Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitar
The barre chords are mostly technique with just enough strength to place them. Come off the power and study the strings your index finger needs to fret. Focus on only those. Then, the idea is to keep just those strings ringing when the other fingers are fretting their respective strings. It's a dance of technique. Once you get the index finger to properly fret the required strings you need to hold that finger's shape as you engage the other fingers.
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That's the part that gives me trouble. I can form the barres cleanly most of the time now, but not quickly. Changing to and from them is slow. So, I broke it down to figure out exactly what wasn't working. What I realized is that the other 3 fingers were requiring too much time for correct placement. For instance, to play the open Am and E Major I use my first 3 fingers. Those chords are ingrained into my first 3 fingers so they stay together and come down quick and clean and all at once. No extra attention required. But to play an Am or E Major with my 2nd, 3rd, 4th fingers for the Am and E major form barre chords is a whole 'nother thing. Because I lack the muscle memory for playing Am/E Maj shapes with those 3 fingers, I have to be mindful of where those fingers are going, and then make adjustments, while the first finger is doing its job barring 5 or 6 strings. Slow! To improve this, I've been working on going up and down the fretboard from Am to E using the fingers 2,3,4 (and without barring) on every fret, to build up muscle memory, and if I'm playing songs with the open chords, I use fingers 2,3,4. Been doing it for A Major too. I
think it's working.