Help! (Page 1 of 2)

Hi Meggity,

I would suggest you start by playing it as a 4 string chord. Do not strum your two bass strings and play it as xx3211. Use your index finger to play a mini-barre on the first fret for the B and e strings, middle finger on the 2nd fret of the G string and your little finger on the third fret of the D string.

Later you can use your ring finger to play the third fret of the A string and make it a 5 string chord.

Finally from there you will need to stretch your index finger across all the strings on the first fret for the full barre chord.

Roger

Embrace the pain. After a while it goes away. You could try smaller gauge strings (thinner), but I'd just keep bashing away, your fingers will harden up in their own time.

There is a lot of this on Chordie. I myself played YEARS ago and stopped (wife, family, etc). Started again about 2 1/2 years ago and love it more now than then. I took a while for the old fingers to loosen up and get the chord shapes back again, and the sore fingers was a sweet reminder of my teens.

All the very best,

My ability to change chords is coming back quite easily, as is my strumming technique.
What I'm having real difficulty with is picking.
My husband - also self-taught - can do it easily, but I find it really hard to concentrate on changing chords and plucking strings at the same time.
Doesn't help that I wear bi-focal glasses, which make it difficult to shift my focus quickly from my crib-sheet to my fret!

help me too please...

I don't get how many times you're supposed to strum the guitar between the notes.
It says to play Chord A then there are words then Chord C.....how many times should I strum the A chord before changing to C ?

Hi Learnguitar and welcome to Chordie,

The question you ask is impossible to answer without knowing the particular song you are trying to play as chord can be played for a very short time or for several bars. I answered a similar question about learing to to play a song in another thread in this way:

When you are learning to play the guitar it is important that you start by only playing songs that you know really well and preferably with few chords in it. (In the 50's and 60's there were many songs with just three or four chords but there are fewer, I think, today).

Start by just stumming the chord on a down stroke and at one beat per bar. Sing along with the song to get familiar with the changes. Then when you are happy with the changes, put down your guitar. Listen to a recording of the song or play in in your mind and at the same time tap your right hand on your thigh in time to the music, not just a steady beat but vary it to go along with the song. Then pick up your guitar and convert that rhythm that you just tapped out into a strumming pattern.

OK I know it is easier said than done but I hope that helps.

Roger

Tim, the chord you were playing was in fact Fmaj7 so it is very close although somewhat darker than F but if it helps and works then it is a good idea.

Roger

Practice. 

And to NELA - "B" is not only mean and nasty, it is evil. 

- Zurf

Ahhh thanks Roger!  I didn't know it was a 7th chord ... but sweet nonetheless!  NELA I'm going to try that finger roll for the F ... I never thought to do that before and agreed on the C to F to G ... I saw that pattern recently on the song, "Pink Houses" by John Mellancamp but it was F to C to G ... still sounded great though!

Now the dreaded "B" is the next for me to tackle ... but currently on some songs I can get away with XX2432 (one example is the song, "What's Up?" by 4 NonBlondes ... instead of playing a B I can get away with that B above

Hehe, thats funny...
I actually picked up the guitar faithfully because of the wife, kid, work, responsibility.

lol, before I "Grew up" I was too busy doing other things. Now all I have left is the guitar.

=]
Dm

WOWOWOW!!! Thank you!!!

I had been avoiding the F chord as well cause I can't switch to it that fast! But dude, you just completed my repertoire of open chords!!!

Edit: That kinda almost sounds like a 7th chord...kinda darker than the original "F" but hey,I love the sound of 7ths anyway. Most of the songs I've created use at least 3 7th chords lol.

Manoman, now I've gotta go try all those songs I ran from cause they had the "F" chord in em!

Thanks!!
Dm