on the back of the neck. This then accumulates and eventually leaves the whole hand very tired. In a piece with many barres this can obviously create some problems!
Over at CGC Academy we’ve been treated recently to some great masterclasses on the Brouwer Estudios Sencillos with Cuban virtuoso guitarist Rene Izquierdo. In his lesson on the first estudio Rene offered a wonderful solution to the above problem with barres and we would like to share it with you — with many thanks to Rene.
How it works
Here’s how it works: play 1, 2, 3, 4 on successive frets on the third string. Now hold 2, 3, 4 down and place a barre with the first finger. Next, play 1, 2, 3, 4 again, but now with the barre. The goal here is to only press with the barre on the string you need to play, while you relax the rest of the first finger. This can really help you relieve tension in your barres.
Check it out below. (We’ve also created a score of the exercise for you to download / print out and follow along.)
Download the Score
You can download the score to follow along here:
Need classical guitar notes
Hi Somen, the link is right under the video!
Excellent suggestion! The bar needs to be free of tension. Now I have a good exercise to practice a more relaxed bar. Many thanks!
..oh, thank you all for this great job! I’ve tried it all unsuccesfully, let’s try this one since I am sure it will definitely help me out!!!
Just started trying this technique and already using a fraction of the force for a full barre. Corresponding tension and fatigue are way lower as well. Excellent and much appreciated!
Great exercise. I also teach my students to lightly pull the left arm back to give more strength to the bar.
Excellent suggestion! Thank you so much
That’s an interesting exercise — and he is right, I think . . . we often don’t need the barre for all the strings, only the critical ones for a short time. I am going to look at this in relation to Asturias, however — which is just a bear with the barre.
(btw >>> the grey background on this comment screen makes it kind of challenging to see that white letters as one is typing.)
Watched it. Didn’t understand it.
Hi Paul,
Could you say a bit about which part or parts were confusing? Or do you have specific questions about the barre I can help with?
The basic idea of the exercise is to learn to move in and out of the barre and pressing with minimal tension only to allow the strings to sound that you need the barre for. To facilitate that, we first need a good left-hand position with the fingers aligned and curled toward the fingerboard; and then we need to place the barre in such a way that we can hear the string (or strings, but we’re only focusing on one string at a time here) we want to hear with the barre. This is important because most of our barres, as Rene points out, are only covering some, not all, of the strings. By allowing our barre to press only to allow that one string to sound we can relieve a great deal of tension.
Thanks and best wishes.
Peace,
Dave B (CGC team)
[…] Rene Izquierdo Barre Exercise […]
This is a useful lesson and exercise, and makes good sense in the context of single-note playing. I wonder about barre practice for those occasions when full chord strumming or rasqueo is required? Is it back to the “old school” exercise for strength development? Or is there another way to think about (and practice for) this? Thanks.