barre chords question

[Daveyo]

How do I get better hand strength?
Can't seem to barre as long as I want too
Muscle failure

[roylor4]

IME, playing barre chords is a very specific type of strength and the best way to develop it is just by playing them more often. Weightlifting, finger strength gimmick things = waste of time.

On electric, I play mostly barre and power chords. I don't barre much on the acoustic - I just haven't gotten there yet strength-wise. Be patient, it will come. Start with your Tele.

[stormin1155]

Practice, practice, practice. I've been playing for nearly 50 years, and my hand still gets tired when I play barre chords through a whole song. Sometimes I can switch off with different chord fingerings (there's lots of ways to play a F chord), but sometimes ya gotta just play through it.

[hairpuller]

Age might be a factor, no offense. If you were 19, I'd tell you to practice them barre chords every day for 10 minutes and before you know it...voila!
If you are on the wrong side of 60, you should have someone in the know look at your approach...cuz, you ain't growing any new muscles, I'm afraid.
That's not to say you can't tighten up the ones you have, mind you. It just is not going to be nearly as easy as being a teen.

Not to mention having your guitar set up properly can make forming those dang barre chords far easier!!

Good luck,
scott

[Silly Moustache]

Hi,I was asked on my YouTube channel to talk about this, but I confess that I tend to avoid them myself when I can, so I did a search .. on YT and found some god advice better than I could have given so recommended these:



and

[rick-slo]

Many, many dozens of prior threads containing detailed advice from me and other forum members regarding barre chords.

For example I just typed "barre" as a word in the title via the forum search engine and got:
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...archid=7684762

[C-ville Brent]

For me, action and neck shape seem to play a big factor. Lower action, of course, makes them easier, but a lower neck radius (more curve) seems to make barre chords easier for me to play. My Blueridge BR-180 is the easiest of my acoustic guitars to play barres on, but for the most part I don't generally play a lot of them on acoustic guitar if there are viable alternatives.

That being said, practice, practice, practice seems to produce positive results.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Daveyo

How do I get better hand strength?
Can't seem to barre as long as I want too
Muscle failure

Hi Daveyo…

Barres are not a strength maneuver. It's not a matter of overpowering the stings at all. And there is a difference between strength and endurance (though the two can be connected). I've seen people master barre chords in a number of ways, but not by doing exercises to strengthen one's grip. On my guitars I can play barres without the thumb behind the neck (I wouldn't want to do it for long, but I can do it for more than 5 minutes).

I made three 1 minute videos years ago for friends and students on barres. Perhaps they might give you some things to consider and experiment with.

Acoustic Barre Chords - Where is the Pressure?


Where is the Pressure? - CLiCK


Barre From Above and Behind - CLiCK


Barre from Front - CLiCK

I've met people who do them differently than I do, and we've discussed it here in the forum. Players have different ways of wearing the strap, or their posture is different when sitting (angle of neck, height of headstock, how far left they extend the neck when sitting).

And if the guitar is setup is high, your path to barring with freedom will be a long one.

Barre chords take less pressure when you work through the details.

Hope this contributes to the discussion…

[ManyMartinMan]

First rule of barre-chords........ have your guitar set up to play the easiest you can. Second rule, don't squeeze the neck. Press back with your fretting fingers and support your hand lightly with your thumb.

[rick-slo]

Good guitar action setup first. Ninety five percent of the time I pinch between thumb and fingers rather than pull back with the arm and that is what I would recommend.

[UKPhil]

Due to a wrist problem I developed I struggle with barre chords particularly low down on the neck.

The solution for me with fingerstyle playing is to use partial chords wherever possible and this does include using the thumb over technique. Playing in alternative tunings may also help with less full barre chords generally being required.

[jseth]

Good stuff on here, although I disagree that any sort of exercises or stretching of hands/fingers doesn't help... indeed, it does for me and has for many others...

However, having a guitar set-up well and using correct technique (which the VAST majority of even really good players do not use!) helps a lot.

Realize that you are embarking on another one of those "mountains to scale" in your guitar playing... barre chords (even normal, simple ones) are an "entry gate' to an entire fount of knowledge of the fretboard and chords, in general...

So, this is no "heeby-jeeby"-type of thing! Give it the respect it's due and approach it like that. Pay attention to what you're doing... don't overdo it, build up gradually until you have the strength to play longer.

If you have a classical guitar/nylon string, USE THAT to practice the basic barre chords... MUCH EASIER! Sure the fretboard is a bit wider, but you'll adjust...

