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Responses
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Day 5 – ‘A’ Shape Exam
Responses
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I’m into both TAC and the Fretboard Wizard for the first time since I started these guitar lessons. I hope to see how they fit into each other – like, ahah! – in near future. All good, though.
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Tough lesson! The F barre isn’t too bad but the B- just not happening for me right now ! More work required!
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How do you mute the high E string while playing this chord?
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I can do it if I tuck my middle finger under the neck, but that isn’t a good thing for changing to another chord. I will continue to build strength and perceiver.
-
The B chord is a little better and more consistent but still needs work. The F is a @#$%. These are good if truly frustrating exercises. I will try to include them in my warmups for a few minutes…maybe that will help them get better
-
For a long long time I didn’t play the B barre chord! Then one day after the millionth failure, I found I could play it! Now this chord holds no fear! It just really is, reparation, reparation, reparation! Please hang on in there! If you can’t get it at the moment, keep trying every now and again! It will come. Tony has given us a great lesson here and it’s great to reaprase these chords even when you think you can play them! Go luck, have a great weekend and enjoy!
-
The positive: I showed up. My left hand apparently stayed in bed today. The “A” shape and my ring finger don’t play well together.
-
I think after this week I’ll be able to crack walnuts in my left hand. Not an easy week, but I’m relatively pleased with how my barre chords ended up by the end of the week. Still a couple clunkers, but I know what adjustments I needs to make to make them ring clear. Definitely have to put this challenge into my regular rotation.
-
Had an issue with the ring finger on the 4th frets. If I press too lightly, both the B and the E string were muted. Press down too hard and the E string rings out, middle pressure and the E string buzzes. Fixed it by using the pinkie to mute the E string. Don’t know if that’s allowed but it worked. Going to take A LOT of practice though to finger that chord while playing a song. Been an interesting week but one that I think will pay off in the long run.
-
Good exercise! Can’t do it too many times without taking a break. This week wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Happy Halloween everyone
-
I marked this complete just to keep my stats up to date, but these are impossible for me. “Barre chord surgery”…?? Yeah, I’d need surgery to do these. My win this week is realizing my limitation and not struggling against nature.
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I feel exactly the same way Barb! Does misery love company?
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There’s no shame in marking complete when you’ve given it a try! I’ve been struggling with this one too and this is my 5th time round.
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I couldn’t agree more with Barb, jax350, and Moonhare. This is my 4th time around and I struggle mightily with this. The F is a major buggaboo, I can sometimes do the B a bit more consistently but it is a real struggle. Only thing to do is to try to practice these two exercises a few times a week for a few minutes and hope for the best! Good luck to us!!
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-
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Over the past year and 1/2 with TAC, this has been one of my biggest wins. For 60 years I avoided the B chord – the idea of bending my ring finger like a yogi seemed farfetched and impossible. But working with Tony and TAC, my B Chord (barre) sounds great — actually better than my barre F chord! Whooorah!
-
B is my golden goose. Lol. Feels good to have a win in this week’s challenges.
-
I marked complete but feel i never really started. My fingers just cant seem to reach where they are suppose too.
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Good exercise! Much better today compared to yesterday.
-
I am definitely getting better at this, but once in a while my middle notes are buzzing instead of being clear. This is good barre practice.
-
Once you have this down, you can move on to minor chords. Only a short bit away. And maybe easier than the two this week for barre chords. Specifically the Em shape and the Am shape. It adds a lot to the guitar tool box.
-
This is a beautiful chord, who says you need all 6 strings to chord a beautiful chord on the guitar, well done Tony , LH feels better than the Big Barre F!
-
Great week. These shapes are so important for getting better at playing. I don’t mind the pain for the gain!
-
Has anyone else noticed that Tony curls his left hand middle finger next to the neck? I tried to do the same and didn’t like the pain. I’m adding the bar chord excercises to my daily warm up so that I build the strength and flexibility in my left hand. I won’t curl my middle finger next to the neck anytime soon.
