JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Musician Message Forum Need help with barre chords

Hi Janice

The regular F chord was enough to make me throw the guitar down and give up more than a few times. The way I got passed it and Barre chords was by learning on a guitar with very HIGH action.

The strings were so far from the fret board nobody could play it lol.. Kept at it until finally I got a new guitar and there after
not only nailed the barre chords but proceeded to crush the neck

If by some chance you have an old acoustic around with high action and hard to play use that everyday for a week. That will solve your problem.
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If not then here's some very useful tips.....

1- Go to the first fret and play a basic E Major Chord

Only be sure to start the chord with second finger NOT the first then followed by you third finger & pinky.

Now - slide that chord up slowly to the second fret keeping the exact same hand position.

Then - lower your first finger across the first fret to make the barre. Seems you've been struggling with barring then trying to land the other three fingers. You may have better luck this way..

It's much easier to miss some or all of the 3 finger notes but you can't miss the barre. The problem is it will sound muted and muffled until you can press it firmly enough.
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2- If none of these works play bass instead lol.,.. No actually go the other way with it. Put the cappo high on the guitar say the 7th fret. Then play your barre chord WAy up there.

The Cappo will lower your action and make it way easler to press and the guitar neck will be smaller up high, again a bit easier.

Each day lower the cappo by one fret, this is like training wheels.
This will help I promise. The first suggestion is the Rocky way of doing things lol... The other two probably smarter

And of course keep at it. While I love open chords much more Barre chords are important... they give off POWER that nothing else can. Learn some WHO songs and see what I mean

All the best...