Bar Chords

Vedderlution_Baby

I fucking hate these things. I have been practicing and practicing and practicing and these fucking things seem like they're getting harder! any advice on making these bitches easier?

MichaelMcKevin

same as anything else in playing an instrument: repetition


On the topic of barre chords, sometimes when i play a song with nothing but barre chords, my wrist starts to really hurt after a while. any advice?

Vedderlution_Baby

are there any particular exercises i can do to help me out though?

mca47

when i first started (and even now after i've been playing a while) i found that playing close to the fret and rolling my pointer finger over a bit (toward the thumb) helps add some strength.

kdpjam

i can play a few! i think they're cool

Novawind

GivenToCarve wrote:

same as anything else in playing an instrument: repetition


On the topic of barre chords, sometimes when i play a song with nothing but barre chords, my wrist starts to really hurt after a while. any advice?

I have the same problem. I don't know whether that's a stamina problem or if my wrist is actually in the wrong position.

I agree with mca47. I roll my index finger over slightly, so that the part pushing down is more bony and gets a better sound.

kigcat

time, practice and more practice definately helps. also dont push it let it come naturally over time. Your hands are the most important weapon in your musical arsenal dont let them get damaged by excessive frustation.

enharmonic

I hate bar chords too. If you mess up, people throw bottles at you and shit. That is not what I would call positive reinforcement.

barre chords...well...they're quite another matter all together

elstongunn

you can angle your fretting fingers which will help. try strumming gently and evenly. for me the strumming and pressure with my fret hand go well, 'hand in hand'. you don't have to squeeze the shit out of the neck. maybe the action on your guitar is too high for you. when i first started my thumb would hurt, obviously i was pressing too hard.so for me, equal pressure was key.

sennin

I can play barres as long as I only play barres......I have trouble transitioning from barre to standard chords.

who's_pearljam?

enharmonic wrote:

I hate bar chords too. If you mess up, people throw bottles at you and shit. That is not what I would call positive reinforcement.

barre chords...well...they're quite another matter all together

Haha,,, you took my joke!

Bar chords to me are: G, C, D, take swig of beer, on to the next verse!



For barre chords, you need to strengthen your fingers, but you also need to concentrate on your wrist position.
Keep your guitar positioned so that your wrist is as parallel to your forearm as you can get.
Keep your thumb on the back of the neck, and parallel to the neck. It doesn't seem like that would work, but that's your most ergonmic position.

Also, don't clamp down so hard on the neck! Keep lightening up your touch on the frets until you put the minimum amount of finger pressure on the fretboard and still make the note ring. You'll be surprised how little pressure you need. Concentrate on each finger and how hard you're pressing that string, and soon it'll become second nature.

Another tip: If you're playing an E position barre, for instance, arch your index finger to hit the two high strings and low E. That way you aren't concentrating so much muscle on the frets that are already fretted with your other fingers.

If you learn your triads and different fingering positions, too, you may find that you get away from so many barre chords. You don't always need 6 notes in every chord. Try playing 3 or four note chords with your index finger on the low E or A string as the bass note.

moster78

who's_pearljam? wrote:

If you learn your triads and different fingering positions, too, you may find that you get away from so many barre chords. You don't always need 6 notes in every chord. Try playing 3 or four note chords with your index finger on the low E or A string as the bass note.

I find the triad method as a pretty way to avoid barre chords, but I'm still working on forming them quicker and cleaner, just so I don't skimp out on them. But basically Bob's right, the three notes in the triad are all that really make the chord major or minor or whatever, everything else is kind of just filler, like the same note just an octave higher. Also, I just go with the triads when doing chord inversions.

who's_pearljam?

moster78 wrote:

I find the triad method as a pretty way to avoid barre chords, but I'm still working on forming them quicker and cleaner, just so I don't skimp out on them. But basically Bob's right, the three notes in the triad are all that really make the chord major or minor or whatever, everything else is kind of just filler, like the same note just an octave higher. Also, I just go with the triads when doing chord inversions.

