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  #1  
Old 11-05-2015, 09:07 PM
kellyfan161 kellyfan161 is offline
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Default F chord barre help

Okay, I have been practicing this F barre chord for about a month and it is driving me nuts... Here is what happens - I can barre the first fret and just play that without adding the other 3 fingers and do fine -- then when I add the other 3 fingers, it doesn't work and it is clunky!! What could be wrong?? Am I pressing to hard on my barre after adding the other 3 fingers? Anybody have any advice...I am starting to get frusturated lol
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Old 11-05-2015, 09:14 PM
Shuksan Shuksan is offline
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Do you have the same degree of difficulty playing the same barre shape further up the fretboard or does it get easier further away from the nut?
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Old 11-05-2015, 09:21 PM
kellyfan161 kellyfan161 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuksan View Post
Do you have the same degree of difficulty playing the same barre shape further up the fretboard or does it get easier further away from the nut?
I can play it better(not perfect, there is still a tad clunkyness but not super bad)
with the barre on the 3rd fret(same chord shape as F just two frets away)....but it's still not perfect... I seem to have trouble with the G string and D string when I do the F chord ... But when I take the barre index finger off and just play the other 3 fingers, I play fine
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Old 11-05-2015, 10:50 PM
Shuksan Shuksan is offline
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Barre chords are hardest to play with the barre on the first fret because your finger is right next to the nut and it requires more pressure to get the strings down cleanly on the frets than at any other position on the neck. If the nut slots on your guitar are not deep enough, that makes it even harder to fret at the first fret than it should be. So, part of it may be that you just need to practice playing barre chords more (try playing them at higher frets to get more comfortable with them) and part of the problem might be the set up on your guitar.

Try this: press each string down one at a time at the third fret with a finger of your right hand and, while holding the string down, press the same string down between the first and second frets with your left hand. If the nut slots are cut to the proper depths, there should be hardly any clearance between the string and the top of the first fret, and the string should barely move before it makes contact with the first fret when you press the string down with your left hand. The clearance before you press it down should be something like the thickness of a thin piece of paper. If the string moves noticeably more than that, then the nut slots are holding the strings too high above the fret which makes the fretting effort higher than it should be. The depth of the nut slots makes a big difference in the amount of pressure needed to fret close to the nut.

The bottom line though is it takes practice to get barre chords to the point you don't have to think about them. If I remember right, it took me longer than one month to get the f barre chord down on the cheap, high action classical guitar I had starting out. As a bonus, if you first master barre chords an an acoustic guitar, you will find them to be super easy on an electric guitar.
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Old 11-05-2015, 11:10 PM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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IMO the mindset on barre chords should be that are that they are no big deal (on a guitar with a decent setup). Going into practicing barre chords with the idea that they a difficult and take weeks or months or (gasp) years to master is an enabler of not analyzing what you are doing and forming bad habits.
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Old 11-06-2015, 12:06 AM
Shuksan Shuksan is offline
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I agree it certainly shouldn't take anything approaching years to get barre chords down, but everyone who plays guitar and remembers what it was like starting out knows that barre chords are generally harder to master than cowboy chords. Pretending they are no big deal potentially sets up a beginner to fail because they may wrongly decide they just don't have what it takes to play the instrument when all it takes is practice to get the fingers to do what they want. How long it takes depends on the individual, but once they've got it, they have learned how to learn something that once was challenging on the guitar and are ready to take on further challenges.
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Old 11-06-2015, 12:31 AM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuksan View Post
I agree it certainly shouldn't take anything approaching years to get barre chords down, but everyone who plays guitar and remembers what it was like starting out knows that barre chords are generally harder to master than cowboy chords. Pretending they are no big deal potentially sets up a beginner to fail because they may wrongly decide they just don't have what it takes to play the instrument when all it takes is practice to get the fingers to do what they want. How long it takes depends on the individual, but once they've got it, they have learned how to learn something that once was challenging on the guitar and are ready to take on further challenges.
Most likely moderate respect for the task at hand is the best way to have the least frustration and the speediest success. Also some other basic abilities of guitar playing should be obtained first. However I do roll my eyes when I read how long some people say it took to be able to play barre chords. A lot of things on guitar are harder to do well and take more continuous practice to maintain proficiency than do barre chords.
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Old 11-06-2015, 02:59 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kellyfan161 View Post
I can play it better(not perfect, there is still a tad clunkyness but not super bad)
If it's easier away from 1st fret, you may have a too-high nut.
Try putting a capo on 1st fret and check again. If the strings are noticeably easier to fret (even just a little), then your nut is too high.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kellyfan161 View Post
with the barre on the 3rd fret(same chord shape as F just two frets away)....but it's still not perfect... I seem to have trouble with the G string and D string when I do the F chord ... But when I take the barre index finger off and just play the other 3 fingers, I play fine
I'm not clear what you mean there.
The G and D strings are fretted by the other fingers. You have trouble holding them with middle and pinky? (The index doesn't need to hold all 6 firmly to the fret.)
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Old 11-06-2015, 12:07 PM
kellyfan161 kellyfan161 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
If it's easier away from 1st fret, you may have a too-high nut.
Try putting a capo on 1st fret and check again. If the strings are noticeably easier to fret (even just a little), then your nut is too high.
I'm not clear what you mean there.
The G and D strings are fretted by the other fingers. You have trouble holding them with middle and pinky? (The index doesn't need to hold all 6 firmly to the fret.)
Yeah, when I just Barre the first fret with just my pointer finger, all strings sound fine..then when I add my other 3 fingers on the G D and A strings, it gets clunky..and the g, d and sometimes the B and A strings don't work ...I don't know if my index finger shifts ever so slightly or what is going on...or if my other 3 fingers aren't pressing hard enough lol or both!
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Old 11-07-2015, 10:42 AM
jwing jwing is offline
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Practice this very slowly and speed up only after after you have achieved proficiency at your current speed:

