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:

CGC Rene Izquierdo’s Barre Exercise