That becomes especially true when you play in a band. If the bass player already is playing the root, then you don't need to play it either.
Too many notes muddies things up sometimes.

You know who are masters of that, like the Stones or not, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards interweave their notes into chords all the time. If you actually analyze the way they do it, it's amazing and it contributes to that sound. Onstage it's really hard to tell who's starting and finishing the same progression sometimes when they get going.
Same with Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. Those guys were masters of playing one chord amongst three people and doing chord changes on the fly by changing a note here and a note there. Phil's bass lines are amazing because he isn't just playing the root, he could be playing the third or 5th or whatever, and a couple of notes from Garcia and Weir make up the rest in an unusual inversion.

JP2026766

mca47 wrote:

when i first started (and even now after i've been playing a while) i found that playing close to the fret and rolling my pointer finger over a bit (toward the thumb) helps add some strength.

Yup I do that on every bar chord i play.

elstongunn

just play 'Lukin' for 10 minutes a day.:)

for B's and and barre chord like that i barre my first and third (ring) fingers. no need to use 4 fingers when you can use 2.

ledvedderman

elstongunn wrote:

just play 'Lukin' for 10 minutes a day.:)

for B's and and barre chord like that i barre my first and third (ring) fingers. no need to use 4 fingers when you can use 2.

For bar chords based on the a string, I use my first finger and pinky. I find it way to difficult to use my 1 finger for the bar and then the three other fingers on the same fret...

I just read that and it seems to make no sense, do you get what I mean though

elstongunn

ledvedderman wrote:

For bar chords based on the a string, I use my first finger and pinky. I find it way to difficult to use my 1 finger for the bar and then the three other fingers on the same fret...

I just read that and it seems to make no sense, do you get what I mean though

i think, so your pinky barres the bottom four strings? (4th fret on a B chord)?

i use my ring (3rd) finger opposed to three fingers on the same fret.

MichaelMcKevin

e

---

B

---

3

---

G -2----3

---

D -4----3

---

A -3----1

---

E--1

---

Those are the fingers i use to play common barre chords. hope that helps. Of course, you could use your first/index finger to bar the B and/or e strings to get the higher notes out of it.

ledvedderman

elstongunn wrote:

i think, so your pinky barres the bottom four strings? (4th fret on a B chord)?

i use my ring (3rd) finger opposed to three fingers on the same fret.

That's it, I sometimes use my ring finger too, whichever one I can get to quicker

Novawind

who's_pearljam? wrote:

For barre chords, you need to strengthen your fingers, but you also need to concentrate on your wrist position.
Keep your guitar positioned so that your wrist is as parallel to your forearm as you can get.
Keep your thumb on the back of the neck, and parallel to the neck. It doesn't seem like that would work, but that's your most ergonmic position.

That's the way I play (or try to) and somehow it still feels slightly uncomfortable if I'm playing say F and I slide up to G or A, or move up strings to play B, C, D, E, etc.

lucylespian

Thumb on the back of teh neck like the man said, focus on teh E form ones first cos they are easier, practice around teh fifth fret, not near teh nut, much less tension required. Practise in short bursts so you don't exhaust your strength, and be patient.
You can't cram musical technique, it takes time !!

Pearl Jam and toast

mmm I love em..

almost as good as open chords for that big bang. Dynamics woo!

xtremehardy388

elstongunn wrote:

just play 'Lukin' for 10 minutes a day.:)

Honestly, I did that and my fingers(though very small), became more and more comfortable doing power chords(Nirvana helped too)

Twigster

When I first started out, I found (completely by accident) that the easiest way (E form chords) was to put my middle finger on the G string and slide it up to the required position. All my other fingers just seemed to fall into place around it. I seriously can't remember practicing them for hours.
It took me MUCH longer to play an open 'C' than my first barre chord.

xtremehardy388

I learned power chords by using my thumb. Horrible thing and I still play using my thumb. If I had to play a chord that didn't include the low E, I would be screwed. I can play them fine now but I spent 4 months re-learning everything dealing with power chords