Beginner Player Bar Chord problem

[Warren.]

Hi from Oz, having just started playing classical guitar pieces at the ripe old age of 54 I'm struggling with the 7th fret bar chord progression in the piece Ronanza. I lose the F#/GB on the 7th fret B string when reaching for the D#/Eb on the 11th fret high E string.

I only have small hands and it doesn't seem to matter how much pressure I put into the bar I lose the note every time.

Any advice would be appreciated

Cheers

Warren

[Geoff-Bristol]

I started at 67 about three years back. Ok - I use to play fiddle 20 years ago - but no guitar at all to speak of. There are real diffucult stretches - seemingly impossible !
My advice is - if you really like the piece and want to do that fingering - just try a few times - then do something else. Then go back to it the next day for a few mins. After a few weeks you will notice huge improvements.

The advice I read that helped with barre chords was to relax the barre finger rather than pressing it hard ? It should not be acting as an 'anchor' for stretching to other notes.
Really it just technique - not force. But with muscles it needs a bit at a a time over a long period.

[Warren.]

Thanks Geoff appreciate the help

[rick-slo]

Try different amounts of extension of the index finger tip up to and beyond the edge of the fretboard. Try different angles of the
index finger to the fret (i.e. almost parallel to less and less so). You don't want the crease between the middle phalanges and
distal phalanges over the second (B) string.

[fray]

Look at a side called Guitar Gathering by Steve Krenz. He has a free workout on building the barre chord skills. Other free info and workouts also.

[zeeway]

My meager suggestion is one you may already know...some think that the barre finger should be straight across the fret like a capo. My barre finger is often curled a bit, and at other time at an angle across the fret. Anyway, make sure you are not hung up on pretending your barre finger is a capo.