When playing bar chords should you have alot of pressure between your thumb and index finger or should it be light pressure like when playing an open chord or single note ?
Ideally you should be able to barre without using your thumb(using it more for stability). Initially that's tough. Try barreing around the fifth fret it's a little easier there.
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Hi Deanobeano,
My feeling is that you squeeze like heck when you first start out, but can gradually ease off a bit as you improve.
Bar chords are a tricky one, as we all have different sized fingers. So what can be relatively easy for one student can be a lot harder for others.
As far as I can see the problems are mostly caused by the fact that (unless you have nice plump sausage fingers) most fingers tend to be uneven in thickness between the bony bits and the joints.
Rolling the finger back a bit can help, but it's not a sure fire instant cure. There's still a lot of practice and general toughening up required.
We all have different lengths of fingers, and the string spacings vary in width from guitar to guitar, and also up and down the neck. So it seems like there's not always a perfect position that works everywhere. But each time I practice I seem to make small unconscious adjustments, until eventually the fingers seem to find a reasonable angle and pressure for each situation.
We also have to deal with different string heights and tensions. That makes it hard sometimes.
So I can bar fine on some guitars, but find it harder on others. The hardest for me is a full bar across all 6 strings at the first fret (for an F) on an acoustic guitar with reasonably heavy strings.
But tips I've read here, and on other sites, say that a partial bar is all you need in many real life playing situations anyway.
Good luck anyway. I found them a nightmare to start with, but they seems to be slowly sneaking up in effectiveness now. :D
Cheers, Chris
Thanx for the advice i seem to be hurting my hand by squeezing too hard. I can do it on most frets but i always have one string muted and like chris said 1st fret bar is immpossible!
