The impossible is not so impossible anymore

[Muffinhead]

A few months ago I started a thread about my challenges playing a Bm chord. I got many good suggestions and the one suggestion that I followed and has seemed to work for me is just keep trying and practicing. I am now at the point where I can actually play a Bm while playing fingerstyle and have it sound pretty clean.

Now, let's talk about the Bb chord. I have always felt that the Bb was just plain impossible. Try as I might, there was no way that I could barre with my index finger and also form an A chord shape with my other three fingers two frets away from my index finger!

Miracle of miracles, I can now play a Bb chord. It sounds pretty nasty and not all of the strings ring, but I can play it. Eventually I will get better at forming the chord and playing it clean, but six months ago I couldn't even form the chord at all.

I am pretty proud of myself.

[Bucc5207]

Originally Posted by Muffinhead

I am pretty proud of myself.

And rightly so! Well done!

[TBman]

Good job!

Its good to practice that Bb chord shape up the neck a bit also. The next step is to hit the second string up one fret with your pinky to get the sus chord. It's cool to hammer that one.

[ljguitar]

Hi Mh…

Good for you! Push onward!!!

[wcap]

As you advance in your playing you will likely encounter a whole series of things like this that seem simply impossible at first. But each time you successfully conquer one of these seeming impossibilities, you add one more data point to draw on later when you want to throw in the towel because you feel like you'll never master the current challenge.

When this happens again in the future you can say to yourself "X, Y, and Z all seemed to be impossible to me at first, but now they are second nature. If I just keep plugging away at this new challenge eventually this will become second nature too!"

Some techniques (like the tremolo technique used in classical guitar playing) really had me convinced that I was up against a wall I was never going to climb over (and this was after decades of playing stringed instruments!). In the case of the tremolo technique it took me close to a year to have it start to work reasonably well, but I just kept plugging away at it and eventually it came together.

My biggest recent challenge was in trying to get good tone, and especially decent intonation, on a Weissenborn (an all wood acoustic lap steel guitar sort of thing). For what seemed like the longest time the sounds I was getting sounded more like the sound of a dog howling in pain than like music. But I've just kept plugging away at it, and little by little it is getting to the point where I now feel I'm actually playing music. I expect it will be another year at least before I really feel good about my intonation on this instrument though! This is the biggest musical learning curve I've had in a long time!

[GHS]

Originally Posted by Muffinhead

A few months ago I started a thread about my challenges playing a Bm chord. I got many good suggestions and the one suggestion that I followed and has seemed to work for me is just keep trying and practicing. I am now at the point where I can actually play a Bm while playing fingerstyle and have it sound pretty clean.

Now, let's talk about the Bb chord. I have always felt that the Bb was just plain impossible. Try as I might, there was no way that I could barre with my index finger and also form an A chord shape with my other three fingers two frets away from my index finger!

Miracle of miracles, I can now play a Bb chord. It sounds pretty nasty and not all of the strings ring, but I can play it. Eventually I will get better at forming the chord and playing it clean, but six months ago I couldn't even form the chord at all.

I am pretty proud of myself.

For the Bb in 1st position, use your first finger to fret the Bb on the 5th string first fret, and use your 3rd finger to bar the F,Bb, and D on the third fret. You can go up to the the sixth fret and use your index to fret the Bb, 6th string, 6th fret, third finger for the D, third string on the 7th, and second finger for the F, on the second string, fifth fret. No stretch, you are in good position with the 1st in the base there to move around.

[s0cks]

I can't play a major barre chord with a root on the 5th string (like a Bb) higher up the neck. There just isn't enough room. I have to barre with my ring finger on the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings. Unfortunately I tend to lose the 1st string when I do this as it gets muted.