bar chords

I need tips on ow to pratice bar chords, for most things that I have trouble with there is some special way to practice it other than jsut doing it except this time there is no teacher sitting infront of me ready to help me

Everybody's hands are different, therefore, the grooves in each person's left hand index finger are in different spots. The problem occurs when one of the strings in one of your grooves. For me, I always had trouble playing the third string clean. There are a few things you can do, though. First off, try positioning your first finger higher or lower to see if you can avoid the grooves. Also, if you rotate your finger slightly to the left the grooves are not as pronounced and you should be able to play cleaner. My final suggestion is trying to make your bigger muscles do the work. (Try this sitting down)Instead of squeezing really hard between your index and thumb fingers (which is a weak muscles) try pulling your left arm back against the fretboard. You don't even need the thumb on the guitar for this exercise. If you were to just let go of the guitar and drop your arm, it would not go straight down to the floor, it would also go back towards you. Use gravity and the big muscles in your arm. You could also try pushing your body forward against the body of the guitar while your arm is pulling back to create an even stronger force.

Hi There-

Those are some excellent suggestions from Ryan!

Also, if the tone is giving you trouble but you still want to work on the theory and some outside-the-box variations on bar chords which are easier on the hands, I have a tutorial in "Open Bar" chords you might find useful. Here's the link:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=432

Good luck and have fun - Lisa McCormick, Guitar Tricks Instructor

Also, try practicing higher up the neck - you'll find it easier to hold a F major barre chord at the 13th fret than the 1st... Then you can move the shape down as your strength builds...

These tutorials cover an intro to barre chords and basic practice exercises with them:
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=450
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=464

Originally Posted by: LisaMcCHi There-

Those are some excellent suggestions from Ryan!

Also, if the tone is giving you trouble but you still want to work on the theory and some outside-the-box variations on bar chords which are easier on the hands, I have a tutorial in "Open Bar" chords you might find useful. Here's the link:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=432

Good luck and have fun - Lisa McCormick, Guitar Tricks Instructor

Actaully I had just watched that video before posting this

thanks for the tips ryan, also im playing sitting down already

Originally Posted by: LisaMcCHi There-

Those are some excellent suggestions from Ryan!

Also, if the tone is giving you trouble but you still want to work on the theory and some outside-the-box variations on bar chords which are easier on the hands, I have a tutorial in "Open Bar" chords you might find useful. Here's the link:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=432

Good luck and have fun - Lisa McCormick, Guitar Tricks Instructor

thnx for the direct link..
I have been self learning guitars since last 2 months and although I can do half bars pretty comfortably but the sounds of full bars are not as clear as it should be!! the lower e almost always gets dampened!

Hello again-

Are you using an acoustic, or an electric guitar? I remember when I was first learning bar chords I was struggling with them on the acoustic. Switching to electric made a world of difference - and allowed my hands to develop the proper strength and angling to allow me to play them cleanly on both styles of guitar.

Just another thought - Lisa

Well I can understand it being a challange for a beginer (Newb) starting bar cords because cause there using muscles the haven't used before therefore having little strength/grip and might be found quite difficult. Through practice it will get better (just like anything) but also you tend to find beginers have there thumb in the wrong place and things like that so you should try correct bad habbits before it gets too late. Also, with alot of people, it the quallity of the practice were they falt and not how much they do. So practive with easy barr chords like minors and use them higher up so it should be easyer to hold.