What's the hardest chord you ever encountered? (Page 4 of 6)

Play an F and slide it up to the 7th fret. just play 4 strings or 5 if you play the 3rd fret on the 3rd string.

It's not cheating. It's knowing your way around your fret board.

Jazz players will have learnt the E. Em, E7th. min7th, maj7th, e.t.c but think of it as a starting point for a progression. A I,IV,V (1 4 5 ) Could be E A B. Slide up to your 3rd fret it becomes G C D. but it is still a 1,4,5 progression.

Exactly.  I don't like the notion that somehow you're getting away with something because you know several ways to fret a chord.  It implies that there is only one "proper" voicing.

You *should* know several ways to fret a chord.  That should be a goal. It's not cheating, it's how you win. 

Thanks.

{notes down for future reference}

Anything that gets close to the guitar body....my big sausage fingers just wont fit....

I, like Zurf, had issues with the B chord until I was trying to learn the barre chords for some songs I am learning. I found that if I barred most of the chords the changes would be smoother. One day, while learning "Feel like making love" (Bad company) I mistakenly nailed the "D" barre. It is done the same way as the "B" but on the fifth fret. I then slid down to a "C" (done the same way) and, naturally, to the "B" (The song does not use the "B" but I had to try it).

On the barre "D" I barre the fifth fret and lay the side of my ring finger down on the "D","G" and "B" strings of the seventh fret. Now when I play "Beer For My Horses" or " I Love this Bar" I can play both songs with just barre chords and they flow much better. It is also very easy to go from a barre "A" to the "D" just by laying the ring finger down and lifting the pinky and ring fingers.

I'm still working on B chords, but, since I am a stubborn son of a gun.  I'll keep working at it!

I hate the Fchord. Thats all i am saying on that one.

The B and F chords but got them down ok now. George Harrison has some strange chords look at some of his songs.

If you know how to shape the E chord you can slide right down to the F. Remember not to use your index finger on the E,  then slide down to the F position and lay the index finger down to make the barre. Stay in that shape  slide down to the second fret and you get an Fm. Keep the shape and slide down to the third fret and you get a G. Fifth fret is an A and so on...Once you know a shape of a barre you can just slide up and down the fret board to get the notes you want. You can do the same thing with the Am chord shape and barre your way down the fret board that way.

Once you get comfortable with the barre's you will find it much easier to use the barres no matter what position the chord is. After you learn a song in open chords learn how to play it with barre chords. The sound is different enough that if you have another player doing opens you can barre and get a good harmony type sound going.

The hardest thing about the barre's is that it tends to tire your hand out. The more you use them the less your hand becomes fatigued.

For myself learning barre's opened up a whole different aspect of playing. Be patient and you will find a whole new world of guitar out there.

Bb was a pain, but I always thought F was worse. A/C# is still the hardest I've done.

"absolutely epic and really really loud" ~Zurf
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Katie