Don't Kill Your Hand With Barre Chords! Here's How to Play Them the Right Way

Some ukulele chords require you to "barre" an entire fret - that is, to use your (index) finger to cover all the strings of a certain fret. Learning to properly play these chords is probably one of the hardest things for beginning ukulele players who feel they have to press down very hard and just end up with tired, cramped hands.

If you've been having trouble with chords like Bm, D7, or C#m, and you feel like the bare minimum amount of pressure needed to sound the chord is still a lot, here are a few tips that will help, even if you've been playing for many years:

1. Make sure your wrist is straight and the heel of your palm is not touching the neck.

2. Be sure your thumb is near the middle of the back of the neck of the ukulele and under the fret you're barring. Use your thumb as the fulcrum of pressure opposite the barring finger.

3. Most importantly: You DON'T have to press excessively hard. Simply relax your arm and shoulder and just "hang" from the ukulele (while holding whatever chord). Let gravity help you apply enough pressure to the strings to get them to ring out properly.

If you do this third step, the first two will happen practically automatically. You'll find the hanging concept will release all the tension from your shoulders and is something you should continually keep in mind. You should never have to apply so much pressure that you feel like you have to squeeze your fingers together like a vise in order to make the chord sound.

Now there's no need to avoid all those chords!