Barre chords can make your hands work hard, no question about it. After I got hurt one item in my recovery was looking for ways to avoid full six- string barres when I could. Here's a discussion on the subject . . . Paul Mx ================= Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic Subject: Re: The evil of barre chords. >-clip- >>Here's my problem: Barre chords. After trying for weeks, I still cannot play >>them with any sort of relative ease (and I've only been working with the "F" >>chord thus far). It may help to learn barre chords if you use a capo on the first fret. A lot of the difficulty is in learning the right positioning of the barring finger and that difficulty is compounded by a nut that cut too high. Once you learn to barre on one guitar, that knowledge seems to transfer to others. Once you learn to barre with the capo, you will likely be able to barre without it. Of course, that will demonstrate the need to have a proper setup so that the nut is not so high. Al ========= >fingers and the knuckles. Is there any alternate way to barre? I notice >some people bend their index fingers more.. mine is relatively straight. You can get away with a pretty large degree of curvature in the barre finger on those chords, since you're fretting the middle notes further down on the neck, and it's not important for them to be fretted well at the barre. When I play Bm I'm actually barring with the side of my left index finger, rather than the bottom. A picture would be worth a thousand words here, but the moral of the story is to just play with it until you get something that sounds good. ============= There are some of us more manual labor types that have fingers that *can't* make a barr chord. The "wrinkles" at each joint is too deep and the higher areas of flesh too solid to barr all the strings at once. Some of the time the strings not barred will be fretted further up the fingerboard by other fingers which allows a good (but unpredictable) result. I can slowly and with care place my index finger across the fretboard a hundred times (without other fingers forming a chord) and never get all strings to ring at once. At least one string will be in the "gap" of a joint even if I turn my finger over or otherwise try to get the best results. My fingers may have more muscles than anywhere else! To me barr chords are something other folks use. I can't. hotater ====== If you have trouble barring at all, try some 'cheater' chords which can be used (at times) as substitutes. 022100 E 044200 F#minor (cheat) 066400 G#minor (cheat) 024400 Bsus (cheat) 046600 C#minor (cheat) 068800 E 007600 A2 577600 A2 009800 Bsus (cheat) 799800 Bsus 002200 A2 004430 Bminor (cheat) 006650 C#minor (cheat) -00770 D2 -00775 D Just try moving some of the 'first-position' hand shapes up the neck to hear what they sound like. There are some surprises in there. I use these shapes all the time, and I can do barre cords when I am feeling up to it, or the piece needs it. -- ========= Len and all, They're actually pretty easy to find on your own. Write down the triad of notes of the chord you want to play and just start searching the fretboard for an area where the three notes will be within your grip. Experimentation like this was the first step in my understanding of chord-melody progressions. ============ > Got any more? :-) This is an exercise for the curious. The song that kicked me into finding what I call 'partial barre chords' is Blackbird, which uses two strings plucked at the same time thru almost the entire song. The first three pairs are: 3---0- -0--1- -2--3- Branching off this, a progression down from a high to low goes: --2--3 --0--2 -3---0 -2--3- -0--1- 3---0- 2--2-- 0--0-- This is a good framework for playing Clapton's 'Tears in Heaven'. Notice that if you fret some of the unfretted strings, you will form full chords all the way down. In order: G (kind of a strange G: anyone know what this really is?) D C Em7 Am or Am7 G Bm7/F# Em or Em7 >From this, it seems to make sense that all these chords form a synergy *up* the neck, too. Just pick out parts of these chords from their 'barres' going up the neck. For example: 035050 Is a fine sounding C chord. Moved up 2 frets, it's an odd sounding 'D', but (557700) is reasonable as is (-00775). Keep moving up the neck transforming from one to another of the chords in the original sequence. You will find the pattern repeat itself every 3 positions. Do the same kind of trick with other chord shapes and progressions up the neck and you will find oodles of barre chord substitutes, some of which sound so good, you'll wonder if you need a barre again. .. You will, but this gives you breathing space to learn them -- end of forwarded message -- =========== if you cant make one finger make all the strings ring... so what? unless youre playing some very stragne chord (such as 444444) youll never need to be able to. as long as the fat part of your finger can hold the low E and the top of your finger hold the B and high E, thats all you need. well, doing a barred minor requires the G string too, but you get the point. Smoker ======== Doing alternating bass on the low 3 strings while keeping the melody on the high 3 strings in open tunings OFTEN require barring all the strings with the first finger. ====== 'Tater: All is not lost. First of all, I doubt that many people can play a clean barre with just one finger and no other strings fretted. That's something that just doesn't happen in playing a guitar in standard tuning. You are always fretting other strings and, therefore, the barre finger only has to fret a couple of strings. Even then, there are 'workarounds'. Nobody says you have to strum all six strings. As far as the 'wrinkles' in the joints: I don't think you actually use the fleshy part of the finger for the barre. I fret with the SIDE of the finger and have developed a hard callus line along the edge of my index finger. Hurt like hell at first: about a year before I started playing guitar I had burned the bejeezus out of my hand when I spilled a saucepan of boiling caramel syrup while making flan; it coated my hand and promptly solidified leaving me with six weeks of changing bandages twice a day. The pressure of the barre finger fell right on tender scar tissue all the way from the base of my finger to the big knuckle. Ouch. Now, that the calluses have built up, it's no problem. -- end of forwarded message -- I agree. Once you start playing with a group you hardly ever play a 6 string chord. Just because a guitar has 6 strings it doesn't mean that you have to play all of them at once. Pt -- end of forwarded message -- >Here's my problem: Barre chords. After trying for weeks, I still cannot play >them with snipped, weeks? It can take quite some time more than that to really get the hand strength and skill set to grab barres easily. Some will say "don't bother" ... personally, I think it's an essential skill and it just takes time, practice and patience. You might try all those hand exercises too, but I'm not convinvced they do much good, or at least, no more good than actually just practicing on the guitar. ======= Turn your index finger slightly so that you barre the strings with the outer, meaty part of the finger. Other than that, it just takes time. They sound like crap... and then one day, they won't. ====== When I used to teach I would tell my students that clean barre chords are not a matter of strength, but efficiency and technique. After 33 years of playing, I have to occasionally remind myself to let up the pressure on these chords. Done correctly, its amazing how little force they require. A couple of things that usually help are to fret the strings as close the fret as possible and to position your hand so that the last joint of your finger comes down perpendicular to the fingerboard, except for the barre finger, of course. Firm, hard callouses that only time can build helps too. Many hours of practice along with good technique is what will bring these chords around. ====== Yup, I'm with Dave; having used barres since the age of 10, I find that I can deliver them with an almost totally relaxed left hand. It's a zen thing. I don't say that to boast, just to offer the opinion, that there is no barrier to them other than learning how to do it and refining the technique over time.