messed up fingers

I was looking at the Blues Guitar course - this is very intriguing, but here is my issue. I am an old goat coming to electric guitar late. I have arthritis in my hands and every time I try a video or DVD blues course, I get stuck on barre chords, get frustrated and quit. If you have a solution you can offer, please let me know. I am just not going to be able to get the barre chords (at least full ones) down, so I don't know if I should just forget about playing blues. I play fingerstyle acoustic blues and love it, but would love to find a way to go electric. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks so much for your consideration. john .

just to clarify ... I can make a barre - but can't ghet the other fingers to move where they need to be ... is there such a thing as partial barre chords sort of like power chordfs to full chords that I might be able to try?

Hey mate. Keep trying is the obvious advice. It all comes eventually. But...... you totally reminded me of this lesson. Might be a bad habit, but it's what you are asking for I think?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mbfyc3ADSpo&t=322s

Hey from one old goat to another. I'm in my later 60s and was/is a lifetime roofer with enough arthritis for a couple of folks but like everything else in life, I've always found a way to still accomplish my goal. I've studied what makes the fullness of a chord. I've discovered that actually from GT that you can strike the right strings and make it rain. For me, fretting certain strings together can almost sound as full as a complete barre chord and it's much easier on my fingers. Actually, one example of CCR Heard It Through The Grapevine. There are barre chords and there are particular strings fretted to make a lot of the same full sound! An added bit of challenge was back in '92 my right arm and hand got pretty well covered in hot asphalt. After skin grafts, my right pointer finger (new) skin stretched in a way that I couldn't do what I could've done before. But over the years with perseverance and much practice, I worked through a lot and can somewhat play finger style banjo type rolls. Keep at it! No one else can do it for you, my friend, and the rewards are endless!!

My experience is pretty minimal however just to mention that in fundermentals 2 Anders covers ways simplifying some barre chords - this may(?) be a workaround likewise the second image below may help if stumped somewhere. As W3 alludes there should be a workaround somewhere... If you've signed up for a course I'll be certain an instructor will soon jump in and keep you 'right' :)

Originally Posted by: guitarlover2022I have arthritis in my hands and every time I try a video or DVD blues course, I get stuck on barre chords, get frustrated and quit. If you have a solution you can offer, please let me know. I am just not going to be able to get the barre chords (at least full ones) down, so I don't know if I should just forget about playing blues.

There are plenty of ways to voice chords without having to use a full barre chord. Anders covers some of them in his Fundamentals courses & in the Blues style courses.

And electric guitars are often much easier to physically play than acoustics. Hope that helps!

Thank you all so much ! - really appreciate it. Your advice helps a lot and gives me some hope - so I definitely will check out the links you sent and the Anders Fundamentals Course. I am pretty sure that learning a "partial " or different way to voice a barre chord will be the answer. Again - thanks to all of you for talking the time to reply.

I've had problems with "E shape" barre chords since developing tendon issues in my fretting hand.

Methods I use are:

wrap my thumb around the neck to press the 6th string, and index finger holds down strings 1 and 2;

wrap thumb around the neck to press the 6th string, mute the 5th with edge of ring finger, ring finger also holds down 4th string, middle finger on 3rd, index on 2nd and edge of that finger mutes the 1st sting; or

just find alternative moveable chord shapes for a more interesting sound entirely.

You could also adapt a lot of acoustic blues to an electric guitar. After all, the strings and fretboard are essentially the same

Thanks Draconus ......

& Chris Schlegel - since you were the only teacher who responded - do you offer any courses that might help?

Originally Posted by: guitarlover2022

Chris Schlegel - since you were the only teacher who responded - do you offer any courses that might help?

[/quote]

It depends on your skill level & specific goals. Referring to your original post.

[quote=guitarlover2022]I play fingerstyle acoustic blues and love it, but would love to find a way to go electric.

I'm assuming this means you can play most open chords & can fingerpick & strum. I'm assuming this means you can't yet, but want to learn to play chords on the rest of the fretboard & how to play blues riffs, licks & solos.

It depends on what kind of blues style, artists, songs you want to play on electric. It's not necessary to play barre chords. In fact, many electric blues players don't because they play partial chord voicings. Anders gets into all that in the Blues courses.

But you will have to learn some other skills, not commonly associated with acoustic fingerstyle, in particular quick small voiced motions & single note lines (riffs, licks, solos).

I have a ton of tutorials that can help with that. :)

I encourage you to start working through the Blues 1 style course. Skip anything with barre chords, or that might cause too much discomfort & look for material that is interesting & aimed at what you want to learn. If that's all too easy, go to Blues 2.

https://www.guitartricks.com/course.php?input=blues1

I also encourage you to look through the blues songs for tunes that you'd like to play. Looking at the guitar playing in those songs will give you an idea of what specific skills you need to work on.

https://www.guitartricks.com/songs/blues

I have a ton of tutorials that can help with specific skills in blues style. For example, these will show you the basics of switching between rhythm & lead playing.

E Blues For Beginners

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=189

E Blues Rhythm & Lead 1

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=170

E Blues Rhythm & Lead 2

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=918

These will show you how to build bluesy chord voicings & lead lines into a complete stereotypical song arrangement.

Blues a Blues Arrangement 1

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=2380

Blues a Blues Arrangement 2

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=2768

Most of these & more are contained in this collection aimed at building a repertiore of licks to play.

https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/Bread-and-Butter-Butter-Blues-Licks

Hope that helps. Best of success!