barre chords (Page 2 of 3)

I'm gonna respectfully disagree with this.   

You should be thinking barre chords the instant you pick up the instrument.  I think what needs to be tempered at two months is the expectation that you'll play them cleanly.  But there is no reason at all that developing the needed hand strength to play them should start on day one.

Barre early, barre often!

thanks so much for all your advice. i will keep practicing! i am determined to get it right thanks for your support.

Lowering the action is one thing, having your guitar "set-up" correctly is another.  Unless you're an expert guitar repair person, the set-up should be left to those who know!  I've seen players tried to adjust their own truss rod and snap the neck!  Not good! 

When a guitar is set up correctly, the action should be at its lowest.  Without any fret buzz or uneven spacing from fret 1 to fret 22 (if you have that many.)  My local music store charges $50 including strings to set up an acoustic guitar.  The action is nice and close, and I don't have to press as hard to get a clear sound from chords.

Hi Chimmy, welcome aboard the Chordie express.

Don't know how long you've been playing, so my first thought is just practice. A few other tips, keep your elbow close to your body and pull with your arm, don't squeeze with your hand. Maybe tip the neck up a little bit so you can get your hand around the neck more. Keep your index finger straight and roll it over a little to the side.

Check out Justin's lesson
http://justinguitar.com/en/CH-006-BasicBarres.php
http://justinguitar.com/en/BC-161-F-chord.php

Good luck and keep practicing!!!

Jerome has it pretty much nailed down in his answer,I keep my guitar next too me so when I watch tv I will usuelly pick it up and run through some chords, this helps to build and maintain strength.

one day you will look back having forgotten of your struggle with barre chords only to realize that you are stuggling with something else. good news is it feels great when you get things down. the thing about guitar is there is always something you want to get down, you never stop being challenged and you never stop learning new things. bottom line...practice,practice,practice

A trick I used learning barre chords was just what Gabby suggests.  I started playing the E, Am. and A open chords using only my middle, ring, and pinky fingers.  This led me to build up the muscle memory with those fingers.  After that, it was relatively easy to use the index finger to add the barre. 

An extra advantage to using the last three fingers is that you can alternate fingerings to give your hand a rest during a song. 

If I had it to do over again, I'd learn on an acoustic before going to an electric guitar (which is the way I learned).  The action on acoustics is generally higher than electrics, so chords are more difficult to play.  In fact, IMHO an acoustic is harder to play than an electric--period.  I'd much rather go from hard to easy than from easy to hard.

One important item, that I have not seen discussed in this thread, is the way you hold your guitar while learning (playing) barre chords. Are you sitting down or standing up? If you are just beginning to learn barre chords I suggest you practice while sitting. Also, keep the guitar neck tilted upwards and back (little bit) so you can see the fret board. If you practice while standing, get your strap adjusted to where the guitar rests higher across your chest (and keep the guitar neck at an upward angle) Its not very much fun to just form and strum barre chord after barre chord but it is important until you develope some finger strength and muscle memory. After you get the basic patterns down (E shape and the A shape barre chords are the easiest) you can begin to learn some easy 3 chord songs. Start in the key of C as this is an easy progression - C, F and G and only requires mimimal finger movement.

Form an open C chord and strum. (for the F chord you already have your ring finger, 3rd fret 5th string as an anchor - DON"T MOVE IT)

Now form an E shape barre chord with your (middle, ring and pinky) index finger at the 1st fret (DO NOT MOVE YOUR RING FINGER FROM THE OPEN C POSITION YOU WERE JUST STRUMING) This is an F chord and strum.

From the F chord, keep all fingers (middle, ring and pinky) down in the same position and slide up the guitar neck to where your index finger is now on the 3rd fret (middle, ring and pinky are still in the basic E position) - this is a G chord. And strum.

Once you have this 3 chord progression down you are ready to play hundreds of songs - by adding a capo there are now thousands of songs you can play with this 3 chord progression.

Also, keep in mind that while practicing your barre chords to not forget your minor and 7 chords. As an example when playing a E shaped barre chord you can lift your middle finger from the string and you now have a minor chord - if you lift up your pinky you now have a 7 chord.

Try this and see if it helps.

Nela

Good post, tilting the neck back, even a little, will put extra strain on the wrist and put your thumb in the wrong position on the back of the neck and one of the key issues when learning to play barre chords, or any chord for that mattter, is a lack of strength. The fretboard should ideally be angled at 90 degrees to the floor. Don't only stick to 3 chord songs either, to play a minor when using the E shape just lift your middle finger, when playing the A shape make the A minor shape, lo and behold you just opened up a whole load of songs, 7th's is even easier. The more you play, the easier it gets.

The key is not to be frightened of barre chords and use the whole neck, try it and once you have the physical strength you'll wonder what the all the worry was about barre chords. Play songs you already know but instead of using open chords, use barre chords, this willgive you an opportunity to build upyour strength and muscle memory without the additional problem of learning new songs.

Jerry

I agree with you NELA.  There was a picture somewhere in one of the other threads of good posture and the correct way to hold a guitar.  Here is what it showed.  OK, for right handed people, we always put the guitar on our right leg which causes the guitar to be at a 90 degree angle with the floor.  The correct way, it stated was to put the guitar on your left leg, which brings the neck of the guitar up higher and this way is easier to hold chords bnecause  the left wrist ends up being straighter.  I don't play this way, but it makes a lot of sense.  Stick to your guns, NELA.

hello everyone i just joined this forum its has helped me alot by finding the songs etc. but I too am struggleing with barre chords. I started playing the guitar in the begining of this school year(about 4 months). My teacher taught me to learn all the basic chords with chord progressions, but for some reason i can not seem to find any chord progressions for barre chords. i am able to play the F and the Fm but that is all i know.

Can some please address me to a website that has barred chord progressions. i would really apreciate it.

Thanks so much guys.

René

Yeah I didn't even start to think of playing barre chords until I had been playing for at least a year. Now I am starting to use them a little at a time. Hotel California is the one that I use for practice, but I am always on the lookout for more songs that use them. All I can say is practice and then practice some more. You'll eventually get better.

Good luck!