Rough time

[Moose408]

I’ve seen 6 year old kids do barre chords so I would agree that small hands are not necessarily an issue.

I struggled with barre chords until I started private lessons last month and he showed me that my form was wrong on both barre chords and scales. My thumb was too high up and my elbow as not pressed up against my side. As a result of both of these my knuckles were not parallel to the fretboard which limited my stretch and reach. As soon as I lowered my thumb n the back of the fretboard my reach improved. It also allowed me to get my index finger parallel to the fret for barre chords.

Two minor adjustments made all the difference. The other thing he taught me was to place my barre finger first which insures it’s up against the fret.

I still have a lot to practice to get quick at it but now see it is possible.

As for your arthritis that may limit you. You asked what to do, the answer is modify the chords to something you can accomplish. Play the mini-F instead of the barre F, play an open C chord as opposed to the barre C. Tony often shows alternatives to barre chords during lessons because he dislikes barre chords so perhaps look through some past lessons to see his modifications.

[BarbaraM]

Thanks for your suggestions, Moose. I can’t afford private lessons right now, but I will try moving my arm/thumb/fingers around till I find what works best.

[Moose408]

One other thought. There is no rule that you have to do next week’s challenge. Maybe go back and work on a week that you enjoyed and want to get better at. I always skip Wagon Wheel week when it comes around and I don’t think I’m any worse because of it.

[Loraine]

Hey Barbara I feel for you barre chords are extremely difficult at the beginning and even tenured musicians don’t like them and avoid them whenever possible I’m in a jam club that has some very very talented musicians that have been playing probably 40 years or more they outwardly cringe and comment about God no not barre chords. I’ve heard professional musicians from bands that say that they can’t stand barre chords. I on the other hand am a freak and love barre chords, and I have small hands.

Small hands may feel like a detriment, but as moose pointed out many young children a play barre chords, and they have extremely small hands. It takes practice, building strength, expanding your finger flexibility and span.I have smaller hands and I too thought I would not be able to play a lot of things because my hands were so small and the spread of my fingers wasn’t great, but what I found was that I’m now able to do things that I could not do when I was a beginner and it’s because through playing and doing skills and practicing hammer and pull off and all the other skills that Tony teaches your building strength and your fingers your building dexterity and your finger spread loosen up and is easier to fret certain chords. I have arthritis, and there are days that are more difficult than other days I found them buying fingerless compression gloves helped I found them on Amazon. It is extremely important that you do stretches before and after playing especially when you have arthritis Tony has a course stretching if you haven’t looked at it please do so but also keep the arm warm Will add to the flexibility and this is through not only warming up by stretching you can manually warm it up by putting some warm towels compresses on your hands to help too if they’re swollen try alternating between ice and heat. I often put my hands under warm water to try to make them feel better to loosen up.

Make sure you have a good set up on your guitar maybe yours isn’t low enough and you need to have a Luther do a good set up. Is your guitar small enough for you often people have to get a guitar that has a smaller scale on it with a smaller neck I’m not sure what you’re playing.

The trick to barre chords, in my opinion, is finger strength, finger placement, and finding the sweet spot where each string when played separately Will play clearly and strumming the chord rings out clearly. It takes a lot of practice and is not something that you will get overnight but there may be a moment where all of a sudden it just falls into place. That happened for me with barre chords, but in so many areas of playing guitar. And it’s a very cool experience when it does happen. You don’t wanna miss it.

So the goal is to simply continue trying, knowing that it will take time and focusing on what you have control over which is your finger placement your building finger strength and practice. When you’re able to find that sweet spot to play the barre chords, and each note rings out clearly, take note of where and how your fingers are placed. Then play the chord, take hand off neck, then place fingers again and strum, and do this 10 times in a row without error, and you will have mastered it.

Moose had a great suggestion about going to another lesson. I was going to suggest going to the skills courses maybe taking a break and just focusing on something fun. If you haven’t taken the jumpstart courses yet I suggest you take them. You actually learn and play a song in the jumpstart to strumming and jumpstart to Flatpicking courses. Sometimes you just need a break. You have to do something that brought you pleasure in the past go back to it. You might be able to relive that enjoyment. You can go back to 30 days to play course that was always fun.

You’re doing great Barbara. It’s all baby steps. You waddle unsteadily, One foot in front of the other. You fall down a few times, but you get back up, dust yourself off, and keep trying.