-
I want to say thank you to Bill_Brown, songboy, jorgemac, HowardM for the kind words and help for over the year. I also wanted to say thanks to petelanger he had sent me a message that I was not aware that I can upgrade to lifetime TAC member i am not at this time . So any one can be Lifetime TAC member the cost is $599.00 but the money you have already paid for the TAC Lesson can go towards the cost, so it will be reducing your total mount. it is worth a look check it out. So Keep your Guitar playing its music to your sole. Have A Great Day!!!!
-
If I ever get up to your part of NorCal I’ll ask around for Big_Mac and we’ll pick awhile, happy Travels Brother.
-
-
the chord is becoming easier, part of my daily bar chord routine. I have added the stamina portion to my routine. Getting better all the time.
-
Strength through practice. I was able to have clear notes and sustained the pressure for the long haul.
-
Great workout week. I wish I could get cardio credit for the daily challenges.
-
this was a waste for me, I cannot reach with those fingers
-
Happy Halloween everyone…. I found this whole week tough but good exercises…I am able to play this B chord. However I use my middle, ring and pinky on 4 th fret as there is no other way to ring out the chord
-
I used to do it that way but slowly evolved to the ring finger way with support from the middle finger when needed. Keep working on it and like all of your guitar journey it will grow and evolve. also doing it your 3 finger way makes it easy to a blues turn-a-round. Make B major 7th to bridge the change to the 2nd fret A chord. using your finger method I move my middle finger from the 4th fret to the 3rd fret of the G string, Strum or pick twice, then slide my Pinky and ringer finger to the 2nd fret and pick a couple of strokes of that A7 position and then release both fingers and place the middle finger on the 1st fret G string,, pinky on the 2nd fret D string and the ring finger on the 2nd fret A string to make an E chord, strum once and on the 2nd strum release the middle finger in a pull off to make an E7th chord. This is one of the ways to get back to the root chord in the key of E when doing turn a round to start new verse.
-
-
Good week as it’s officially 52 of them for me making it one year to date! Never missing a week! I plan to keep signed up for another year and really dig in to some of the songs next time around and become a wizard harry…
-
Cool, congratulations on the first year completed.
-
-
This week has been good for me as I have been playing barre chords through most of my guitar journey. Thanks Tom Elliot (my first teacher in the 1980s) who forced them upon me when I was but a mere child of 13! Happy Halloween everyone!
-
I found this one a little easier than the e shape F Chord we used yesterday. But I still had to rest after
3 reps. Clarity was good but need to work on my strength So after I write this its back at it for another few minutes and one more session latter today. Enjoy! -
Not sure why but this is hard for me… does anyone else use their pinky to help hold down the strings?
Hey @Bill_Brown, how are you doing? Hope you’re playing your guitar every single day!-
Oh, I am Nancy ( @Dage )! in fact, I’ve been working on my C shape barre chords. A little tougher (for me) on the fretting hand, only because I haven’t used the shape very often. I have to build that muscle memory. Hope you and yours are all doing well up there at the farm. Are you still wielding a paint brush?
-
Hey Bill
Yes I’m painting every single day, sold a couple of very large canvases this past week, which always makes me feel great. Working on two commissions right now. I’m having to work on my B barre chord, not sure why I find it so hard, using my pinky to help hold down the strings?
You might want to check out the Croatian Guitar Retreat with Henry Olsen next June. You and your wife would have a great time, once again the mighty American dollar isn’t kind to us Canadians right now.. but hey Go Blue Jays! Hope you’re watching the games, Wow. Stay well my friend, nice to hear from you!
-
-
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The B chord shows up in many songs on which I am working. It’s great to get this practice.
-
I got this but definitely need to strengthen and stretch my index finger. I love the struggle because it means I’m learning and pushing myself.
-
I had a little bit of success on the B chord. There were a couple of times that I was able to get all of the strings to ring. I’m looking forward to something more fun (I hope) next week!
-
I have string marks in my fingers! That’s good. Happy Halloween! Have a great weekend everyone!
-
Got it! Looking forward to next week.
Thanks -
i am much better at this chord than yesterdays
-
h
How long ago did Tony do this lesson?
No glasses. much less tats. -
The B string still mutes with my F chord. And for me, using my pinky for the B chord works best.
