From the French term barré or bar. The technique of placing the left hand index finger over two to six strings in the fingering of a chord. A barre may be qualified by numbers such as 3/6 or 2/6 indicating number of strings barred. Barre chords in popular guitar nomenclature refer to a 6/6 barre that can move the open position chords anywhere on the fretboard thereby changing their letter names but not their type, very similar to a capo. Barre chords are often technically difficult for the beginning player and are typically mastered by the intermediate player.
