no way to get those barre chords!! (Page 1 of 2)

Its a lot easier further up the fretboard, if you can get them there, try to work back down the neck until your fingers are strong enough to hold the Fmaj. I'm still rubbish at Fmaj, i end up doing the low F with my thumb and leaving the high E open (I tell everyone its a Fmaj7, which it is, but its laziness mostly).

Also try shiftin your index finger back and forward until you find a bony bit bit of finger to hold the high notes down, mines is my second knuckle in. Either that or go for the jimi hendrix technique of using your thumb for the low notes and then you don't have to barre anything.

[font=Courier New]
E|-5-index
B|-5-index
G|-3-middle
D|-5-pinky
A|-5-ring
E|-3-thumb
[/font]

You should probably ignore my thumb advice if you want to have "perfect" technique but it works for me.

Trippy, maybe the action's too high on your guitar? Try getting that looked at.

you mean if the strings are to high on the guitar? and making it hard to push them down?

i have to mencion that i dont have the strings change jet,  the owner of the store told me that i could play some time with them but that i replace them quick becouse the default string arent verry good.

i´m thinking of getting some soft strings, could that make it easyer to play barre chords?

Me too.  Good luck.  Just going to keep doing it until I can do it.  Can't get there quick, and can't make it sound good even slow.  Someday I hope to have it both quick and good, but if not the sun will still come up in the morning.  Or if it doesn't, I'll be sorely disappointed.

- Zurf

The lighter strings should help.  Also, make sure your thumb is pressing aginst the back of the guitar neck and not hooked over the side.  This will allow you to squeeze the neck harder.

Steve
8{I

What that says to me is "more practice!"

It will come.  Just be patient and persistent, and some day you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Also tryt tuning down a full tone. This makes it easier to fret the strings.

A is at 440.  To tone it down a full step, you would tune each string like thus.

E    ->   D
A   ->   G
D   ->   C
G   ->   F
B   ->   A
E   ->   D

Although I don't know I'd agree that it is a good idea.   You need to develop hand strength, so you might as well just keep it tuned to standard.   I do think lighter strings would be a good idea, though.

It's very important to keep the barre finger very straight from the finger tip through to the knuckle where the finger joins the hand this will help put pressure on the B&E strings. If the barre finger is bent at the middle knuckle it takes pressure of the top two strings, just what you don't want. For more info and tabs to works barre chords go to www.nofretguitarlessons.com.au

Barres chords are important for sure - but don't get totally hung up on them. I have been playing barres (and struggling with the pace of laying some) for ages - but recently less. Why? Because if you watch performers like Noel Gallagher, KT Tunstall and Beck, they hardly (maybe never) throw one. Golden Age is normally tabbed with Fm (not a difficult barre - and essential for Beatles stuff! - George knew all the proper chords!) but if you look at YouTube performance of Beck he clearly uses a muted non barre form - and sometimes these forms sound better in a sort of percussive strumming way.

And often a B7 is better than a B, a 5th fret A sounds good with open strings - and so on. It's IMHO more to do with flow and style - and maybe reducing the strain in a concert! Opinions on this phenomenon  are appreciated, because watching the above perform has certainly changed my mind about a subject that- quite frankly- puts some people off playing good acoustic numbers from tabs.

Maybe someone can list alternative fingerings, and discuss whether barres are fading out of "modern popular" playing?

Zurf is right, there are expanding possibilities in modern playing and nobody is going to throw away those trusty techniques.

I guess what I'm getting at is that if throwing a barre on a Bm is delaying the rhythm by half a beat, whereas grabbing it with the thumb doesn't - then why panic when it seems good enough for for some pretty nifty big name players. Many tabs show the default barre form of a chord, when it's absolutely not what the artist is playing. Youtube is great for looking at that.

Of course fingerstyle, classical or advanced picking is a different matter ... however I also think Suzanne Vega doesn't do much barring either - maybe it forces songwriters into using those characterful open string patterns!