Problems with the B chords. Please help.

It sounds like maybe you are playing the Bb chord, not the B? I only know the barre version of the B chord, and that consits of most of the strings in the chord being played on the 4th fret, not the 3rd.

But whether Bb or B, try just using your ring finger to barre the DGB strings at the 3rd or 4th fret (3rd for Bb, 4th for B) and put your index on the 1st or 2nd fret of A (1st for Bb, 2nd for B)

This is not easy, but with time it will come, and its a very important part of guitar playing.

As for the Bm, again, I only know that in barre form. You'd want to barre the 2nd fret of A D G B E with your index finger, put your ring finger on the 4th fret of D, pinky on the forth fret of G, and middle finger on the 3rd fret of B. Again, NOT easy, but extremly important, and sooner or later you will need to do it.

There is no magic trick to these chords, I'm sure most of the users will tell you that after a certain amount of time (sometimes even months) it will just click for you. Takes a lot of practice, and don't give up :)

Taso

http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?t=32442

Also check out that thread. ^ same topic basically. Except there are a bunch of easier ways to play the chords...I suggested one, but I don't really recommend taking the easy way out when it comes to guitar, or most things really.

thanks a lot for the reply. I've been trying to get the Bm down and I don't want to give up, because I love playing guitar. I think I might be holding the guitar wrong. I'm going to take a picture of what I look like playing a barre chord and maybe you guys can tell me how I can straighten up my position, because it kind of hurts playing barre chords the way I play them. lol

anyways, are there any techniques I can do to help perfect this chords?
thanks!!

Aside from making sure you are holding the guitar correctly, the only way to perfect barre chords is (sorry!) practice.

And thats that. No shortcuts, no tricks. Just keep practicing and it'll come.

Barre's take most people ages to get down (as far as I can tell from around here anyway), and even when you can actually *play* a barre chord, it still take lots more practice to be able to use them in songs properly.

Not meaning to end on a downer (and I'm sure that everyone is different) but personally it's taken me almost a whole year of practicing every day to be able to use barre's fluidly.

But it was worth it :D

Pete

It has to be wrong, and it HAS to be the reason I have trouble with Barre chords. Can someone tell me how to properly hold the guitar so I don't yank my arm off. Lol.

keep practicing and it'll come.

Barre's take most people ages to get down (as far as I can tell from around here anyway), and even when you can actually *play* a barre chord, it still take lots more practice to be able to use them in songs properly.

Pete

+1 to what Pete said.

In the meantime, you can play a Bm by just putting the index on the high E string, and playing only the 4 thinnest strings.
Bm = B, D, F#. Playing just the 4 gives you F#, B, D, F#.

You could actually get all the notes you need from just the 3 thinnest strings (fret 4 on the G string is a B, fret 3 on the B string is a D, and fret 2 on the E is the F#).

A bit of theory can be handy when you want to work out shortcuts..... :wink:

Sounds good with the full bar (and sounds more "B-like" if you start strumming one string down, which would be a B on the A string) but if you're in a hurry, then 3 notes is a pass mark! :) I'd probably go for the 4 string version and make sure I hit the important 3 strings. That way there's a bit of margin for error - if you hit all 4 strings, it's still good. :wink:

Cheers,

Chris

From looking at the picture I'd say you're holding the guitar too low and cocking your fretting wrist too much but that's not really why you can't nail the B (or Bm). It's because barre chords are HARD and take a lot of practice. You can work on your form as much as you want but it's not going to make barre chords easy. About 1000 hand cramps and dead chords come before you can land barres with ease.

From that pic everything looks good. I'd just have to say practice. You look like you are on the right track.

Matt , in the picture I could not see your thumb position . It almost looks like you don't have it on the back of the neck . If that's the case you need to pinch the guitar neck between your fretting fingers and your thumb . The thumb should be approximately in the middle of the back of the neck . This will help considerably to give you the extra clamping force necessary for barre chords . It will still take some time to develop the stamina necessary to play lots of barre chords back-to-back but it does get easier . No pain , no gain !

Anddd, it's hard to tell from the pic, but just incase, don't rest your elbow on your thigh/knee. It should be in the air.

Matt, in the photo you posted, it looks very much like you have got your arm glued to your side, and consequently your hand is very skewed when trying to play the barre chord.

Here are some photos which might help you see the arm / hand positions for barring chords (the chords in the photos are B minor chords not major but the principle and positioning of the arm / hand is the same);

You can see how the hand is at 90 degrees to the angle of the fretboard

This is the same position as the first photo, to show how the hand really is at 90 degrees

This is to show a) the angle of the guitar in relation to you and b) how the hand should be sitting to play a barre chord. You can see how the whole arm is loose from the side of the body, and note that the bicep, elbow and forearm are in the same postion and direction as the hand, unlike in your photo where they are all unaligned;

I hope that my explanation made it a bit clearer, and that you can see the difference between my photo and yours.

Best of luck with the barre's! 8)

Pete

Luckily I learned barre chords on the first try (not to brag). It looks like form the picture that your wrist might be bent too much. Try to make your wrist bend to towards the back of the neck. Also try to bend your fingers a little more. Hope this helps. :D

Hi Matt. For the sake of practice, finger an Am chord using your middle, ring and pinky fingers. Then, just slide up 2 frets and barre across the 2nd fret with your index finger. Just getting the feel for the barre helps. Do it slowly and before long you'll wonder why it seemed hard. Once we know we can do it, it becomes much easier.

Denny

Denny, while that is good advice for improving the speed of making the chord, it is very important that the position of the arms. hands and fingers is correct, and that seems to be what the problem is in Matt's case - not how to finger the chord, but how to *correctly* finger it.

I'm not discounting what you have said by any means, that is a good way to practice forming the chord; I'm just saying that he needs to practice getting the general positions right before he starts to 'remember' how to play the chord, otherwise the muscle memory will take over and the default way for him to make the chord will be incorrect, causing far more problems in the long term.

Pete

Denny - ya beat me too it. :D

Pretty much all the major Barre Chords (in rock and blues - not for Jazz)
are based on moving forms of open E, open Em, open A, and open Am.

And while I agree completely about the arm/wrist position - that can be practiced with the open chords as well -
As don't they also require good form????
Especially forgoing the index finger to make them more "Barre" like.

Ken