A shape barre chord . . . pinky or 3 fingers?

try using your ring finger

I've tried that, the only thing is it mutes the 1st string . . . I can't get it to bend in such a way that it clears the 1st string. :?:

use your ring finger and dont worry about the high e string, it'll sound just as good without it and makes the chord a whole lot easier to play :-)

use your ring finger and dont worry about the high e string, it'll sound just as good without it and makes the chord a whole lot easier to play :-)

That's what I was going to say, often you will see it written as X2220X.

I use my other 3 fingers. I find it painful to use the middle or pinky finger bar.

I'm a pinky guy myself, 'cept when I'm doing an actual A. Then I do 3 fingers. Habit formed before knowing it was acceptable to do other. The only thing I'm at a disadvantage of is that if I'm doing a B and want to hit the b string, I'm hosed. Should oughtta learn to use ring instead.

i used to mute the High E when i first started using my ring finger but, it didn't take long at all for it to become more flexible.
now i can do it with either the ring, or pinky.
comes in handy sometimes to be able to do it several ways.

I just use my ring finger and generally don't play the 1st string. If I really try I can bend my ring finger enough so that it doesn't mute the 1st string, but I'm lazy and you don't really miss it. I honestly don't know how people get their middle, ring and pinky in 1 fret when you get above fret 3 or 4. I don't really have big fingers, but they just won't fit. I also have trouble making a E form barre above a C (8th fret).

I honestly don't know how people get their middle, ring and pinky in 1 fret when you get above fret 3 or 4. I don't really have big fingers, but they just won't fit. I also have trouble making a E form barre above a C (8th fret).

I guess we all have our hard to do things. I don't find it hard to make the E barre chord shape pretty far up the neck but it's the A7 barre chord shape that's problematic for me from the 8th or so fret (F7). The pinky on the B string keeps wanting to slide up to the bridge and it often ends up on or just over the fret muting the string.

Letting the first string ring out is really not that important. The first string is just the 5th of the chord and is already in there anyway, you would just be repeating that note in the chord again.The note on the 2nd string is the 3rd of the chord which is basically speaking the melody note. This note is what gives the chord its sound, so when you end the chord on this note you are ending on the strongest tone.

I use three fingers and pinky and index. And each choice depends on the chord progression or simply my mood.

My configuration is this - Amajor (x02220) - Index on Gstring, middle on Dstring and ring on Bstring.

Sometimes I use pinky to barre when I want the sound of open high E. Or I used index to barre when I don't need the sound of open high E.

Its all personal. Learn to play all the ways. The more you learn, the more versatile your playing becomes.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the replies. :) I have tried to bend both my pinky and my ring finger to fit, but neither will do so. Using all three fingers seems to work the best for blues in E type playing, where all I'm doing is just doing a B barre chord before going back to a normal E / A chord. As for further up the neck, I shall keep practicing. :)

Both. Try learning learning the index finger A after you learn the other way. If you don't, likely you never will.