Lauren Bateman advises that absolute beginner guitar students should not start with barre (barre) chords because they require hand strength and comfort with the instrument; instead she teaches simple open chords so beginners can play songs quickly and enjoy learning. She acknowledges barre chords are useful later but recommends delaying them to avoid frustration.
Beginner guitar players should not learn bar chords. I had a student who came into my studio. She'd been taking lessons from another teacher for maybe about three months. I opened up her notes to see what she was working on. It was all theory. It was all bar chords. I said, what have you been able to play? And she's like, nothing. And I was like, I know, because bar chords are very, very hard for beginners. I said, let me show you these other four chords. Very, very simple chords, and we're gonna learn to play a song today. And her first lesson, I got her playing a song, which was much more than her other teacher got her doing, trying to force her to learn music theory and play bar chords. Now, down the road, are barre chords very, very helpful, very useful. Absolutely. I love barre chords. But for absolute beginners and beginner students, they don't quite have the comfort for the instrument or the strength in their hands to actually be able to play barre chords. So that's why I teach my students open chords. In the beginning, we can play thousands of songs with some simple open chords. And I'd rather you have fun on the guitar than get frustrated.
