There are two areas that need to be worked on when you learn barre chords on the acoustic guitar. First, there is the strength in your left hand. If you have a hard time exerting the necessary pressure to make a barre chord like the F Major at the first fret, it means you are going to need fairly frequent practice in order to get your muscles up to scratch. It’s no big deal, if you feel that you need to work directly on building up strength, then get some kind of exercise tool. You can buy various gizmos for improving grip and dexterity but I really think you are better off just practicing your barre chords.

The other area you need to give some attention to is forming the correct habits in your muscles so that your hands are playing the chords correctly and with the least amount of tension. This is often referred to as muscle memory. The basic idea is that every time you make a movement, your brain records it, and as you practice this movement, your body becomes more ready to set the necessary patterns of tension and relaxation into motion without your mind even thinking about it. This is how we learn all the muscular tasks we need to walk, type, swim, drive a car or play a guitar.

When you first pick up your guitar, play some barre chords until it gets to be really uncomfortable. Keep going till it hurts. Then, take a rest by playing some open chords. Let your hand rest for a bit, and then do more barre chords. Remember you can get some variety in your barre chord practice by changing between the basic chord shapes.

If you are a raw beginner on acoustic guitar at the moment, you should start on your barre chords now. You will not be actually using them at this stage in your playing but if you start working on developing the strength and muscular habits you need, you won’t need to make a big effort later.

Playing any sequence of strings on the guitar can be defined as an arpeggio but let’s stick to convention and start with the root note. With your left hand, make a C major chord shape in the first position. The root note is C on the third fret of the fifth string, fretted by the third finger of the left hand, and it’s the lowest note on this arpeggio.

The other notes of this finger picking pattern are E played at the second fret of the fourth string using the second finger of the left hand, the open third, or G string, and the highest note is C played at the first fret of the second string fretted by the first finger of the left hand. On the scale the notes are the first, third and fifth steps.

The main point I want to make in this finger picking lesson is that by far the best approach to playing arpeggios on the guitar is to place the fingers of the right hand on the strings they are about to play. Holding the C chord, you place your right hand thumb resting on the fifth string and the first finger lightly placed under the second string ready to play an up stroke when it is needed.

Now play the low C with your thumb, then the thumb drops to the E, continues on to play a down stroke, drops again to play the open G string, and continues down as if it was going to strum the second string but instead you then start an upward motion on the high C with the first finger. Make it an even, natural rolling motion with the thumb dropping from the fifth to the fourth string followed by an up stroke of the first finger on the second string.

Another way to play this arpeggio is to place the thumb on the fifth string and the first finger under the third string and the second finger under the second string as though you were going to pluck those three strings. Then move the thumb down the fifth and fourth strings and the first finger plays its up stroke on the third string and the first finger plays the second string as before.

Another alternative I want to point out in this finger picking lesson is to make a different first position C major shape by using the pinky of the left hand to fret the C note on the fifth string, leaving your third finger free to fret the G note at the third fret of the sixth string. The other notes are fretted as the first arpeggio. Then you add the open E, or first, string. Now you have an arpeggio of all six strings playing the notes G, C, E, G, C E.

Maybe you would be interested in expanding your knowledge of the guitar by learning how to read guitar sheet music or freshen up your expertise on guitar chords for beginners