Advice with A-shaped barre chords?

I would accept and be happy with the fact that you can successfully barre with your pinky and it may or may not get you in trouble later. I would work on both the barre with the ring and using 3 fingers because just like open chords speed of change depends on finger placement.

I say this all the time but do a search for some of my older posts and you'll see me complaining! :oops: I eventually got the double barre to work. It's not perfect but it's coming. I am just thankful that most of the songs I like don't use it...YET! :shock:

Playing in the first few positions should not be any tougher than down farther on the finger board. Have the nut height checked and adjusted.

Check Nil's site http://home.nycap.rr.com/nils/

I frequently mute the high e string when playing the double barre. Since it has become fairly unpredictable what sound will come from this string, I just avoid playing the high e. The chord still sounds fine.

I think Ill try and barre with the pinky now though, I never thought of that.

i just got on with it and learnt the 3 fingered way of doing it and after a few days i can do it almost straight away. keep at it and find a way that suits you best.

I thought I had this type of chord down over a year ago, and now it's come back to bite me in the ass. I play the version with the three fingers, and those strings all ring fine. In fact, the whole chord sounds fine whenever I use it in a song. But just lately I've been doing some fingerpicking stuff (damn you, classical, grrr) and realised that the A string (i.e. the bass note of that chord) is frequently muted by a slightly-too-fleshy part of my barring finger. What a pain in the ass. The only way to get that string to ring is to shift the barring finger up or down slightly - so if I'm playing say an F#m followed by Bm, I not only have to reposition the three fingers but the barre as well. It's been driving me nuts these past few days. I need to re-evaluate something... I'm thinking a metal finger implant might be a good idea...

You can use that metal finger as a slide too :lol:
I have the same problem, I have been playing barre chords for a while and really no problem until I had to play a barre in a fingerstyle song.
It is easy to get by with a muted string when strumming but when every note counts it is a different story.

I'm thinking a metal finger implant might be a good idea...

:D

I actually saw a device advertised somewhere that clips onto your index finger and allows you to use it like a moveable capo. :shock:

Kind of restricting if you fancy doing anything other than barres in the song. :wink:

I couldn't help wondering if they ever sold any. It looked like something you'd flog to new players before they realised that such a device might cause mirth among other players. But I guess it could be handy if you never played anything but barres and you had fingers that just wouldn't ever seem to cooperate.

I've got fairly knobbly fingers so I can have the same problem with fingerpicking. It seems to sort out with a bit of adjustment though. I've got instruments with a fair variety of neck widths so I've never managed a "One size fits all occasions" barre position. Each neck and fret seems to need a fraction of adjustment in position, but after a bit of practice with each situation the adjustments seem to become fairly automatic.

Cheers Chris

Some hints from another beginner, who has just gotten a good grip of barre chords:

I find that, in general, you should focus on first putting your middle finger, ring finger and pinky at the right positions before actually applying the barre. If you do this with an A shape (putting down three fingers first, and then applying the barre with your index), also try and rotate your index finger a bit, so that it touches the strings with the side: it makes the stretch a bit more natural, or so it seems for me.

Doing a second barre with either your ring finger or pinky is okay if it works for you, I suppose, but I think it's probably a better idea to try and learn to play the A shape with three fingers instead, as you'll have more flexibility in putting some variety in the chords (e.g. switching a C to a C7 by lifting your ring finger).

Also, if you want to practice clarity (not muting out strings), try practicing arpeggios with these barre chords. For example: listen to "This Lullaby" from the Queens Of The Stone Age. There's some good tabs on the internet to be found for this one. Try and play it--it's a good song for practicing your abilities with barre chords, and it really helped me progress.

Hope this helps a bit. :)

go check out some excellent advice on barre chords and pictures on http://www.cyberfret.com