I'am so glad to hear someone else is having this trouble. My fingers are short an I'm woking on barre chords wah wah. It's so frustrating to me. One thing I have learned is when fretting you really have to bring your fretting hand almost in a C pattern. This keeps you from palming your hand on other frets. You really have to work at the position that works for you. It took me 6 months to figure that out. As far as fretting the top, I put dots on my fingertips. When I'm playing if the dots are looking at me my position is wrong. I do sometimes make them off a bit of the center ,as long as I can't see the dots I'm good. Now if anyone has any advice on these blasted barre chords I would appreciate hearing from you. Hope that helped you two out some....lindap