-
I do not seem to be able to get the B string to sound clear, I can do it with my ring finger until I fret the A string and then it’s gone.
-
Been a busy week…taking FBW again, learning some new songs, and of course the daily challenges. Oh, I rebuilt my pedal board too. Have a great weekend everyone.
-
I have small hands, and once again, found barring with the pinky rather than the ring finger a bit easier. I also realized that if I pull the neck of the guitar closer to my body, I have more power in my hand to push down. Hope this helps someone else. May the force be with you and happy Halloween.
-
How are you all muting the high e string?
-
If you hold the E string down on the 4th fret while picking the Barre B you can add the G#m7th chord which is the 3rd chord position in the key of E and can be useful in a B chord to Gm7th chord to a A7th chord( fretting the 2nd fret B string and 2nd fret D string) to the E chord turn a round. Just another way to get back to the root chord of E in first position. Try it.
-
-
this was actually a easy chord compared to that nasty f bar chord! no problems today
-
I use sheet metal tools often for years now. And that has made my fingers and hands strong . So I found this weeks lessons pretty easy for me . I think ,I might just like bar cords because, I can move around the fret board to play different cords using the same shape . I think that’s pretty cool.Hope you all have a great day.
-
I guess that the Force is with me today. This went smoothly especially on the new strings I put on this guitar last night. Did the B, C, D and E barre chord. Even tried the Bb barre chord. All is good in the universe. I restarted the 5 day Blues challenge last night and will work on barre chords and the 5 day challenge for the week end. Go forth and prosper or at least be good to the grandkids.
-
I was in desperate need of a good set of stretches this week. My shoulders and neck found the focus on barre chords tough going.
-
I don’t think I’ll ever want to use this. LOL
Hurts like a …… $%&^ -
I enjoyed the entire week of revisiting the E and A shapes of barre chords. This tab will be a nice refresher to have available. I hope everyone is doing well, and I can’t wait to read the comments. Have a great weekend, everyone.
-
This was a fun week, I played this 5 day challenge about 14 months ago, it really helped me play solid barre chords
-
I find the ‘A’ shape much more difficult than the ‘E’ shape, however, I improved significantly since the last time with my first 3 playthroughs sounding 80% okay.
Congratulations, !
Challenge complete
Come back tomorrow for your next challenge
I’m into both TAC and the Fretboard Wizard for the first time since I started these guitar lessons. I hope to see how they fit into each other – like, ahah! – in near future. All good, though.
Tough lesson! The F barre isn’t too bad but the B- just not happening for me right now ! More work required!
How do you mute the high E string while playing this chord?
I can do it if I tuck my middle finger under the neck, but that isn’t a good thing for changing to another chord. I will continue to build strength and perceiver.
The B chord is a little better and more consistent but still needs work. The F is a @#$%. These are good if truly frustrating exercises. I will try to include them in my warmups for a few minutes…maybe that will help them get better
For a long long time I didn’t play the B barre chord! Then one day after the millionth failure, I found I could play it! Now this chord holds no fear! It just really is, reparation, reparation, reparation! Please hang on in there! If you can’t get it at the moment, keep trying every now and again! It will come. Tony has given us a great lesson here and it’s great to reaprase these chords even when you think you can play them! Go luck, have a great weekend and enjoy!
The positive: I showed up. My left hand apparently stayed in bed today. The “A” shape and my ring finger don’t play well together.
I think after this week I’ll be able to crack walnuts in my left hand. Not an easy week, but I’m relatively pleased with how my barre chords ended up by the end of the week. Still a couple clunkers, but I know what adjustments I needs to make to make them ring clear. Definitely have to put this challenge into my regular rotation.
Had an issue with the ring finger on the 4th frets. If I press too lightly, both the B and the E string were muted. Press down too hard and the E string rings out, middle pressure and the E string buzzes. Fixed it by using the pinkie to mute the E string. Don’t know if that’s allowed but it worked. Going to take A LOT of practice though to finger that chord while playing a song. Been an interesting week but one that I think will pay off in the long run.
