In music, a barre chord (also spelled bar chord) is a type of chord on a guitar or other stringed instrument played by using one finger to press down multiple strings across a single fret of the fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strings).
Players often use this chording technique to play a chord that is not restricted by the tones of the guitar's open strings. For instance, if a guitar is tuned to regular concert pitch, with the open strings being E, A, D, G, B, E (from low to high), open chords must be based on one or more of these notes. To play an F♯ chord the guitarist may barre strings so that the chord root is F♯.
Most barre chords are "moveable" chords,[1] as the player can move the whole chord shape up and down the neck.[2] Commonly used in both popular and classical music, barre chords are frequently used in combination with "open" chords, where the guitar's open (unfretted) strings construct the chord. Playing a chord with the barre technique slightly affects tone quality. A closed, or fretted, note sounds slightly different from an open, unfretted, string. Barre chords are a distinctive part of the sound of pop music and rock music.
Using the barre technique, the guitarist can fret a familiar open chord shape, and then transpose, or raise, the chord a number of half-steps higher, similar to the use of a capo. For example, when the current chord is an E major and the next is an F♯ major, the guitarist barres the open E major up two frets (two semitones) from the open position to produce the barred F♯ major chord. Such chords are hard to play for beginners due to the pressing of multiple strings with a single finger. Mastering the barre can be one of the most difficult challenges that a beginner guitarist faces.