Barre Chord arm vs thumb strength

It's a matter of practice. The more you play the barres and the more natural they become, the less you'll squeeze the neck. That's when you'll find that the weight of your arm is helping you barre. (It's really more about using the weight of your arm than it is about arm strength). Your hand cramps because you're using your thumb to squeeze the neck.

Have you had the action of your guitar checked? Maybe that's the reason you're finding you're working too hard.

Yes I had my guitar in recently for a fret dress and had the action set. They did a great job. I probably squeeze a lot more than nessicary.

I also have another fault with barre chords, I don't roll my index finger. Or I should say that I seldom roll it. I guess I should start working on ingraining both of those habits.

I probably squeeze a lot more than nessicary.

Don't worry about it. I still sometimes find myself doing that after (almost) two years. That is about my only bad habit, but it is a tough one to break because you don't want any bum notes.

And yes, rolling the index helps

Everybody squeezes a lot more than necessary in the beginning - because that's what's necessary in the beginning.

I had a student yesterday tell me his fingers hurt. He's getting good tone (been playing 3 weeks now), so I looked closely as he fretted. As soon as he backs off the fretboard, his tone stinks - he has to squeeze hard because his callouses aren't developed enough yet.

I had him look at my hand from above as I fretted a sixth string note. The string doesn't touch the fretboard - I only press down enough for the fret to sound the note.

Same thing is true of barre chords. You need to squeeze too hard until your fingers toughen up a bit... after that, you can back off.

I can't remember when I backed off on barres. It took a while, though. Until then, you'll cramp up - after that, you won't.

i took up rock climbing for awhile. that improved my hand strength tenfold. i'd reccommend it to a new player.

You need to squeeze too hard until your fingers toughen up a bit

Interesting I wondered if that would happen. Ive been playing songs with barre chords for a while now, probably a year, although about 2 or 3 months ago I really picked up practicing barre chords. I probably spend 50% of my playing and practicing time using barre chords.

It took a good year to get solid calluses for open chords though so I guess it will come.

Great comments by everyone

Thanks.

I bought a hand-exercisor to build my finger and hand strength, and found it did no good. I don't squeeze that much, i really just kinda m ake sure my fingers are in the right place and pull back on the neck with my arm, almost like im trying to break the guitar in half using one hand on the neck and the other one at the bridge. I've found that a properly placed barre chord is much more efficient that an ill-placed one with alot of strength. If you roll your finger onto its side and place it as close to the fret as you can, then that's half the battle. Practice using just one finger to barre the entire 6 strings. When you get that down, add more fingers.

Also, don't be afraid to mute out some strings. Sometimes that leads to different voicings and interesting tones. Also, try making a barre-shaped chord and leave the B and E strings open. It makes for some nice ringing. I favor a bassy sound, so i tend to make barre chords that emphasize the heavier strings and sometimes i only play the middle 3. Just mess with it and come up with your own way of doing things.

I guess I am an anomoly, because I picked up barre chords right off. My hand doesn't hurt when I play them, either. The only shape I have a problem with is A, because it's hard to hit all three strings and still get it to ring nicely. So, I practice it as much as I can.

As someone else mentioned, rock-climbing may be the reason. I have been climbing way longer than I have been playing guitar, so maybe my hands were already strong from that.

F drives me crazy, so I cheat and use the barre instead of torturing myself with the "open" version. Doing that all the time maybe helped, too.