Good exercise! Can’t do it too many times without taking a break. This week wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Happy Halloween everyone
I marked this complete just to keep my stats up to date, but these are impossible for me. “Barre chord surgery”…?? Yeah, I’d need surgery to do these. My win this week is realizing my limitation and not struggling against nature.
I feel exactly the same way Barb! Does misery love company?
There’s no shame in marking complete when you’ve given it a try! I’ve been struggling with this one too and this is my 5th time round.
I couldn’t agree more with Barb, jax350, and Moonhare. This is my 4th time around and I struggle mightily with this. The F is a major buggaboo, I can sometimes do the B a bit more consistently but it is a real struggle. Only thing to do is to try to practice these two exercises a few times a week for a few minutes and hope for the best! Good luck to us!!
Over the past year and 1/2 with TAC, this has been one of my biggest wins. For 60 years I avoided the B chord – the idea of bending my ring finger like a yogi seemed farfetched and impossible. But working with Tony and TAC, my B Chord (barre) sounds great — actually better than my barre F chord! Whooorah!
B is my golden goose. Lol. Feels good to have a win in this week’s challenges.
I marked complete but feel i never really started. My fingers just cant seem to reach where they are suppose too.
Good exercise! Much better today compared to yesterday.
I am definitely getting better at this, but once in a while my middle notes are buzzing instead of being clear. This is good barre practice.
Once you have this down, you can move on to minor chords. Only a short bit away. And maybe easier than the two this week for barre chords. Specifically the Em shape and the Am shape. It adds a lot to the guitar tool box.
This is a beautiful chord, who says you need all 6 strings to chord a beautiful chord on the guitar, well done Tony , LH feels better than the Big Barre F!
Great week. These shapes are so important for getting better at playing. I don’t mind the pain for the gain!
Has anyone else noticed that Tony curls his left hand middle finger next to the neck? I tried to do the same and didn’t like the pain. I’m adding the bar chord excercises to my daily warm up so that I build the strength and flexibility in my left hand. I won’t curl my middle finger next to the neck anytime soon.
I want to say thank you to Bill_Brown, songboy, jorgemac, HowardM for the kind words and help for over the year. I also wanted to say thanks to petelanger he had sent me a message that I was not aware that I can upgrade to lifetime TAC member i am not at this time . So any one can be Lifetime TAC member the cost is $599.00 but the money you have already paid for the TAC Lesson can go towards the cost, so it will be reducing your total mount. it is worth a look check it out. So Keep your Guitar playing its music to your sole. Have A Great Day!!!!
If I ever get up to your part of NorCal I’ll ask around for Big_Mac and we’ll pick awhile, happy Travels Brother.
the chord is becoming easier, part of my daily bar chord routine. I have added the stamina portion to my routine. Getting better all the time.
Strength through practice. I was able to have clear notes and sustained the pressure for the long haul.
Great workout week. I wish I could get cardio credit for the daily challenges.
this was a waste for me, I cannot reach with those fingers
Happy Halloween everyone…. I found this whole week tough but good exercises…I am able to play this B chord. However I use my middle, ring and pinky on 4 th fret as there is no other way to ring out the chord
I used to do it that way but slowly evolved to the ring finger way with support from the middle finger when needed. Keep working on it and like all of your guitar journey it will grow and evolve. also doing it your 3 finger way makes it easy to a blues turn-a-round. Make B major 7th to bridge the change to the 2nd fret A chord. using your finger method I move my middle finger from the 4th fret to the 3rd fret of the G string, Strum or pick twice, then slide my Pinky and ringer finger to the 2nd fret and pick a couple of strokes of that A7 position and then release both fingers and place the middle finger on the 1st fret G string,, pinky on the 2nd fret D string and the ring finger on the 2nd fret A string to make an E chord, strum once and on the 2nd strum release the middle finger in a pull off to make an E7th chord. This is one of the ways to get back to the root chord in the key of E when doing turn a round to start new verse.
Good week as it’s officially 52 of them for me making it one year to date! Never missing a week! I plan to keep signed up for another year and really dig in to some of the songs next time around and become a wizard harry…
Cool, congratulations on the first year completed.
