Barre F, some advice

Hi there people,

This is my first post to a forum here so please bear with me. I have been playing guitar a little over 6 months now, and can play a few chords and bash out a version of house of rising sun amongs another few songs.

Alls going quite well, the only REALLY annoying thing is
something I guess all find hard at first and thats play
F in its barre'd form. Please tell me this is just practice, basically my problem is I never quite press all the strings down (usually the 5th and 6th string) and/or mute strings with my middle finger cause I'm leaning for the barre.

So my question is, how do you get the pressure on the finger to press down all the strings simultaneously ? What position should my wrist be in (I'm sure I'm doing this wrong as that seems where the pressure should come from) or is this really insanely difficult and its just practice practice practice ??


Krys

Well the pad of your thumb should be behind the fretboard, if you want good technique you should always play like that, directly opposite your middle finger at all times(I think, I play like that but I havent got a guitar handy to make sure)

To help strengthen your index finger, try barreing with just that finger, dont make the major chord shape. Start up on the 9th or 7th fret and when you can barre there with ease, holding down all strings, start moving down the board making sure you get all the strings until you reach the first - then you can play the F chord. The bad habit I developed was that I learnt the barre chord as a shape and didnt have the strenght of the barre on all strings. Its not a problem on the F-shaped chords but when you start playing more complicated barres then you need the strenght in every finger. A mate showed me this technique and the problem was fixed easily. Itll take you a while to get the strength but its makes things so much easier. itll help you whatever type of music you play.

All you need to do is keep at it and you will get their eventually, the more you practice, the faster you will get it ! Bar chords are a major falling block and learning them hurts, however, they open up so much in the way of possibilities they are totally worth persevering with !
Keep at it dude !

Thats right.

I can still get severe cramps in the hand if I play too
many too advanced barre chords.
But it will get alot better, you just have to practise.
You would be amazed if you knew what your fingers can
do if you just train them...

I have been playing for about 3 years, and my wrist still hurts after a long barre chord jam. Takes time I guess.

Originally posted by Led Zeppelin
Well the pad of your thumb should be behind the fretboard, if you want good technique you should always play like that, directly opposite your middle finger at all times

Use your thumb behind the neck to "press" for some leverage. You can also bring your fretting arms elbow into the your body so that it is about a 45 degree angle with the fretboard giving you more leverage to press down. This technique becomes void with those who can play barre because they are strong enough in an all or none concept. This technique will also straitin it self out as soon as you learn to play barre chords because eventually fast switching wont allow you to be reangleing the guitar. Just give it a try..you wil know what i mean. :)

oh yeah and practice!

Originally posted by Tele Master
I have been playing for about 3 years, and my wrist still hurts after a long barre chord jam. Takes time I guess.

I've been playing for 10 years or so, and it still hurts sometimes.
Of course I can take alot more than I could 10 years ago,
but I dont think you can get rid of the pain completely.
A 10 minute song with lots of difficult barre chords will
make your wrist hurt, even if you've played for 30 years.

The single most important thing to remember is that its about positioning not pressure!! If your fingers are positioned correctly then you shouldnt have to press down hard. So mess around with the positioning of your fingers, move them slightly up or down or rotate them slightly.
I had this problem with power chords- i kept hitting dead notes cos my fingers were squint!!