Does this mean I suck?

[StratRat]

I have been playing for 5 years and still cant make bar chords. I cant play one without buzz one the frets. I have tried dvds but none addres this problem. Also, I took lessons but the teacher insisted on treating me like I was an absolute beginnger just picking up the guitar for the first time. It was frustrating so I quit. I cant play some songs because of it and I am tired of it!!!!!!! There has to be a trick or someting I am not doing right. Suggestions, comments or input or even help is appreciated. One more thing I have smal hands or so I think could that be it?

[Jesse S.]

Your teacher's attitude may have been overly condescending, but sometimes going back to basics helps a lot.

I assume you're playing on a Strat? What size strings are you using? How is your action set up?

You may need lighter strings. You may need to lower your action. You may just need to practice more! Barre chords are usually just one of those things that come together with practice as your hand gets stronger, without much conscious effort.

[Don]

Only 5 years?!?! Hell, it took me a lot longer than that to play barre chord.

Seriously, you might want to look at you guitar's setup, especially the way that the frets are dressed. I find that a narrow, rounded crown frets cleaner than a wide flat crown.
I'd also try different string gages and brands of strings.

Barre chords never sound as sharp as open chords. Maybe you're being to critical?

Most important, don't give up. 5 years is not a long time to be playing guitar.
It really did take me a very long time to play barre chords cleanly.

Practice your barre chords, but make sure that your practice time also includes songs that you can play well and enjoy playing.

[marek]

i 'm a beginner and if you are reporting buzz on barr chords i would check:

if all the hardware setup, then check you technique:

try relaxing your barring finger & move it around till you don't get any buzz.
my finger is slightly curved usually when barring and rolled over to the side some( not flat) if i lay it flat & straight, i get buzz or muting too!
you may need to check the position of your thumb( needs to be about center of the neck)
also drop your fretting wrist slightly
play around with diff postions as given above.

if still having issues, try a diff radius neck. i am more comfortable on fender fretboards 9.5 radius myself. i have short fingers & smaller hands.

let us know if this helps

[usc96]

i 'm a beginner and if you are reporting buzz on barr chords i would check:

if all the hardware setup, then check you technique:

try relaxing your barring finger & move it around till you don't get any buzz.
my finger is slightly curved usually when barring and rolled over to the side some( not flat) if i lay it flat & straight, i get buzz or muting too!
you may need to check the position of your thumb( needs to be about center of the neck)
also drop your fretting wrist slightly
play around with diff postions as given above.

if still having issues, try a diff radius neck. i am more comfortable on fender fretboards 9.5 radius myself. i have short fingers & smaller hands.

let us know if this helps

+1 Great tips.

[JAM]

Are you having the trouble more at the lower frets, first fret for example? I'd follow other's suggestions that you have the guitars setup checked first.

[Mikey]

StratRat, I can't play the damn things either.
I have long-boney fingers. I can get the barre finger in place OK and even get my other fretting fingers in place after some time. When I go to move the barre up a couple frets, everything goes to hell. I've always blamed it on the neck configuration, but it's more that I don't put in the practice time. I've often wondered if I could do it better with a chunkier neck. Hmmmm.

[DanTheBluesMan]

I've been playing for 35 years, and can't remember how long it took me to really get barre chords down, but it was a while. Of course, part of it might have been the guitar(s) I had. Good tips here. Don't give up.

But once you do get them down, start learning the inversions, and pretty soon you'll be playing songs and hardly doing any barre chords at all. I think they may be more useful if you are the only guitarist w/o a bassist. If you play with another guitarist and/or bassist, you can always let somebody else hold down the root.

One thing I would like to say, don't think you HAVE to play all 6 strings, every time, every strum. Practice upstrokes on only the high E B G strings, reggae/ska style. You only need 3 notes for a chord, really. Start looking for those places where you can play a chord in another position. Once you start finding those, it really gets fun.

good luck.

[curtisstetka]

Marek had some excellent advice - if your index finger is completely flat, it's extremely difficult to get all six strings cleanly fretted.

Rather, slightly rotate so that you can get some curvature to your index finger as you barre.

I'd practice half-barres for a while. You know that funky little D chord you play in open position? You can barre that. Barre across the first three strings, second fret. That give you the A and F# and you can play the D on the second string with your middle finger.

Move that thing all over the neck as a barre chord.

Now, moving up and down the neck is another issue. remember this sequence:
1) Release
2) Move
3) Press

It's a simple concept but takes a long time to really build into your hands. Too often there isn't a clean release before you begin shifting up the neck. Or, you begin to press before you're into the new position. All this leads to noise (poor fretting) and hand fatigue.


Good luck. Stick with it.

[NeoFauve]

Heck, you can just practice getting your index finger to barre the strings well enough to be buzz-free. Don't even worry about the chords at first. Just get that one bit of mechanics under your belt if it's holding you back.
Your finger should just find the curve of the fretboard.
Don't get too hung up about it.

Checking the setup is the best 1st step though.:yay

And remember, BB Kind doesn't play chords at all.
There are infinite ways to suck, or not suck.
I've tried many.

[Kap'n]

One thing I would like to say, don't think you HAVE to play all 6 strings, every time, every strum.