This week has been good for me as I have been playing barre chords through most of my guitar journey. Thanks Tom Elliot (my first teacher in the 1980s) who forced them upon me when I was but a mere child of 13! Happy Halloween everyone!
I found this one a little easier than the e shape F Chord we used yesterday. But I still had to rest after
3 reps. Clarity was good but need to work on my strength So after I write this its back at it for another few minutes and one more session latter today. Enjoy!
Not sure why but this is hard for me… does anyone else use their pinky to help hold down the strings?
Hey @Bill_Brown, how are you doing? Hope you’re playing your guitar every single day!
Oh, I am Nancy ( @Dage )! in fact, I’ve been working on my C shape barre chords. A little tougher (for me) on the fretting hand, only because I haven’t used the shape very often. I have to build that muscle memory. Hope you and yours are all doing well up there at the farm. Are you still wielding a paint brush?
Hey Bill
Yes I’m painting every single day, sold a couple of very large canvases this past week, which always makes me feel great. Working on two commissions right now. I’m having to work on my B barre chord, not sure why I find it so hard, using my pinky to help hold down the strings?
You might want to check out the Croatian Guitar Retreat with Henry Olsen next June. You and your wife would have a great time, once again the mighty American dollar isn’t kind to us Canadians right now.. but hey Go Blue Jays! Hope you’re watching the games, Wow. Stay well my friend, nice to hear from you!
The B chord shows up in many songs on which I am working. It’s great to get this practice.
I got this but definitely need to strengthen and stretch my index finger. I love the struggle because it means I’m learning and pushing myself.
I had a little bit of success on the B chord. There were a couple of times that I was able to get all of the strings to ring. I’m looking forward to something more fun (I hope) next week!
I have string marks in my fingers! That’s good. Happy Halloween! Have a great weekend everyone!
Got it! Looking forward to next week.
Thanks
i am much better at this chord than yesterdays
h
How long ago did Tony do this lesson?
No glasses. much less tats.
The B string still mutes with my F chord. And for me, using my pinky for the B chord works best.
I do not seem to be able to get the B string to sound clear, I can do it with my ring finger until I fret the A string and then it’s gone.
Been a busy week…taking FBW again, learning some new songs, and of course the daily challenges. Oh, I rebuilt my pedal board too. Have a great weekend everyone.
I have small hands, and once again, found barring with the pinky rather than the ring finger a bit easier. I also realized that if I pull the neck of the guitar closer to my body, I have more power in my hand to push down. Hope this helps someone else. May the force be with you and happy Halloween.
How are you all muting the high e string?
If you hold the E string down on the 4th fret while picking the Barre B you can add the G#m7th chord which is the 3rd chord position in the key of E and can be useful in a B chord to Gm7th chord to a A7th chord( fretting the 2nd fret B string and 2nd fret D string) to the E chord turn a round. Just another way to get back to the root chord of E in first position. Try it.
this was actually a easy chord compared to that nasty f bar chord! no problems today
I use sheet metal tools often for years now. And that has made my fingers and hands strong . So I found this weeks lessons pretty easy for me . I think ,I might just like bar cords because, I can move around the fret board to play different cords using the same shape . I think that’s pretty cool.Hope you all have a great day.
I guess that the Force is with me today. This went smoothly especially on the new strings I put on this guitar last night. Did the B, C, D and E barre chord. Even tried the Bb barre chord. All is good in the universe. I restarted the 5 day Blues challenge last night and will work on barre chords and the 5 day challenge for the week end. Go forth and prosper or at least be good to the grandkids.
I was in desperate need of a good set of stretches this week. My shoulders and neck found the focus on barre chords tough going.
I don’t think I’ll ever want to use this. LOL
Hurts like a …… $%&^
I enjoyed the entire week of revisiting the E and A shapes of barre chords. This tab will be a nice refresher to have available. I hope everyone is doing well, and I can’t wait to read the comments. Have a great weekend, everyone.
This was a fun week, I played this 5 day challenge about 14 months ago, it really helped me play solid barre chords
I find the ‘A’ shape much more difficult than the ‘E’ shape, however, I improved significantly since the last time with my first 3 playthroughs sounding 80% okay.