grrr..... barre chords .....!

Well hey it's good news that you have an teacher to help you along. My teacher was self taught and had tons of problems when he first started. I mean, there was no internet then, there were no lessons at all for him. It's almost funny to listen to him gripe about how easy guitarists have it these days. :D

All I can offer is encouragement to have patience and hang in there. They take a while, and there is no short cut. I have been working on barre chords all summer. I startd in late June and set a goal to be able to play the more common forms (A,Am,E,Em) by the end of the summer. Now here it is mid-August and it is finally starting to come together.

What kept me motivated is I picked a few songs that I really wanted to learn that had these chords in them and kept doing the changes to and from the barre chords over and over. It does take building some hand strength and I still tire quickly when I do a song that has all barre chords.

One thing that may help is to start with power chords, because they only involve 2-3 strings and are easier, then move on to barre forms incorporating more strings.

I have read posts here from people saying essentially you begin feeling like you never can do them, but you eventually progress to where you wonder why you ever saw it as a problem. After a month and a half I'd say I'm in between these two stages.

You'll get there too.

Oh- one other thing- make sure the guitar you are using is properly set up, you particularly don't want the action to be overly high- this will make barre chords infinitely harder. I took my old acoustic into a shop before I started working on the barre chords and it made a world of difference as far as ease of playing!

Good luck.

Hey howzit Logan5!

Yah, those barres are a pain -- in the finger! Especially that F chord. I still hate the thing after all these years. It's right where, if you don't have the nutslots perfect, you'd have to press extra extra hard, so all those songs in the key of C would be a pain.

When I was learning it, I got so frustrated at one point I just laid my index finger on the strings, so the second knuckle was right on the edge of the fretboard against the 1st string and then just ran my hand up and down the frets, not caring anymore if I cut myself.

That was a little mental I know, but that one corner of that one crease on that one finger was getting numb and everything so I thought I'd just speed the process up a bit.

It...didn't really help and I don't suggest anybody doing that. :|

A better way I've found -- and I still have to dig into some weird chords -- is to sit and watch TV and just form the chords without thinking about them. Not even strumming or picking, just sitting there on the couch, pressing the chord down, releasing, letting my fingers completely go their own way, then again forming the chord shape and pressing it down. Over and over again. I do that when I have a chord change that's not happening cleanly and I have to brush it up. I just sit there watching Golden Girls or something -- maybe the nature channel -- and just form the chord, let go, form the next, let go, form the first...eventually the fingers sorta just dance by themselves, going from one locked position to neutral, then to the next. It's a quiet way of getting a lot of practicing in.

Plus you don't slice the skin off in the underside edge of your finger like I did. :)

Actually, you can start by just doing the barre with nothing else. Lay it over the frets, press in, let go. You'll start to see and feel how the muscles in the fingers and hand and especially the thumb sorta work together, and you'll see that's it's not just a matter of squeezing strength, but of leverage, with your thumb being the fulcrum point. You squeeze but you also sorta 'lean' that way -- toward the nut. Your hand is kind of turning slightly with your thumb being the pivot, and you contact the strings almost on the outside edge of your index finger.

Yay I've been noticing that a lot recently; never used to happen. It's just me.

DemoEtc you really do double post alot! :lol:

When I started playing barre chords they were extremely difficult. One thing that could ease u into them is starting by just practicing barring a sigle fret, for example 5. Place your index finger on it like normal and then place your middle finger on top of your index. Try to push a little more with your index every day and then u will be able to just take it off. Once you figure out how to do it they are so usefull its totally worth it.

My instructor has just started me on barre chords .... I must say that if there were any one thing as yet, that would make me give up this whole thing ... it's these stupid barre chords. All that pain (litterally) with almost nothing to gain.

What on earth do you mean "with almost nothing to gain"?

Sure, they can be difficult and yes, even painful to play for a couple of months, but "nothing to gain"? They like multiply the number of chords you can play by about 12 without necessitating learning any new shapes. How is that "nothing to gain"?

:? One thing you can do instead of using your index finger use the F chord shape and use your thumb on the Low E string you can use that same shape up and down the neck, I tend to use this way more seems easier for me. :D

Work on barre chords and learn the 7th form just for kicks. May (will) be useful later on.

Since your already on the topic, how does everyone else finger the Bb form barre?

-----
1----------
3--------
3--------
3--------
1--------

Ive been trying to do it barre with index and ring finger on the other, but my finger keeps touching a string it shouldnt be, and using pinky,ring,and middle is too much of a stretch for me

thanks

Since your already on the topic, how does everyone else finger the Bb form barre?

-----
1----------
3--------
3--------
3--------
1--------

Ive been trying to do it barre with index and ring finger on the other, but my finger keeps touching a string it shouldnt be,

I do it with the index and ring and let the ring finger mute the 1st string.

x----------
3--------
3--------
3--------
1--------
x---------