Please tell me practicing chords gets easier.

rexdogga

Last night, in my second guitar lesson, I learned the 134211 form of A major on the 5th fret, along with some other chords that require you to barre the first finger. I had a very difficult time placing the proper amount of tension on the B and High E strings. It was very discouraging.

Leo86

It does get easier with a bit of practise. If you're just starting out i suggest you begin with open chords, and practise changing between them. Then when you're used to them, move onto barre chords.

TWHolt

Leo86 wrote:

It does get easier with a bit of practise. If you're just starting out i suggest you begin with open chords, and practise changing between them. Then when you're used to them, move onto barre chords.

This is excellent advice.

PJ-Sin

yes, practice, practice, practice!!!

J.D.

Practicing chords gets easier. I know right now you feel like some kind of contortionist but before you know it, you'll be able to switch without even thinking or looking at the fretboard.

Keep practicing and have fun.

StuffnJunk

barre chords on the second lesson is ridiculous..........learn open chords and simple melodies like "happy birthday" first...........your teacher sounds like he needs lessons on how to teach

Pearl Jam and toast

StuffnJunk wrote:

barre chords on the second lesson is ridiculous..........learn open chords and simple melodies like "happy birthday" first...........your teacher sounds like he needs lessons on how to teach

i was about to say that.

Betterman77

My teacher taught me open chords first,a nd kept me away from bar chords for a long time until my finger strenght got better, then even at first he only showed me partial bar chords and let me work on those til those got easier before adding another string, and actually by the time I got all 6 strings used in producing a full bar chord, it was so easy, thats what worked well for me. Id stay away from the bar chords for a while if your just starting off.

Pearl Jam and toast

Betterman77 wrote:

My teacher taught me open chords first,a nd kept me away from bar chords for a long time until my finger strenght got better, then even at first he only showed me partial bar chords and let me work on those til those got easier before adding another string, and actually by the time I got all 6 strings used in producing a full bar chord, it was so easy, thats what worked well for me. Id stay away from the bar chords for a while if your just starting off.

^^^ do this.

HailHailVitalogy

I personally cant hit an open F chord for my life...I just play the bar chord and if I just have to hit the 4 strings I will do that but I can't play an dopen F chord at all

after you play for a year or two, you can play anything you want, you just got to practice

BornToLive

If your going to start using bar chords, start with power chords!!!

You only use two fingers and if your names Kurt Cobain, you never need learn another chord in you life..... ;-)

voodoopug

it will get easier, but it will take time....my teacher first taught me a D, A, and G chord (all in the same key) and had me practice what seemed like months of just playing them over and over and changing between them.....it is amazing what your fingers will do after you practice for a while...don't get discouraged.

he still stands

i've been playing for a VERY short time (about a month) and thought that I should be able to play barre chords by now...

so I tried to play the beginning of Crown of Thorns and about broke my fucking guitar over the computer monitor. INCREDIBLY difficult... Please tell me it gets easier.

Pearl Jam and toast

he still stands wrote:

i've been playing for a VERY short time (about a month) and thought that I should be able to play barre chords by now...

so I tried to play the beginning of Crown of Thorns and about broke my fucking guitar over the computer monitor. INCREDIBLY difficult... Please tell me it gets easier.

yes yes yes it does.

That'll be cake to you in 5-18 months (some people move sooooooooo slowly )


Just practice the chords you can do. I suggest learning songs you like and slowly getting harder and harder.

MLC2006

I learned open chords first, but I don't see the problem with learning barre chords first. maybe just the major barre chord, but if you get that down, you can take some time learning where the root notes are and there are a ton of songs you can play with just that one chord shape. then, move on to open chords. I actually like that teaching approach.

I started teaching my friend guitar (he made it through one lesson and I guess he thinks he knows everything now, because I haven't heard back from him) and I started with power chords because of all the songs you can play with just this simple chord shape. power chords are a lot simpler, but it's basically just the top 2 (1 and 5) notes of the barre chords.

