Janice...

Getting advice on anything from a group is going to result in various answers. Some will be very helpful, some not as much. I am a pretty darned good guitarist, but I am a horrible teacher of the instrument. What has worked successfully for one person may not for another person.

I have very, very small hands for a man. I can comfortably get my hands in a womens size Medium glove. My wife's fingers are half an inch longer than mine. And she has a normal-sized hand for a lady. Yet, I can make a stretch of 5 frets with my left hand. That is because I intentionally worked on (practiced) chords that were very physically difficult for me to make. I would often spend 2 hours every other day doing nothing but practicing those chords..absolutely nothing else. I can't tell you how badly my hands and fingers ached from all that stretching!

The quality of the guitar makes a huge difference. Also, as someone stated previously, a steel string acoustic is noticeably more difficult to manipulate for the chords than an electric guitar is. The srings are closer to the fingerboard, the fingerboard, most often, is more rounded which adds to the ease of making chords. Also, in most cases, the neck itself is not as thick or fat. And those things do make a noticeable difference.

Yes, it is very possible to learn on an acoustic guitar. Thousands of people have done it, many quite successfully. None-the-less, it is much easier on a decent electric guitar.

Somebody previously mentioned learning to make the open "E" chord without using the index finger. I fully agree. That worked quite well for me. By doing so, you are employing the same finger utilization as you use with the barre chords.

I noticed several folks commenting that they use barre chords sparingly. I use them constantly. A capo can accomplish giving you the desired chord by moving it up and down the neck. However, by doing so, you get a different tone and dynamics of what you hear. An open "A" chord on the 2nd fret, with the 1st and 5th strings open, sounds much different than an "A" chord barred on the 5th, 6th and 7th frets.

The second chord of the song "Something" is a major 7th chord. Other than "A", "C" and "F",you cannot reasonably make a major 7th chord with an open fingering.

Everyone has a different approach and idea. I kind of chuckled when I read Ben's "Vulcan Salute" comment. Not at all because I thought it was silly, rather, I still cannot do that! I can do the original separation of 2 fingers either side of the "V". But I cannot move either outer finger from that position without dragging the adjoining finger with it! I was told to practice that when I first started playing in the late 50s. Of course it wasn't called that back then. I couldn't do it then...can't do it now!

Good luck! After all that, I know I haven't helped any. But those are the thoughts that came to mind.

Alan