Help with barre chords

[Sloppy Joe]

How to play Bar chords: A good teacher, lots and lots and lots of practice, and lots of time and patience.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Another thing is this: if you've got a bass or another guitar playing along, barres aren't always needed. One trick I do sometimes is drop the E strings off of the barre chord and only play the inside notes. For instance, here's a full A major. I damp the high E with the pad of my index finger playing the E on the 5th fret B string; I damp the low E with the pad of my ring finger playing the 7th fret A string:

x----
--5--
--6--
--7--
--7--
x----

You can do the same thing with different strings damped out, and still deliver the entire triad:


...A.................C

--5-----x------x-----3---
--5-----x------5-----5---
--6-----6------5-----5---
--7-----7------5-----5---
--x-----7------3-----x---
--x-----5------x-----x---

 

[SteveGangi]

I dunno, man. I've been playing my ass off the last couple of years and barre chords still kick it, especially the five-string roots. If they're interspersed with riffs or open chords, not so bad. But non-stop barres as in Summertime Blues find me shaking my left hand out every chance I get.

Posture, neck angle, and thumb position are all important, and I find Summertime Blues less likely to cramp me up as the months go by. And always easier to play standing up, where I can more easily shift the guitar. But I'm playing it in the key of B for just that reason. If I had to play it in F, it'd still kick my ass.

A long row to hoe, in my experience.

Here's a trick.

Do NOT try to keep an unrelenting death grip on at all times. Relax the hand in time with the beat, almost as if you were left-hand-muting. If you play any funk at all, you already know exactly what I mean. In most music there will always be tiny spaces between the notes and chords where you can take a "mini breather".

 

[StubbyJ]

Maybe decrease your string gauge for the time being.

A well set-up guitar can make a world if difference....how high is your action?

 

[River]

...lots and lots of practice, and lots of time and patience.

'Tis a shame I'm so close to dead.

"Funny" thing is, you may be closer to it than I am.

These things need to be considered.

Srsly.

 

[colchar]

Classical posture is great for barre chords if you're sitting down: Sitting with a straight back, guitar on left leg, neck angled 30º above the horizontal. Center the last knuckle of your fret-hand thumb on the middle of the back of the neck:

This is excellent advice and I would add that the left leg is usually elevated as well.

But if you cannot get comfortable in classical position (for whatever reason, I cannot get completely comfortable when sitting that way) a good alternative is to follow this advice but with the guitar on your right leg and with that right leg elevated. I do it this way and it definitely helped me.

You can buy a foot stool at any music store or can just stick a couple of hardcover books under whichever foot you wish to elevate. Or sit on a stool that has foot rungs as placing a foot on one of them will elevate your leg sufficiently.

 

[AngryHatter]

I dunno, man. I've been playing my ass off the last couple of years and barre chords still kick it, especially the five-string roots. If they're interspersed with riffs or open chords, not so bad. But non-stop barres as in Summertime Blues find me shaking my left hand out every chance I get.

Posture, neck angle, and thumb position are all important, and I find Summertime Blues less likely to cramp me up as the months go by. And always easier to play standing up, where I can more easily shift the guitar. But I'm playing it in the key of B for just that reason. If I had to play it in F, it'd still kick my ass.

A long row to hoe, in my experience.

Have you tried changing strap length? Pulling the guitar higher will change the way the wrist forms; a more shallow angle.

 

[LarryInTexas]

And don't sling your axe low like Ramone or Page. That makes barre chords exponentially harder to play. If you are going to stand, the closer the peghead is to your own head the easier it will be to play.... it just looks nerdy. You can start lowering your strap once you can play comfortably with the guitar high.

Here's a trick.

Do NOT try to keep an unrelenting death grip on at all times. Relax the hand in time with the beat, almost as if you were left-hand-muting. If you play any funk at all, you already know exactly what I mean. In most music there will always be tiny spaces between the notes and chords where you can take a "mini breather".

Maybe decrease your string gauge for the time being.

A well set-up guitar can make a world if difference....how high is your action?

+1 on all of those comments. Lots of great advice in this thread.

 

[PRH]

There is already a lot of great advice in this thread but something that I didn't see mentioned already, and forgive me if it was, is about the pressure that you are feeling in your forearm when doing barre chords.

