How to play this chord

[LiveMusic]

Ballad Of A Thin Man... if I start in Am, the walkdown playing the bass line is...

Am
Am/G#
Am/G
Am/F#

I can't play Am/G#, need longer fingers or a healthier left hand. Broke it in 3 places 45 years ago. Doesn't bother me much but it probably causes less flexibility than I wish. I thought of playing Am by barreing strings 3 and 4 on the 2nd fret instead of using my middle and ring fingers as is normal. But I still can't get there. If I were to practice this barred Am for weeks, I wonder if I could get there. How can you stretch a hand?

In lieu of that, can you think of another way I could play this progression? Only other thing I can come up with is start in Dm but I can probably come closer to hitting the first note using Am than Dm.

Do you come across problems like this and eventually get it?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

Ballad Of A Thin Man... if I start in Am, the walkdown playing the bass line is...

Am
Am/G#
Am/G
Am/F#

I can't play Am/G#, need longer fingers or a healthier left hand. Broke it in 3 places 45 years ago. Doesn't bother me much but it probably causes less flexibility than I wish. I thought of playing Am by barreing strings 3 and 4 on the 2nd fret instead of using my middle and ring fingers as is normal. But I still can't get there. If I were to practice this barred Am for weeks, I wonder if I could get there. How can you stretch a hand?

In lieu of that, can you think of another way I could play this progression? Only other thing I can come up with is start in Dm but I can probably come closer to hitting the first note using Am than Dm.

Do you come across problems like this and eventually get it?

Well you need the A on the 3rd string and the bass progression, so how about just playing it as a interval? (Just pluck the two strings on each required first beat). I'm assuming this is a sing along tune?

[soma5]

You could play the walkdown an octave higher, that is, walk the middle voice down. So that would look like:

x02210
x0211x
x02010
x04210

I'd play the second chord with a partial barre, and that makes it hard to play the open e at the top which is why I put an x there. You might experiment with other fingerings if you require that note.

The 4th chord requires some stretching, although it's really not that bad.

You could also use some combination of your original chord voicings and these, switching when the stretch becomes too difficult. You should also know that it's not necessary to play every note in a chord that is written to support a song, so you could leave some notes out in your original voicings especially for the problematic one.

[LiveMusic]

Originally Posted by soma5

You could play the walkdown an octave higher, that is, walk the middle voice down. So that would look like:

x02210
x0211x
x02010
x04210

I'd play the second chord with a partial barre, and that makes it hard to play the open e at the top which is why I put an x there. You might experiment with other fingerings if you require that note.

The 4th chord requires some stretching, although it's really not that bad.

You could also use some combination of your original chord voicings and these, switching when the stretch becomes too difficult. You should also know that it's not necessary to play every note in a chord that is written to support a song, so you could leave some notes out in your original voicings especially for the problematic one.

That is a great idea and solves it, don't know why I didn't think of that but that is a reason I create posts on forums sometimes... because I am addle brained and a forum member often solves it!

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

Ballad Of A Thin Man... if I start in Am, the walkdown playing the bass line is...

Am
Am/G#
Am/G
Am/F#

I can't play Am/G#, need longer fingers or a healthier left hand. Broke it in 3 places 45 years ago. Doesn't bother me much but it probably causes less flexibility than I wish. I thought of playing Am by barreing strings 3 and 4 on the 2nd fret instead of using my middle and ring fingers as is normal. But I still can't get there. If I were to practice this barred Am for weeks, I wonder if I could get there. How can you stretch a hand?

In lieu of that, can you think of another way I could play this progression? Only other thing I can come up with is start in Dm but I can probably come closer to hitting the first note using Am than Dm.

Do you come across problems like this and eventually get it?

Playing the progression an octave higher as per soma's suggestion is a great workaround.
If you still wanted to add the low bass string for effect, or have it available, you could tune it up a half-step to F. That way the G# would be within reach.
You might need to mute it here and there, but maybe the entire song works without the low E.
Just an additional suggestion.

[lowrider]

If you're talking about playing in in open chords, I would cheat!

I'd make an A chord using my first two fingers on the D and G strings and then there walk up is pretty easy.

[LiveMusic]

Originally Posted by lowrider

If you're talking about playing in in open chords, I would cheat!

I'd make an A chord using my first two fingers on the D and G strings and then there walk up is pretty easy.

Another great idea, yep, a full Am isn't necessary and, yep, I can reach it and do a walkdown from there. After the first two notes, I can even switch to regular fingering if desired. Thanks!

[ghostnote]

Yes, I wouldn’t stress about it. Just mess around with it until it sounds the way you want. It doesn’t matter what you’re playing necessarily, it matters how it sounds to you. A lot of great guitarists don’t play things the “right” way - you could be the next one!

[cliff_the_stiff]

I think I would use my thumb

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

I thought of playing Am by barreing strings 3 and 4 on the 2nd fret instead of using my middle and ring fingers as is normal. But I still can't get there. If I were to practice this barred Am for weeks, I wonder if I could get there. How can you stretch a hand?

Barring 2nd fret risks getting a C# on 2nd string - or you mute the 2nd string and lose the "minor" element altogether.

If you can get your pinky to fret 5 with your index on the 4th string (place the pinky first and stretch the index back), this works:

Am = x-0-2-5-x-x (barre 5 with pinky if you can! but these 3 are a complete Am chord)
Am/G# = 4-x-2-5-x-x - ring on 6th (muting 5th)
Am/G = 3-x-2-5-x-x - middle on 6th ( " )

Then you're back on a standard Am/F# (middle can slide down to 2, play Am shape with other 3 fingers).

Otherwise - soma5's idea works fine (the line doesn't need to be in the bass).

BTW, if stretching the pinky to 4 from a standard Am shape is too hard - but you want to work from that shape if you can - you should find 4-x-2-1-1-x easier (index on the 1's). And then 3-(0)-2-0-1-(0) for Am/G. (It's C/G if the 5th is muted, but that works too.)

Or just play the Stairway to Heaven intro with 4 beats per chord instead of 2 ...