Leverage!

[roadbiker]

I have been learing Julia by The Beatles for a couple of months now. Er, let me correct that... I learned it and know how to play it (about 95% anyway), so I guess it is more accurate to say that I have been practicing it on an off for most of that time.

I play it in standard tuning, capo'd on the secind fret. I have all of the open chords down and the fingerstyle patter nearly perfect. Nearly. After the open chords, the song calls for barre chords: Am7 - Am9 - B7 - F9 - Fm7, then back to the open chords. My prblem is the F9 and Fm7. I have no problems with any of the other barre chords, but when I get to these I can't seem to get a clean sound from all of the strings because I can't get enough presure on the strings with my index finger. I just realized that it is because I have less leverage on the strings when my hand is closer to the capo/further away from my body. If I move the whole guitar in closer that is, to the right), then I get more leverage and can clamp down on the strings better. Mind you, I am not white-kunckling the neck/fretboard, but I need to do something to clen up the "dead" sounding D string.

I also discovered that holding the guitar in the classical playing position makes it a little easier for me to get a cleaner sound.

And that's all I have to say.

Jim