I'm playing for 9 months now, i learn on my own and try to learn all kinds of stuff. The basic chords are no problem (execpt A, whatever i do, i need to go trough a lot of pain to get it right, and that doesn't go well if you want to pick up some speed). I recently started on praticing bar chords and that is starting to go too, altough, very slowly. But with the power chords i have a lot of problems, my fingers hurt like hell from them. Could it be that i simply press down to hard on them and that i should practice more on the placement of my fingers instead of strength?