Originally Posted by: mcchuck47

jsparks3, thank you, yes keeping the elbow tight, I always had most trouble with my barre finger sometimes the E,B, or G string would not ring out, so i just kept pushing harder too no sucess, made my hand and elbow hurt. I'm a lefty, still same concept, will checkout the Hotel Califonia, top of the list of one of my songs too learn. Thank you

I had to give up guitar for several years due to persistant forearm and wrist pain. I finally went to a Physical Theripist and she brought me back to guitar playing. One of her "fixes" was to have me stop holding my elbow tight to my body. Her rational was that if you look at the path (along your fretting arm) that you are applying pressure to... you can easily see how the tight elbow creates many more strain on your joints. Every time you work around a bent joint, you increase the friction and thus the resistance and strain to your muscles, joints, and with enough persistance even your nerves.

She had me change this tight elbow by playing in front of a mirror. It took me a while to get comfortable with this new position (more shoulder movement/ less wrist bending). However I am playing guitar again, and I am sure losing the tight elbow was a large part of my return to playing guitar.

I can see how this might help you to get your first grip on playing Barr Chords, my experience clearly speaks against long term use of this strategy. Once you can play a clear Barr Chord, I would suggest there are good reasons to move away from that tight elbow crutch before it causes long term problems.

I know there are many guitarist who play with a tight elbow, but I suspect all of them would benifit from reducing the strain on their arms. In my case it was my return ticket to ride.