Start fingering a chord with your pinky, then add the ring finger, then the middle, then the pointer. Go in that order, even if a finger is not used.

This technique can be used for all chords, not just barres.
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  #11  
Old 11-08-2015, 03:35 PM
offeringplate offeringplate is offline
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try moving your barre finger up, or further toward so more of your fingers length is used as opposed to have the tip of your finger on the low E
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  #12  
Old 11-08-2015, 10:57 PM
Arthur Blake Arthur Blake is offline
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Default Relax

Relax.

It's hard to learn anything when you are tense. It sets up resistance within you.

Should be a process of exploration.

Try the F barre for a while, then do something else and come back to it later.

If you can learn to enjoy the music, the technique will improve over time with practice, but be gentle with yourself -- then you're more open to the kind of discovery that makes learning fun.

You might discover that rolling the index finger slightly will help you - that is slightly over on to the edge.

You might find that you can move your index finger so the joints in the finger are placed over the string somewhat differently.

You might angle your hand so strings ring more clearly.

Be patient. Your skills will build.

With practice you will find that shape is one of the easier ones. Then you can move on to F#M, and six string F chord with thumb over the low E, and lots more.
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  #13  
Old 11-09-2015, 03:36 AM
caster caster is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuksan View Post
I agree it certainly shouldn't take anything approaching years to get barre chords down, but everyone who plays guitar and remembers what it was like starting out knows that barre chords are generally harder to master than cowboy chords. Pretending they are no big deal potentially sets up a beginner to fail because they may wrongly decide they just don't have what it takes to play the instrument when all it takes is practice to get the fingers to do what they want. How long it takes depends on the individual, but once they've got it, they have learned how to learn something that once was challenging on the guitar and are ready to take on further challenges.
I agree, Shuksan.
The only way is practice barring different frets until you get used to it.
Here you have a list of songs with only one barre chord to start practicing with them:
http://www.guitarplayerbox.com/one/barre/chord/songs/

You can choose the chord you want to practice.
I hope it will be useful to you
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  #14  
Old 11-09-2015, 07:02 AM
JOEGIBBS2112 JOEGIBBS2112 is offline
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I'm guessing the joint right below your nails on the other 3 fingers are bent inward. They need to bend outward
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  #15  
Old 11-09-2015, 01:53 PM
gfa gfa is offline
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What other people said, plus practice playing your regular first-position E chord with your 2nd-4th fingers.
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