Help with Bar chords

Discussion in 'Beginner's Q&A Forum' started by Aerosmith, Mar 9, 2007.

  1. Aerosmith

    Aerosmith New Member

    I'm having problems playing 2 bar chorde shapes:

    E Minor Shape:

    Here, i'm not able to press the 4th string with my barring index finger..

    A Major Shape:
    Here, i cant fit my three fingers together on 3,4, & 5 strings along with my barring finger..

    Can anyone help me out with these techniques please?
     
  2. i'm_not_neo

    i'm_not_neo el valor máximo absoluto

    With the E minor shape the 4th string buzzes right?Yeah,been there..For that,as you''ll hear from many fellow IGTians,you'll have to practise a lot...other than that learn songs which involve such chords like Gm (eg Days go by) If you keep playing the chords in a good tempo,you won't even notice when you got the barre right..
    Also try playing the G Scale (from 3rd fret of 6th string) by completely barring the third fret throughout the whole scale,that'll increase the barring strength..
    As usual go for accuracy and timing rather than speed..make sure no buzzes are heard and use a really really slow tempo...

    About the A major shape,strings 2,3 and 4 can be barred by the third finger instead of using a finger for each of the strings...
    I recommend though,that you use a finger for each string..you're probably barring all the six strings completely,remember you're to focus the barre only on the 5th and 1st string (sixth doesn't get barred in A shape) and you can apply relatively less strenght on the rest of the strings in between..

    The obvious advice is practice,but I hope the rest of what I said will also be useful.
     
  3. i'm_not_neo

    i'm_not_neo el valor máximo absoluto

    "Here, i'm not able to press the 4th string with my barring index finger.."
    I'm sorry..why do you need to press the 4th string with your index finger?In an Em shape there'll probably be a note on the 4th string which'll be pressed by the baby finger right?
     
  4. Aerosmith

    Aerosmith New Member

    Oh sorry, on my part.
    Its actually thr 3rd string that i cant cover up with my index finger, mainly because the first fold of my finger falls on that part.
     
  5. i'm_not_neo

    i'm_not_neo el valor máximo absoluto

    I thought so..you can follow my first reply..hope it helps..
     
  6. bjr

    bjr Lady of the Evening

    What I did was I practiced getting just the barre down....try to make the whole barre sound with my index finger from the first to the sixth string.


    It's just a practice thing and it'll hurt like hell when you do it but that's part of the dues you pay to learn.
     
  7. saurabh_taurian

    saurabh_taurian New Member

    barre chords

    Even i faced this problem dude....and the only solution is practice. Here are the few tips that might help...

    1. Hold your index finger close to the frets, NOT IN IT!! It should almost touching the vertical fret.
    2. Applying pressure is important, holding with right technique wont help unless you apply the pressure.
    3. The best way to overcome this problem is try changing your finger position like rolling it to a bit left so that the hard part of your index finger touches the string. Even i did this to overcome this problem.
    4. To start with, start on higher frets i mean 7th fret barre minor chord thats your Bminor barre chord. this will strengthen ur index finger as more pressure is needed on higher frets. then keep coming to lower frets...
    5. Use you thumb the gain pressure for the index finger and just practice practice practice!!!

    And be patient u'll get it. When i did it seriously i took 15 minutes and i was playing barre minor chord!!
     

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