Moving between bar chords with more speed/accuracy

[BRISTOL86]

Hi guys

Does anyone have any exercises or tips to improve the speed and accuracy of bar chord changes? After about a year of trying I can finally form the chords and have them ring out cleanly, but I struggle to change between them, especially for example going from one shape to another. It's almost one finger down at a time still!

Thanks!

[JonPR]

Give yourself another year. Seriously!

In the meantime, just work on other stuff, anything you enjoy. There's countless songs with very few barre chords, or with none at all. The more you're playing anything, the stronger and more flexible your fingers are getting. So the secret to faster progress is just being able to maximise your hours per day - which means enjoying it, more than anything else.

Of course, do the odd barre chord exercise in the middle of all that, but don't sweat it. There's no specific secret for getting better at any single technique, other than repetitive practice. (You proved that with your year of getting barre chords to actually work in the first place...) Repetitive is boring, naturally, which is why you need all that other more enjoyable stuff.

[ALCO]

Something I've done when learning other instruments and now on the guitar, is to initially approach accuracy and speed as separate practice sessions. Continue working slowly on the accuracy as before but also, take a chord proggression and with no concern as to how it sounds, play it through at a reasonably brisk tempo without hesitating or stopping whenever you miss or mute any note.
Kind regards,

[MC5C]

Lots of chords will sound just fine with four or five strings ringing out, not all six. In jazz it's very common to simplify chords to three or four important, defining notes. In rock there are those two note "power chords". Any chord with the root on the fifth string (like a B major in second position) leave the F# on the sixth string out, and even leave the F# on the first string out, and just play the middle four strings. The F# is the fifth of the chord, so about the least important note for the chord to sound good, and there is a perfectly good sounding F# on fourth string fourth fret, so leave the other two out and the chord will still sound full. Other than that, it's just time doing the repetitive physical motions. I struggle with it still, after 40 years, it's just that I am now struggling with getting the third or fourth different inversion of a 7b9 chord, m7b5, etc, under my fingers so I don't have to think about it.

[Pualee]

I just play with them...

Play I IV I V I IV I V using the E shaped barre as the root and the A shaped barre as the IV and V. I can hit those as fast as I can strum now.
E.G. ||: G C G D :||

Try vi I V IV vi and vi I V vi V IV vi as follows:
Em shape as vi
E shape as I
A shape as V
A shape as the IV
Am shape as vi
C shape as V
C Shape as IV
Em shape as VI

E.G. ||: Am C G F Am Am C G Am G F Am :||

You will start to recognize the relationship between the roots, and the Nashville system with no effort. You will see how the IV can align with either the I or the vi easily... there are many relationships. You can play most chord progressions in several places with minimal movement of the hands. You'll also gain speed. Using partial chords and recognizing scale degrees and embellishments instead of full barres will help you start opening up the whole fret board for soloing.

Its all about just practicing

The more you do it, the more your hands will find natural efficiencies. And I agree with the previous poster that said to practice for another year.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by BRISTOL86

Hi guys

Does anyone have any exercises or tips to improve the speed and accuracy of bar chord changes? After about a year of trying I can finally form the chords and have them ring out cleanly, but I struggle to change between them, especially for example going from one shape to another. It's almost one finger down at a time still!

Thanks!

Put your fret hand on your lap, then grab a g barre chord at the 3rd fret. See if you can get it to ring clear without adjustment. Keep doing it until you can, then try the B minor barre, 2nd fret, same way, hand on your lap, then just grab the chord. Don't race, you are going for accuracy and confidence. Use this method with the other chords as well. Also practice 4 strums of a g chord, 3rd fret then 4 strums of C minor, going back and forth, work the shapes on the same fret.

[BRISTOL86]

Thanks all, really good advice

[amyFB]

I use my middle finger as a helper to hold down the index finger.

[jeanray1113]

Lots of good comments here that I won't repeat. What I do want to express is a word of caution about overdoing it. Barre chords put a lot of pressure on the thumb, as well as the fretting fingers. I've been working on chord melody arrangements over the past few months, which I enjoy immensely and am anxious to get the up to performance level. So, I was practicing pretty intensely, and I developed trigger thumb and had to have a cortisone injection last week. It's feeling almost completely back to normal, but it is not unusual for this condition to improve temporarily and the require another injection and/or surgery. So now I am looking at practice more like an athlete would--you don't suddenly ramp up speed or distance if you want to avoid injury. So, another good reason to mix practice of barre chords with other stuff.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by BRISTOL86

Hi guys

Does anyone have any exercises or tips to improve the speed and accuracy of bar chord changes? After about a year of trying I can finally form the chords and have them ring out cleanly, but I struggle to change between them, especially for example going from one shape to another. It's almost one finger down at a time still!

Thanks!

Hi Martin...
When we switch Barre chords, its the chords shapes and not the Barre finger that slows us down. A simple and often effective practice exercise is to alternate the Barre chords shapes with fingers 2-3-4 without the Barre in place.

For instance switch from the E-maj to A-min shape on the same fret back-n-forth ten times. Repeat it many times. You can practice practice this with and without strumming at the same time. In fact practicing it without playing trains the fingers to move to the new spot without distractions.

Once you master E-maj to A-min then choose other pairs of chords shapes.

Hope these simple exercises help



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