Making a standard E shape barre chord at the fifth fret (for an A major chord) is much, MUCH easier than trying to make the same shape at the first fret for an F major chord - which is usually the first one folks try...

The farther you get away from the nut, the easier barres become.

You have to find the "right" amount of pressure and strength to combine to make the chord sound... and NOT A BIT MORE! Tendency, at first, will be to apply far more pressure than is needed for the chord.

Although you will "want" to hear every note ringing out clearly, that really isn't the point; rarely, if ever, will I want all 6 strings to be ringing at the same time/strum/chord. You will end up playing a lot of "partial" barres - where you employ the barre method, but you really only want to hear 3 or 4 strings at a time. So, why go nuts trying to get everything perfect on every string? Don't make yourself crazy...

Remember to have fun with this - as I said, this is a BIG DEAL for a guitarist...

[JBCROTTY]

I agree with Larry J. Barre chords have less to do with strength and more to do with technique and "leverage," or angle, in my experience.

You just need to continually work to find the right position and technique - my hands are large and my "barring finger," or index finger on my fretting hand, tends to hang over the top of the neck. It looks funny, but I found that extending this finger over the neck gave me a good angle and made the chords sound good.

I also agree with the statement that barre chords open up the fretboard for you. So much so that I often substitute the barre chord for the associated open chord to give me additional flexibility in a song. Songs with lots of barre chords and barre chord changes do make my fretting hand tired, but I am adapting over time and it gets a bit easier as you improve. It is my wrist and thumb that grow fatigued.

There are no shortcuts to barre chords - you just have to attack them and keep at it - simple as that. Eventually when it clicks you will feel elated and have so much more flexibility in how you play.

[paulp1960]

A good guitar setup is essential even if you think your guitar was too expensive to need a setup.

Then technique is more important than outright strength IMO.

[JonPR]

There is no one-size-fits-all answer here. It can depend on the size and shape of your fingers, as well as on your guitar (neck width, primarily).

Certainly, make sure your action is good. To check nut height, place a capo on fret 1. Does the guitar feel easier to play? Is a barre on fret 2 now easier than a barre on fret 1 is without the capo? If so, your nut is too high. A set-up is prescribed!

It's about efficiency of hand action, not strength. As a beginner, barres will be difficult whatever position you choose (good or bad), because your hand has to learn the task. But experiment (follow all the advice you can find) and find a position which is not quite as hard as all the others.

Make sure you're holding the guitar in a good position to begin with. Don't have the neck too low or too far forward. Make sure your fret arm elbow is at 90 degrees or less, and your guitar is not facing upward (leant back). Keep the waist of the guitar flat on your leg, thumb on the back of the neck.

Then it's all about how you organise your index finger position. What I find works is to have the index dead straight - bent at the knuckle, not at any of the joints - with the bony underside of the first joint holding down the 1st and 2nd strings: pinching with the thumb opposite. I.e., with your hand away from the guitar, if you touch thumb against index, the thumb pad presses against the middle of the underside of the index, not against the fingertip. (Knuckle at right angle, index ramrod straight.)
If you can get the 1st and 2nd strings sounding clean (under the bony bit of your finger), then your job is half done! It's easy then to drop the tip of the index down to grab the 6th - and then (maybe not quite so easy) to curl the rest of the fingers to fret strings 5-4-3. The index doesn't have to fret those strings cleanly!

As I say, this is what works for me, with the "E" form. With other barre forms my index might be further or less far across the neck. Others recommend rolling the index on its side a little (because the side is firmer than the underside), but that can put the rest of the fingers at an inefficient angle.

Also, the index is not just supported by the thumb. The index pulls back on the neck a little, against the pressure of your right arm on the guitar body. It's possible to play a barre chord with the thumb not touching the neck at all! Try that, just to get a feel of the bracing action of the right arm. However, in practice, the thumb is definitely involved, if maybe in a more guiding role than a pressure role. (If you were to play the barre solely by pulling back on the neck, you're likely to bend the neck enough to put the guitar a little out of tune, or make the strings rattle against the frets.)

YMMV. The interesting thing is that the hand learns the optimum position. You just have to keep feeding it the right information (good position, over and over) and the muscles and tendons seem to adjust automatically to find the optimum distribution of pressure. It may take a while, but the hands are an extraordinary pair of tools - they can be trained to do amazing things, if you're patient and consistent with how you train them.