How to play this chord?

[BRISTOL86]

Hi Folks

I’m trying to learn a song called ‘King Kong Goes to Tallahassee’ (its way above my level really but I’m enjoying the challenge) and one of the passages has these shapes and a bit of embellishment between them.

- - 5 - - 3 - - 5 - -
- - 3 - - 3 - - 3 - -
- - 4 - - 3 - - 3 - -
- - x - - x - - x - -
- - x - - x - - x - -
- - 5 - - 5 - - 5 - -

I’m finding this really hard to do cleanly. In a video I found, it seems most people play that with a bar across the whole of the 3rd fret with the index finger, but I find it a bit easier to just bar the bottom 3 strings.

Is this bad practice, should I persevere with the more traditional bar chord shape? (Note this is picked with the fingers not strummed so the 5th and 4th string don’t need to be muted/fretted.

Thanks

[RodB]

It might be worth pointing out this is in Drop D so no option to play 5th string open.

Presumably you are doing it like this guy, which is what I would probably do. Depends on where you are comfortable and the ability to mute the 4th and 5th for a clean sound even if you are finger-picking.

[BRISTOL86]

I wish I was ‘playing it like that guy’ - haha!

But yes that’s basically what I’m doing. The tutorial I’m following shows it as a full barre even though strings 5 and 4 aren’t used which I’m struggling to do(I’m struggling the other way too with the big stretch but it’s a bit easier!)

[FwL]

Originally Posted by BRISTOL86

Is this bad practice, should I persevere with the more traditional bar chord shape?

I would say using a full barre is unnecessary and more awkward than the way you're doing it. I think players who use a lot of barre chords just get used to slapping that index finger across all the strings. It's not the best habit to have IMHO.


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