In fact, if you are, 99% of the time you're wrong.

[Phil M]

I almost NEVER play a full barre chord in a song! I usually try to find different voicings and I usually only play 2 to 4 notes in a chord. Dan is right about the strumming thing too, sometimes you're just tapping that bass note or doing an upstroke on just the E B G strings and get it to ring. This way you get the feel of movement from just one chord.

I played for years, even my first band, without being able to consistently do a barre chord, even though I knew how they were supposed to be fingered. I got by on open chords, two finger power chords and solos. However, eventually I hit a rut and needed to learn them. One day the bass player showed me a song that used all major barre chords based on the low E string and it sounded a lot better than my power chord version. I was so annoyed that a bassist did this that I practice my nuts off on barre chords. That's the only way you're going to get them. For me, it wasn't the set up.

Good luck.

[guitar george]

Put down the electric and get yourself an acoustic!

Play that for a while to build up finger strength and especially those callouses on your fingertips.

I started playing some 40 odd years ago (yikes) on an old Epiphone archtop with action that was at least a good 1/4 " off the fretboard. I struggled with that thing for about two years before I got the opportunity to try an electric. But even with the heavy strings they used back then, the electric was a breeze to play, barrechords and all.

If I was a teacher, I would strongly recommend that beginners start with an acoustic.

[sabby]

Don't sweat it. Just keep pushing forward. THe full chords will come one day and you won't even notice. In the meantime, work on realizing DanTheBluesMan's advice: play chord partial and make them tasteful, be they power chords, a 3 over a 5, whatever.

[Don]

Another thing that I've found while playing full barre chords it that placement of my index finger is very important.

I'm not talking about where the finger is in relation to the frets, but where the finger's joints are in relation to the strings.

Most peoples fingers are thinner (or at least softer) between the joints. It took years of playing to learn to position my finger so that the joints or thick parts of my finger coincided with the strings so they'd all ring out.

It will become somewhat natural after a lot of practice.

Some of us require more practice than others.

[mgade]

I'm not talking about where the finger is in relation to the frets, but where the finger's joints are in relation to the strings.

+1

I thought it was just me!

He.. hehehe BWAHAHAHA .. Oh, sorry, heh, ehmmm.. An old memory came back - I practiced HOLDING the guitar for at least a year befor I even got strings on it! A copy of a Telecaster made in East Germany! So, it is absolutely crucial that you are able to hold the guitar correctly in front of a mirror! That was the memory. I really did that A LOT. I also took it to bed a night! :bug I LOVE GUITARS!!

[Rickenjangle]

I started playing some 40 odd years ago (yikes)

Check out Guitar george...he knows ALL the chords..."

[MIKEH]

Yes, it means that you suck and will never get it right. The only thing left to do is pack up all of you gear and send it to me. I will see that it gets put to good use. :rofl

I'm kidding, of course. You probably just need someone to show you some new ways to approach playing bar chords. Small hands are not usually an impediment to playing chords, but finger length and thickness can force you to find alternative methods of shaping your chords. Thumb placement and pressure can make a big difference to someone with short fat fingers like mine. The width of one's hands can also affect the ability to change shapes with fluid motions.

Just keep at it, and it will get better. I promise.

[curtisstetka]

Andre Segovia had small, pudgy hands and he played the living daylights out of a big, honking Hauser guitar.

Wide, utterly flat fretboard, baby. The ultimate shred machine. Except there's no Floyd Rose.

[mojo]

StratRat,
I just started Barre Chords 4 1/2 months ago. I've been playing a total of 10 months. I have big strong hands and now realize I'm having an easy time of it. I can play them all up to the tenth fret clean. I still need to work hard on my speed though.

My instructor started by showing the forms both major and minor of E6 and A5. Once I could finger them He gave me several short simple progressions. After I could finger and strum them, he had me modify the strum by giving me 2- 1/4 note downward strums followed by 4- 1/8 note down and up string mute strums and moving or changing the chord as needed. The point being, to teach me finger pressure and the hold while on the move. Then he began to give me songs which he broke down into Barre only progressions. I am constantly working on transition speed, finger pressure and on holding a form while moving it around on the fretboard. This is where I currently am right now.

I have put a hole bunch of work into Barres. Every time I pick up my guitar I do at least a little bit on Barres and usually much more than just a little. Try inserting a couple of barres into a song you already know, so you don't get frustrated. Just take it slow man, this shit ain't easy to learn.

If you would like what I have regarding my instructors method I'd be happy to e-mail it to you, but I cannot post it to the forum for copyright reasons (the songs). It's not much, just a few pages. He did manage to keep it interesting for me though.

There's an awful lot of good advice up above some things like setup I new about, others like thumb position and how to break the barre cords down I didn't. +1 on all that. Hmmmm.

[seagate]

I have been playing for 5 years and still cant make bar chords. I cant play one without buzz one the frets.

Take your guitar and get a pro set up done on it. Explain your problem to the tech and he will set it up to suit.

As the boys already said, you will need light strings and a low action set up.

Buying an acoustic won't do any good, especially with small hands. No point in torturing yourself.

seagate