Pappas

he still stands wrote:

i've been playing for a VERY short time (about a month) and thought that I should be able to play barre chords by now...

so I tried to play the beginning of Crown of Thorns and about broke my fucking guitar over the computer monitor. INCREDIBLY difficult... Please tell me it gets easier.

hahaha nice one mate

ive been playing about a year now, all self taught so i was in your shoes not long ago. barre chords are hard, i still struggle to get strenth for them so i havent really focused on them yet. ive focused on open chords and changing between them, i can do it flawlessly 80% of the time now, once i get to 100% ill start on the barre chords. in the mean time ive also learnt other cool stuff like power chords and scales

crown of thorns is a great song, and stones ryhthm part isnt that hard to play. just practise your open chrords and changing between them and in a month or two youll be able to play stones riffs easy

ianvomsaal

Hey, I'm a Guitar Instructor (Music Degree). If you feel up to it, just drop me an e-mail, and I'll send you over a copy of the chord chart that I made for my students (it has the fingerings that I like best).

There are definitely a lot of great guitar players out there . . . but remember, just because someone's a good guitar player, or if they've been playing guitar a long time, or even if they work out of a local music store, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're a good Guitar Instructor.

I kinda' question your guitar instructors teaching method. I wouldn't dream of giving any of my beginning students bar chords until they have their open chords down first. Don't worry about stressing on the F and B chords until later on (until after you have a good couple months of playing behind you - by then you'll have built up your 1st dorsal interosseous muscle a bit better (the muscle between your thumb and index finger, sometimes called the ganglion muscle). Do yourself a favor, learn your open Major Chords, then open Minor, then open 7, then open Maj7, and finally the open Min7 before attempting those bar chords.

Again, just drop me an e-mail, and I'll e-mail you back the chord chart that I made up for my students.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal
ianvomsaal at yahoo dot com

enharmonic

If you sell your soul to the devil like Robert Johnson did, you will become a great guitarist.

I highly recommend The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar, by Jamie Andreas

http://www.guitarprinciples.com/

If I would have had this when I was first starting out, I'd be blazing up the fretboard right now. As it stands, I am still un-learning a lot of things that I was taught incorrectly...and I aint blazing up squat...lol

DriftingByTheStorm

about the simplest excercise in the world for barre chords would be to just hold your pointer in a straight bar over all six strings and start sliding it up and down the fret board ... strumming as you go ...

you're just trying to get as many of the strings as possible to sound ...

if you really want it to not sound so much like crap you can detune your top and bottom e string to D and it will sound slide-esque ...

just a thought.

HailHailVitalogy

loosen up those fingers!!!!!!

i got the perfect excercise for you to loosen up those fingers!!

e

---

7-8-10
b

---

6-8-10

---

g

---

5-7-9

---

d

---

5-7-9

---

a

---

5-7-8

---

e --5-7-8

---

then play it backwards like this:

e --10-8-7

---

b

---

10-8-6

---

g

---

9-7-5

---

d

---

9-7-5

---

a

---

8-7-5

---

e

---

8-7-5

play it slow at first and make sure you hit every note, then play it faster, and faster....its going to take a few days to get it down as fast as i can play it now, but I've also been playing much longer than you, so I don't know...but after a while, now I hammer on from from low E to high e...and pull off going from high e to low E

BornToLive

Most importantly of all, it wont get any easier if you dont practise.

Jimi Hendrix used to take his Guitar to the Toilet with him. Once you get the hang of BARRE chords you will wonder what all the fuss was about.

Pappas

BornToLive wrote:

Most importantly of all, it wont get any easier if you dont practise.

Jimi Hendrix used to take his Guitar to the Toilet with him. Once you get the hang of BARRE chords you will wonder what all the fuss was about.

ive taken my guitar to the toilet lol

thats about the only time when ive played where theres been something more full of shit than my playing (the bowl)
haha