A-shaped barre chord

Well, since it's almost impossible to do the E shape with two fingers, I use finger one for the bar across the fifth fret and fingers 2, 3 & 4 to form the E shape on frets six and seven.

Now if you're doing power chords or an Am bar, then you could use fingers one and two for the bar... same as one could major bar chords with roots on the fifth string.

If you are asking the shape, which I assume you are, two barre's. I mute high & low E.

One barre - use all fingers. Makes it easier to throw in a sus4 or a 7th without having to adjust your whole hand.

Best,

A :-)

I been using two barres- index and ring, and have been able to bend the ring to keep it off the high e so It sounds clear- but Alan has a point about the advantages of using 3 fingers. Geez- maybe i ought to learn it all over again.

If you can do the mini-barre and keep your technique clean, the issue changes a bit, but I've found that 90% of people using that are muting their high E string - which I would consider a technique flaw.

I have pretty large hands, and that phalanx on my third finger isn't short enough to bend and keep the high E ringing, so I use 2-3-4, and recommend it to anyone asking.

I have just reciently started getting pain in the back of the left hand doing the bouble barre. I am trying now to do the single barre and 2-3-4 for the "A shape" barre. Old habits are hard to break! :P

I use the 1st finger for a full barre and the 3rd finger for a mini-barre across the D G & B strings....not by choice, because my bent pinkie won't allow me to do it the "proper" way....

You can still play a sus4 with your pinkie, and a 7th like so....

E A D G B E
5 5 7 7 7 8

Barre across the 5th fret with 1st finger, mini-barre on 7th fret with 3rd finger, and pinkie on the top E string....this would be a D7 chord....

Vic.

I found it challenging to learn using 4 fingers for the mobile A so I started using 2 fingers/bars and have gotten pretty used to it. Sometimes I do mute the high E, but sometimes it rings out, pretty much hit or miss or how slow and careful i'm playing. I just got a teacher for the first time out last week and during the first lesson, he showed me the a shaped bar with 4 fingers - he said as long as I could play clean with the 3 string bar then it was ok.

Thanks for all your replies.

I have been trying to play this chord using 2 barres and it is tough.
Especially, switching from it to an E shaped barre chord.
I guess it will take some more time before I get the hang of it.

Cheers

I came to a combination compromise that works for me. When I tried the 3rd finger mini-barre, I'd sometimes fret the high E and mess up the chord, or it would be muted when I want it to sound. When I tried 3 fingers, I just couldn't fit them in one fret "column" higher up the fretboad and I couldn't make chord changes fast or smooth enough.

So now I use the 3rd mini-barre and place my pinkly on the 2nd string (so the mini-barre is really fretting the 3rd and 4th strings). If I roll my index finger slightly towards the tuning pegs (elbow moves closer to ribs), this results in the 3rd finger lifting up from the 6th string, allowing it to sound as it should.

tamuka that is a interesting way of playing it. i think i will try that and see how it works