Customer Reviews

Guitar Barre

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this device ten years ago because although I play guitar, I found the traditional tuning awkward when using the guitar as a demo instrument in my early childhood music classes. Now I can tune the guitar into D major and have the children strum the guitar while Mom or Dad use the guitar barre to change chords. The parents are thrilled, especially those convinced they will never be able to play an instrument or sing in tune. Suddenly there they are sitting with their child and a guitar on their lap singing and playing music together. What could be better?

We start with "Row your Boat" and the children strum with no chord change. Then I teach the parents the one change. From there we add other familiar songs. I also have parents bring in those out of tune guitars they bought for christmas and I tune them to D major show them my guitar barre. Even the parents that go to lessons like the idea of this flexibility.

So to a serious, professional musician with their noses in the air it IS ridiculous....but to the multitude that just want to strum and sing its rather nice.

I ordered the Guitar Barre. When I first got it, even though I can understand pretty much figure things out on my own. This item, came with directions and 2 bars that hold down the frets. One is a soft hollow rfubber like tube, and the other bar is a soild plastic(hard plastic,durable)unit. Which both can be exchanged from one to the other. The hand unit can fit easily on your or anyones hand VIA velcro straps. I personally use open tunings often, and this unit has made playing my style much more easier to play. No more cramped finger or sore finger. If you like to utilize the open chord tunings, then this is a great tool for playing without the strain. The construction is good and I predict that from my past week playing with it, I really enjoy playing my guitar agian(in open chord tuning). The owner and inventer, personally answers the information and calls for questions. And the feature that is best is the fact that you can fret a open chord or use the hard bar and do slide action. If you are like me and use open tunings often, then this is practicly the only unit I saw on the market that can do the job comfortablely and right. It was worth evey penny and I just might order a second, so incase I may loose my current one. This is a great item for the muscians utlity pouch.

Don't pay any attention to the negative reviews here. The Guitar Barre works, and it doesn't hinder you at all if you want to play the traditional way as well. Dick Bozung is for me a hero. This method of playing the guitar with the "Guitar Barre" that he invented (instructional book "A New and Easy Beginning Guitar Method for Everyone," video, and songbooks available separately or with a package, cf. www.guitarsimplified.com) and C open tuning works beautifully. Even an absolute beginner (like me) can start playing a wide range songs of songs immediately. It is astounding to me that this technique has not received more attention. It's the perfect way to introduce people -- both children and adults -- to the guitar and music in general. If you just want to play to accompany yourself singing, it's perfect. It's a wonderful product -- both the Barre itself and the method, and I highly recommend it.

For someone who really wants to play guitar and not worry about making all those tough chords this is the answer...I play a dobro and this is the perfect way that I could play a guitar...and you can even fake some pretty nice lead!

most useless piece of musical equipment i've ever seen. as marketed to the new guitarist.... you will never learn how to play guitar if you rely on this product to do the work for you, you will form a crutch and it will hinder you more than it will help you. besides, new guitarists should concentrate on standard tunings. only use open tunings when you are familiar with how to make the regular major and minor chords.
as marketed to the guitarist who is apt and uses as a tool.... dude, just use a $2 slide. you can do the exact same stuff with it, while leaving the rest of your fingers free to add hamerons, runs, individual notes, and the like.
take it from me, i've played guitar for 15 years, and more importantly, i used to sell items like this from the accessories counter at a major guitar dealer. (trust me, you've heard of them). This is useless, buy a brass (or glass, or ceramic if you are in to that) jim dunlop slide for a fraction of the money and bag space. plus, your other musician friends wont laugh at you.

I was searching around for a new capo when I came across this product. What exactly is this for? I mean, I understand the concept and everything behind it, but this product strikes me as pointless. We all already have one of these devices attached to our hand: it's our first finger (index finger).

For reference, for the beginners, playing the guitar in standard tuning (EADGBe), you'll normally use your index finger to barre the neck (put your index finger across all the strings and push down) and then use the rest of your fingers (middle, ring and pinky) to form the chord using one of the chord structures. The actual chord played will depend on where you place the chord on the neck of the guitar. Playing an E-structure barre chord on the third fret will give you a G, on the fifth fret an A. With open tunings, you're also able to just strum the guitar open (no strings pushed down) and play a note, which also means you're able to just barre the neck anywhere on the fretboard and play that note.

I've read the other reviews on this product and I've given it some thought and I don't see how this product could not be a crutch. To learn to effectively play the instrument, at some point, you'll have to learn to play barre chords in the traditional manner as described above. It's hard. There are no two ways around it. Building the strength in your index finger to fret all of the strings at once is hard enough, but then you'll need to learn how to fret the other notes in the chord using your other fingers. Then, once you've finally got it and try to play it in a song, you realize that it takes you a good twenty seconds to actually change to a barre chord. It's a hard process to learn to proficiently play barre chords in a tune, but it's worth it. Once you learn the different structures, you can play any major, minor, seventh, etc., chord with ease and in different places on the neck to give your chords a different tone. Using this product, you wouldn't learn any of that. You wouldn't build the strength in your fingers as the pressure to push down the strings would be distributed across all four fingers. Worse yet you wouldn't learn the basics of chord structure, which would leave a great deal of guitar theory closed to you. To me, that would really be a shame.

This guitar barre product looks to be marketed to beginner guitarists, not because it would be a helpful tool to learn the guitar but because beginners wouldn't recognize the fact that this product is ultimately worthless. Please keep in mind that I've never tried this product before and I'm only basing my review on my knowledge of the guitar and music theory and years of playing the instrument. If you are a beginner, I would encourage you to use the internet as a resource and to concentrate on learning good basic technique in standard tuning first. Once you've got that down, then you can get into all of the funky tunings and techniques like two-hand tap, sweeps, slide guitar, e-bows, and all of the other funky techniques and accessories that make the guitar such a versatile instrument.

The method suggested by the creator of this product described is ridiculous. To "play" guitar in this fashion requires just a little more musicianship than it takes to "play" your ipod. Please.