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  #1  
Old 01-31-2005, 11:37 PM
RL82 RL82 is offline
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Default Am I doing it wrong?

For the last year, I've been basically teaching myself guitar. It's going pretty well except for one thing that bugs me. There is a small nuance with the way I form my barre chords. Instead of forming my three fingers like you would form them when making the shape of an open E or A minor chord, my fingers are formed more like a gradual step (THINK: open C) with my middle finger lowest, ring finger next, then pinky highest when it should be middle finger lowest, pinky next, and ring finger highest. I hope this is making some sense to you. Now there is no difference in the sound of the chord obviously, but sometimes I have to alter other chords stemming from the barre just because of the way I form it. My question is should I just do exercises to train myself to learn the barre the traditional way or is it ok to just play it the way I do? Thanks in advance.
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Old 02-01-2005, 12:04 AM
raidion raidion is offline
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well I dont have the same problem that you have. I think its just all preference. I'm no guitar god or anything but I'm sure that most people here are gonna tell you that you should do whatever feels more comfortable or more natural. The way I see it. If you decided to go your way and keep playing it that way you are, you're gonna have to practice when switching to other chords or somehting like that. But if you go the "traditional' way, you'd still have to get used to playing the chord in that form anyways. so I say just play it however it feels right.
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Old 02-01-2005, 12:07 AM
jazzinthebox jazzinthebox is offline
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My question would be to ask you why you aren't using just one finger on your barre chords? That usually makes things a lot easier.

The second part of my response is also pretty simple. Don't get caught up in the idea that each chord has to be played with a specific fingering. Your fingerings should be based upon how you can most easily shift to the next upcoming chord, which often means that one chord can be played several different ways. The decision on what fingering to use should be your own. If you discover that it's a pain to shift from this chord using the fingerings you describe to another, why keep tormenting yourself if you think there's an easier way?
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Old 02-01-2005, 12:18 AM
RL82 RL82 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jazzinthebox
My question would be to ask you why you aren't using just one finger on your barre chords? That usually makes things a lot easier.
I don't completely understand what you mean by this. I barre a chord with my first (pointer finger) barring all six strings; my question was regarding the other three finger positions. But thanks for the responses guys...


That's not me, but when make the same chord, my pinky is high and the ring finger is in the middle. Hope that makes more sense.

Last edited by RL82; 02-01-2005 at 12:27 AM. Reason: pic too big.
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  #5  
Old 02-01-2005, 12:35 AM
jazzinthebox jazzinthebox is offline
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The way you described this made me assume you were trying to do the barre itself with three fingers, which is sometimes done but not the most convenient way. I now understand that you were referring to more complex chords with a barre acting as a capo. Like written above, it really doesn't matter what your fingering is if you find what you are doing to be most comfortable. If you think the other way is better, by all means practice breaking this habit at once before it solidifies.
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  #6  
Old 02-01-2005, 12:44 AM
RL82 RL82 is offline
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Thanks... makes me feel a lot better that I can just concentrate on learning more things rather than unlearning what took me 6 months to solidify.
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Old 02-01-2005, 09:05 AM
DJR DJR is offline
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I would suggest you learn to use the traditional fingering, so that, when you change to chords (in the same barre position) requiring you to move your pinky, you don't then also have to move your ring finger to replace the note the pinky was previously fretting.
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Old 02-01-2005, 09:20 AM
dthumb dthumb is offline
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I'd think it would be really hard , if not impossible to add a 4th or 9th from there. If I were you , i'd learn the traditional formation and get comfortable with both..why not? Your fingering could come in handy one day...especially in some open tunings.
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