Hi

I'm 46 and i took up the guitar around 3 years ago. When I'm playing open chords and basic bar chords I'm ok. However, I've developed two problems.

1) when i remove the bass notes from a bar chord I have real difficulty in pressing the top two string (B+E) consistently. This has resulted in me having a lot of pain and stiffness in my left index finger! I can only imagine I am doing something wrong?

2) This is a little difficult to explain. I've been looking at lessons to play in the style of Hendrix. I think its an inversion when you play a bar chord with a higher bass note? I have great difficulty in doing this without deadening the other strings.

If anyone can give me advice on either of these issues I would much appreciate it.

thanks