Stuck and Only Getting 5 outta 6!

[Moonhare]

My advice is don’t sweat it. To be honest these are the chords that trip us all up to start. Barres are a particular nightmare for beginners – I’m still struggling after 8 months. Set it aside for now and get on with TAC then return to it later on and see how you do. 99% of what you play will never use that chord anyway so it really won’t hold up your guitar progress. I parked it and have made huge strides on other skills like hammer ons, pull offs, strumming technique etc. and I’m enjoying every minute of it. I’ll set a 90 day goal at some stage to go back to the chords I can’t get right now and most likely with all the playing up to that point I will find my fingers much more able to sort it out.

🤟😎🎸 Darren – Moonhare

[Loraine]

@OhWowMan Completely agree with the excellent advice from @Moonhare . Best to not let it hold your journey up. Keep working at trying to play the chord, but work on other enjoyable things. Barre chords are the nemesis of just about every beginner, then, BAM, months down the road you’ll realize you can play the chord. You’re doing great.

[jumpinjeff]

Hi @OhWowMan , a little analysis may help. Lets dive into the B major chord. When you pluck each string low to high identify which string/s is not sounding how you would like. That is step one. Step two: slowly and I mean slowly, strum or pluck each individual string in the chord and try to use as little pressure as possible to get each string to ring out individually while holding the chord shape. Pay special attention to the ones you identified as muted sounds. Take your time with this. Step three: move your hand on and off the chord (set your metronome for 40 bpm). See if you can give your hand a shake while off. On with the first beat off with the second beat etc. Focus your energy on the string or strings giving you the trouble. I found it was usually only one or two strings thudding up the clarity of the chord. Before I identified the trouble makers I was using a ton of energy to try and squeeze out desired clarity and that made my hand tired in two changes. Once the thudders were identified I was able to target them and ease up on on the rest. This made the chord oh so much easier to execute. It was a big light bulb moment when I realize my bar was only influencing two strings and when I focused pressure on the bar to those two stings it was like magic. Be patient. Take time to stretch out your hand, push a few beats past the burn and stretch it out then hit it again. Step four: add an E chord and go slowly back and forth between the two. Do all of that and your B chord will be clear as a bell. Have fun. Stay thirsty.

[Moonhare]

That’ll help me out too. Thanks!

[Bill_Brown]

Hi @OhWowMan , I think everyone here has given great advice👍 My 2 cents, take that B chord shape up the neck to where the index is barring the 5th or 7th fret and try it there. Two reasons, first is that making barre chords close to the nut can be difficult because the string tension is higher there. Second, the frets are further apart near the nut, and the stretch can be difficult between the index and ring, particularly when trying to hit the sweet spot with the ring on the 4th fret. If you try that shape further up the neck then you’ll have less string tension as well as the frets being narrower, meaning less of a stretch and no problem about a sweet spot. IMHO🤔

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@OhWowMan I would play the B major as an E-shaped barre chord with the barre on the 7th fret. I can’t do those double barre chords very well either 🙂

[OhWowMan]

@Moonhare @Loraine @jumpinjeff @Bill_Brown @Carol-3M-Stillhand

Thanks all for the advice and encouragement 😊👍