barre chords are attainable

[dpicker]

I am fairly new to playing the guitar (3 years). i know the majors, minors, Sevens and a few more Chords. The barre chords have been impossible for me, i can barely make an F chord, but thats were it ends. i have had 3 different guitar teachers and still impossible. that is until today i went to a new teacher and in 5 minuets he had me doing barre chords (majors, minors and sevens) up and down the fret board with ease. the secret is he is also a classical guitar teacher and i was hold the guitar incorrectly and my hands were positioned wrong. it was a real treat to be able to play barre chords with ease, i am excited.


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There were several things i was doing wrong.. the main thing was my thumb position was wrapped around the guitar. now i put my thumb under the neck about evenly spaced between my index finger and my second finger. that is the most important issue. also hold the guitar upright, don't bend over the guitar. it is a more comfortable way to play and when i Strom a chord it sounds more even. i wish i could have found this teacher when i first started playing. Oh well. i hope some of this makes sense to you. if not let me know. It is going to take me some time to get used to moving the barred chords around quickly but i am making progress.




Thanks allot i thought i would never be able to do barre chords and all it was was my left hand and holding the guitar in the wrong position. with the thumb positioned in the center of the fret board and directly in line with my index and 2nd finger it is actually very easy to do barre chords. i think the big dilemma about barre chords is having someone show you how to do it correctly. isn't it funny it took 3 teachers and three years before i was showed the correct way to do barre chords. so don't give up on barre chords, i still have a long way to go but victory is sweet. Thanks DouG

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

Sounds like you discovered a brave new world.

Congrats!

Will the be an electric in your future so you can rock out?

 

[gilded]

Congrats, dpicker! Way to go!! I bet you are going to learn a lot of stuff from this teacher.
Keep us posted!

 

[dpicker]

i have an elect. and i can't wait to rock

 

[huitzlopochtli]

That's great. Proper hand position is especially important to avoid repetitive motion injuries and the like .

 

[coastie99]

Proper hand position is especially important to avoid repetitive motion injuries.

Just ask Darryl !!

 

[Default]

Ahhh, yeah.

Sometimes the most obvious breakthroughs aren't the most obvious. Glad to hear that you've found a good teacher!

Now, if you can teach me to do that sideways blues vibrato, I'd be much obliged.

 

[Jeff]

Dpicker,

I get the bizness a couple times every lesson.

Smitty says: "drop your wrist & arch your fingers so you can touch the strings with only the very tips of your fingers." Does make a difference, Old habits die hard. Doesn't help having short stubby lil sausages for fingers.

Graham sent me a song/chord sheet a couple days ago, Complicated tune has 6 chords with a couple quick changes, instead of having to form 3 or 4 different chord patterns I cheated, using barre chords up the neck I could make the changes much faster & smoother with only two different fingering patterns.

Electrics are the ticket for practicing barre chords. Learn a couple barre chord positions, pick a key & fiddle around with a blues scale (pentatonic). Betcha with a little effort your Ibanez'd prolly make ya grin.

 

[coastie99]

sideways blues vibrato

Darryl's nothing, if not versatile !

He can do that too !


"Went to bed last night, had a belly fulla beer
Had to do that sideways blues vibrato
Cos my baby, she wasn't there".

 

[Default]

 

[dreadnut]

Way to go, dp! It'll open up a whole new world of music for you. Watch out, Blues!

 

[dpicker]

Jeff sounds like a good idea, drop the hands, i also have short stubby fingers. i hope to get to the point of fast accurate chord changes and i can see that the barre chords should help with that. i have tried some of the more difficult chords and they seem imposable to make quickly, barre chords should help.

Dpicker,

I get the bizness a couple times every lesson.

Smitty says: "drop your wrist & arch your fingers so you can touch the strings with only the very tips of your fingers." Does make a difference, Old habits die hard. Doesn't help having short stubby lil sausages for fingers.

Graham sent me a song/chord sheet a couple days ago, Complicated tune has 6 chords with a couple quick changes, instead of having to form 3 or 4 different chord patterns I cheated, using barre chords up the neck I could make the changes much faster & smoother with only two different fingering patterns.

Electrics are the ticket for practicing barre chords. Learn a couple barre chord positions, pick a key & fiddle around with a blues scale (pentatonic). Betcha with a little effort your Ibanez'd prolly make ya grin.

 

[dpicker]

Jeff that sounds like a good idea to drop the hands, i also have short stubby fingers. i think that learning the barre chords with help me get around some of the more difficult chords when you have to make fast changes.

Dpicker,

I get the bizness a couple times every lesson.

Smitty says: "drop your wrist & arch your fingers so you can touch the strings with only the very tips of your fingers." Does make a difference, Old habits die hard. Doesn't help having short stubby lil sausages for fingers.

Graham sent me a song/chord sheet a couple days ago, Complicated tune has 6 chords with a couple quick changes, instead of having to form 3 or 4 different chord patterns I cheated, using barre chords up the neck I could make the changes much faster & smoother with only two different fingering patterns.

Electrics are the ticket for practicing barre chords. Learn a couple barre chord positions, pick a key & fiddle around with a blues scale (pentatonic). Betcha with a little effort your Ibanez'd prolly make ya grin.

 

[dpicker]

I am attaching a great lesson on what i was talking about. this explains it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBnS4uhaXAI

 

[dreadnut]

I also find it easier to play the 7th versions instead of the whole chords, and it works/sounds just as good in most cases. That is, don't use the pinky finger, just use your index and middle fingers, works pretty good for the "E" and "Am" configurations of the barre. It also frees up your pinky to do other stuff on other strings, works especially well when fingerpicking the blues.

 

[dpicker]

learning barre chords actually makes playing the guitar easier, because of all the short cuts available (E and A shapes). Anything that makes it easier is what i need.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Just ask Coastie's girlfriend, Rosie Palm.

 

[chicagowineguy]

Yep you're gonna find those barres open up a lot of options and a lot of songs. I could never play a fun jam song like Sister Goldenhair with barreing up and down the neck fast.

 

[Graham]

Barre chords have just started to come more easily for me as well. Good ol' repetition. :mrgreen:

I'm very surprised at the number of songs that I now look at that I simply passed by before because they appeared too difficult. Very exciting.

 

[dpicker]

Thats realy good news graham. I hope i can get my speed up.