Beyond Finger Strength: Rethinking the Barre in Tárrega’s Lágrima m. 5 

Every beginner struggles with barre chords, but even intermediate students often find barre and half-barre chords above the VII position challenging. Most teachers don’t explain why a previously-easy barre becomes difficult higher up the fretboard. Some simply say “Press Harder.” Others suggest using the arm’s weight. Neither is sufficient guidance.

Lacking instruction, many students revert to "The Clamp" technique, common among beginners and steel-string guitarists, they simply applying maximum pressure with thumb and fingers. This creates immense hand tension, making fluid and accurate finger movements with 2, 3, and 4 nearly impossible. This approach fails in intermediate classical guitar repertoire like Lágrima, where fingers are always in motion.

Why High-Position Barres Fail

One of the most consequential technical improvements for guitarists is learning to use the dead weight of their arm (letting it hang naturally to provide additional pressure) to assist in playing notes. While useful in all situations, it is most beneficial in barre chords. Without it, students clench their thumb to clamp down, immobilizing all of their fingers. By replacing clamp pressure with dead-weight pressure, muscle tension shifts from the finger muscles to the larger muscles of the arm and shoulder, allowing every finger muscle to move more freely.

Achieving this is much easier in classical guitar posture (with the headstock at about eye level) than in steel-string guitar posture (with the neck almost parallel to the ground, the headstock in the ribcage area). This is simply because the higher the hand position (relative to the body), the more of the arm's weight can hang from it. With a classical guitar barre in the lower positions (V position and lower), the hand is about at shoulder height, and the dead weight of the arm is supported by both the hand (via the fretboard) and the shoulder.

However, as the hand moves to higher positions and approaches your lap, the amount of dead weight the arm can carry decreases dramatically. As you go into higher and higher positions, the forearm becomes almost parallel to the ground. As this happens, the hand can no longer support the weight of the arm (because it is no longer above the arm).

Consequently, the support of the arm's weight is shifted almost entirely to the shoulder. Even something as subtle as a half-barre (in lower positions) drops the left hand about 1 inch, moves the elbow back, and transfers weight into the shoulder (which is part of why half-barres are difficult).

Lágrima m. 5 into 6 presents high-position half-barres that require finger independence. With practice, you’ll play them comfortably by replacing lost dead weight with stability from other sources.

How To Replace Lost Dead Weight in High Position Barre Chords

To play high barre chords like those in Lágrima m. 5 without tension, you can replace lost dead weight with upper arm and shoulder stability generate with a small amount of tension in the shoulder muscles. Rather than clenching the thumb and finger, try to gently engage the upper arm and shoulder. If you shift your mental framework to imagine using the upper back and the fingers as the clamping muscles (rather than fingers and thumb), you'll find it easier to create a stable platform. Using these larger shoulder muscles transfers the tension out of the small muscles of your hand, allowing your 1 finger and thumb to do less work and giving 2, 3, and 4 the freedom to move confidently across the strings.

Maximizing Legato in Position Shifts Using Transitional Guide Fingers

In my technical guide for Lágrima, I utilize the 3rd finger as a ‘Transitional Guide Finger’ to help smooth the shift from IX to VII position. Because the 3rd finger is unused during the 9th-fret barre but is required immediately on landing the 7th-fret barre, we can prepare it by tucking it behind the 4th finger on the string prior to the shift. This is indicated above with the grey D natural note (which is not played). 

Like standard guide fingers, this creates a physical ‘rail’ or track to shift on. By doing this, you maintain constant contact with the guitar, dramatically increasing the accuracy and speed of shifts, thus maximizing legato.

Mastering m. 5 in LÁgrima

Harnessing the muscles of your shoulder and arm for barre and employing your 3rd finger as a transitional guide are two empowering techniques. With these, you will keep the legato in m. 5 and better capture the emotional essence of this beautiful piece.

Apply these concepts in your next practice session and explore how they enhance your entire repertoire.

To help you truly master Lágrima, I’ve done a deep dive and am currently working on a suite of educational resources to support your journey. You can download my free Performance and Performance+TAB scores below.