When I was working with a guitar teacher several years ago, he told me to focus on playing a barre chord with your whole arm. At first, this didn't really make sense, but after awhile, I figured out what he meant and it has helped me out a whole lot. When you are holding down your barre, for whatever chord it is that you are playing, instead of using your wrist to apply the pressure to achieve all your strings being held down, try using the force of your whole arm. In other words, place your barre chord, and then instead of using your wrist to flex and maintain pressure, pull your whole arm to the rear and generate pressure from your elbow and shoulder. This should help you A) achieve better sounding barre chords and B) lessen some of the muscle fatigue you are feeling in your forearm.

I hope that makes sense and apologize if it doesn't. Anyway, good luck and keep practicing.

 

[Sloppy Joe]

'Tis a shame I'm so close to dead.

"Funny" thing is, you may be closer to it than I am.

These things need to be considered.

Srsly.

Hum. I will rephrase my post, just for you:
1. A good teacher can point out what you are doing right, and what you might be doing wrong, so as not to develop any bad habits.
2. Practice will result in improvement.
3. Practice will also increase hand strength.
4. Enjoy.

 

[djjagdish]

A lot of good advice here already...practice and patience being the most important. I remember when I started out, I could never get the full chord to ring out and my hands tired out quickly. But just keep working day after day at it, even a little bit at a time, and a year from know you'll laugh at how easy it is to play them.

 

[MUSTANGCAT]

The bar chord you're describing the one where you use your pointer finger and your ring finger. This is one of the ice breaking tougher ones when you first start. Don't get discouraged! I have small hands and short fingers and can do them. The tips of your fingers will toughen with the amount of time you put in. Here is some advice my teacher gave me. I started when I was 17 and now I'm 57. He would say, "Break your wrist." By this he ment, have your fretting hand bent at a 45 degree angle from where your hand starts from off where it connects to the joint on your arm. The way classical players do it, to deal with those fat necks. Some of them Spaniards are little guys with small hands as well (Don't think Pau Gasol). Also remember this! Don't be a Clapton or a Hendrix who hang their thumb over the neck. Instead press the thumb against the back of the neck, while doing the 45 degree angle wrist break. Try this and see how much easier it will be to bar. Also the action on your guitar matters! Have someone you know that is a player check out your guitar and, ask them how they feel about your action. I feel many people are discouraged because their guitars are set up like garbage from the start and, even an experienced player does not like playing on impossible to play guitars. There are always exceptions to the rule. SRV had his guitar set up like total poop and, that's how he liked it! Sky high set strings and, ridiculously thick strings was the man's preferance. If you do not understand what I wrote above let me know and, I could possibly post a photo of me holding one of my necks with wrist broke. It would be a shot similar to what someone on here posted earlier.

 

[donepearce]

I'm working on E and D shape barre chords and I'm having some trouble. For starters, I don't think I've built up enough finger, hand, or forearm strength. I definitely feel a pulling in the muscle along the backside of my forearm, and I get fatigued rather quickly when playing a few barre chords. I'm also having trouble with getting the chords to ring out clearly. My index finger either isn't applying enough pressure, or my middle, ring, and pinky fingers are touching adjacent strings and muffling them. I seem to not have this issue when playing open chords.

What are some exercises I can do to help strengthen my fingers, hands, and wrists? And how can I avoid touching other strings? Is it something that just comes with time? Or is there something specific I can do to help improve?

This problem is often associated with the way you hold your wrist. It should never be pulled tightly in towards the neck - always leave it in an arc well clear of the fretboard. This guarantees that there is no tension in the tendons along the bak of the hand. At the moment, these are probably fighting the ones closing your fingers.

Practice by deliberately shaping your forearm and hand into a long inward curve before you hold the fingerboard. Then try to keep them there instead of tightening up. It doesn't take a lot of finger pressure to fret a Les Paul, even for a barred chord.

The other thing to watch is where your fingers are in relation to the frets. As close to the working fret as possible, but not touching it, is the best place - the place that needs least pressure to ring clean.

Just thought of another thing. When you have that arch thing going right, your fingers naturally drop onto the fretboard vertically, so they don't tend to collide with the string either side of the one you are fretting. The counter pressure to your fingers should be your thumb, not the palm of your hand.

 

[LarryInTexas]

The other thing to watch is where your fingers are in relation to the frets. As close to the working fret as possible, but not touching it, is the best place - the place that needs least pressure to ring clean.

Just thought of another thing. When you have that arch thing going right, your fingers naturally drop onto the fretboard vertically, so they don't tend to collide with the string either side of the one you are fretting. The counter pressure to your fingers should be your thumb, not the palm of your hand.

Excellent points.