Hello all .I've just finished fundamentals 2 and moved onto blues 1. It's going quite well apart from more Barre chords ! I'm certain they were put on this world to convince an arthritic old man that he should be playing with model trains or doing some other gentle hobby . My question is though, I'm on "How to play the blues in any key" and on the thick E string. I would say top or bottom E but as I'm a Brit who drives on the wrong side of the road, how would you expect me to know what is up or down? . There is a stretch from 1 on the E string to 5 on the A string . Apart from dislocating my fingers or re breaking my wrist, are there any suggestions how I can achieve this? At the moment I'm no where near reaching this . Anders makes it look so easy. Thanks in advance for any help offered. Eric
Any advice welcome.
Hey, Eric. Congrats on working through GF 1 & 2!
Originally Posted by: epalf... apart from more Barre chords ! I'm certain they were put on this world to convince an arthritic old man that he should be playing with model trains or doing some other gentle hobby[/quote]
Haha! You have a good sense of humor about it. :)[br]
Originally Posted by: epalfMy question is though, I'm on "How to play the blues in any key" and on the thick E string. I would say top or bottom E but as I'm a Brit who drives on the wrong side of the road, how would you expect me to know what is up or down?[p]Just to clarify for future reference: up is higher in pitch, down is lower in pitch. The guitar is kind of upside down because the bass (lower pitched) strings are closer to the ceiliing. So this does get confusing.[quote=epalf]There is a stretch from 1 on the E string to 5 on the A string . Apart from dislocating my fingers or re breaking my wrist, are there any suggestions how I can achieve this?
I think Anders suggests an alternate voicing of that kind of riff later in the course. Or somewhere! :) Anyway, it is a huge stretch. So here are two possible alternate voicings you can use instead.
1. Just use the power chord, but let go of the root when you need the 6th.
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|---3---3----5---5---3---3----5---5----|
|---1---1-------------1---1---------------|
2. Move the root up an octave. Thi is the exact same chord, but with a slightly different voicing.
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|---3---3----3---3---3---3----3---3----|
|---3---3----5---5---3---3----5---5----|
|-------------------------------------------|
Those are perfectly valid substitutes for those difficult stretches. Hope that helps. Please ask more if necessary. Best of success with the blues!
Thanks for the reply Christopher. As someone on this forum said somewhere " you do it because you want to learn not that you have to " So sometimes you need a sense of humour . to get through the difficult times . Your response was very useful though .It shows how important theory is . I'll learn from that. Saying that I've carried on. Changed the height of how I hold the guitar altered my thumb position , and I'm getting there slowly. Little way to go to get there though. Thanks again, it shows if you can't manage something, there is possibly a way around it until you can master it. Eric