[BarbaraM]

Thanks, Loraine, for your suggestions. Maybe it *is* the cold, it’s 59 degrees in here and I’m playing with my jacket on! I have done most if not all of the jumpstart lessons, and a few of the others. I do play smaller guitars — I have a 3/4 Johnson, which I keep tuned to open D, a Baby Taylor, and my new, go-to guitar, a Zager Parlor electric/acoustic. All of them have reasonable scale and comfortable action. The Taylor was actually too low so I recently had it reset. I’ve done the stretches, but need to revisit them more often.

My biggest handicap is the middle finger; it won’t fold up enough to do some of the barre work-arounds I think should work, and even some of the normal chords, which is why I do a D chord and even the mini F with the “wrong” fingers.

But you are right, stretches and warmups, finger placement and practice!

[jumpinjeff]

Hi Barbara @BarbaraM , I saw this about your middle finger not being able to curl tightly enough and wanted to offer what I learned the hard way. There is more to bending a finger than just bending the finger. I had to get control of a little muscle in my forearm (I kinda start the flex in my elbow, right at the point) to lever my hand ever so slighty backwards to pop my hand bones out thus giving my finger the space to squeeze down. I have arthritis so any extra space I can provide to those tendons to move is relieving. It has taken 5ish years or so to get my muscles and brain all connected. I put the time element out there only to demonstrate it was not a week and done proposition. Even now after 9 years, stretching with the purpose of awakening kinesthetic awareness is about 1/4 of my sessions. Working the flexibility in these tiny tendons and muscles is a delicate practice. The stretching method is different than any I previously used (before becoming a guitar geek). I call it the silly putty method. Stretching barley feeling the tension and waiting until you no longer barely feel the tension, then increase…barely…repeat. When I do it slowly enough I feel a tingling relaxing of the tendons. Stretch slowly and the tissue is elastic…too fast and it starts to resist instead of relax, tightening up if you will…just release tension to where you don’t feel any and reapply less (barely feel and wait) and more slowly. It is a two steps forward one step back process. Give it a try.

Stick with it. It has beneficial carry over into other pursuits requiring digital dexterity.

[BarbaraM]

Thank you for your insight into your experience, but that isn’t the same as my issue. My tendons are quite flexible, in fact I’ve noticed a significantly better spread to my fretting fingers as compared to my other hand. (I know, I should stretch both hands, but this way I can see actual improvement.) My issue is the joint itself, the ‘hinge’ won’t close all the way as it hits the bony excess on the other side of the joint. Short of surgery, there is no way around that. The other weird thing is my pinky; if I extend it forward, it “sticks” when I try to flex it, so instead it kind of snaps back to a flexed position. That *may* be a tendon issue, but it doesn’t seem to interfere with my playing.

[petelanger]

Today I worked for quite a while on trying to get at least one barre chord working. The full F is still out of reach but I’m having a bit of success with the “mini” F. What I had trouble with was that so called “rolling of the pointer finger. It just didn’t want to roll that way and at the same time allow me to place my middle and ring fingers in the second and third frets. But I’ve been heeding various peoples instructions about tucking the elbow tight into my side and looking for the sweet spot. Now I’ve got that mini F in about the same place I had the G chord in May this year (able to play it cleanly on occasion rather than never).

Spacing of the fingers definitely has a lot to do with it also because it really helps to get your fingers up against the frets so you don’t have to push down as hard. That’s an area that’s hard for beginners because you haven’t yet trained your fingers to be spread apart in that way (to reach across those big frets near the nut).

[Paul_B]

Switching my guitar to my left leg has made a big difference in my playing. With my heel raised on a foot stool, the guitar feels secure against my body, making it easier to find a relaxed, comfortable posture. This setup keeps my wrist straight, my thumb naturally mid-neck, and my fingers in an easy arch, making fretting and even tricky barre chords feel much smoother. Much less pain in wrist and fingers. Don’t think I will ever go back.

[BarbaraM]

I’ll try that, thanks.

[Bud6333]

This is how a lot of the classical folks I’ve watched also play….

[Bud6333]

I actually started guitar because of both memory and arthritis issues. The way I approached the arthritis issues was to do what I could and push just a little. It did get easier for me and as with all it took time. I’m not a medical person, just sharing what I did. Hope this gives you some encouragement.