The limbering up exercise is one that will prepare your mighty index finger for the barre chord madness that is heading its way.
This exercise, which for the record is most certainly not musical, serves an extremely important role in developing a feel for barre chords and the strength necessary to create clean sounding ones.
The focus of this exercise is twofold: 1.) You will be identifying how much pressure is necessary to get good solid sound out of your barre chords, and 2.) By implementing the “button” motion on your index finger you will give the muscles involved in barre chords a workout.
It is with time that this exercise shows its benefits so if barre chords are your nemesis make sure to work this into your repertoire.
Try this guitar challenge
STEP 1: Watch the video to learn the bite-sized piece of music
STEP 2: Click the “PLAY” tab below the video to play along with Tony until you can do it on your own.
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Responses
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Responses
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This helped with getting the feel of it.
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Not a very exciting exercise, but I get how it can help. I will add this to my warm up routine.
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OK, tried some of the suggestions in the comments. My left hand and arm are fully cramped now, I can hardly type! I was able to get all the strings to sound, but I had to angle my guitar up about 45 degrees like a Spanish guitar player. Time for dumbbells to strengthen my biceps!
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Not happenin’, Rolling my index finger to the outside twists my wrist in a very uncomfortable way; it’s almost easier to roll to the inside. Every note is a dull thud. I’ll do the whole course, but I won’t be doing barre chords in my playing. I just can’t see it.
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I have to learn this. So frustrating to place enough pressure on fretting bar.
Hardly any clear notes yet. I will keep practicing. -
This exercise really helped me a lot. Curling my index was a no go, but comfort of position made a huge difference. I first found a comfortable position of the index with thumb under and then concentrated on the feel of each chord and where it hit the index finger. Focusing on that, I was able to press more between thumb and index (think like smashing a gnat between index and thumb, lol) to make the sound and then relax to stop sound. I was able to Barre all chords without curling and without assistance from the other fingers, and No strained feeling in my hand!
Maybe it’s just me, but I have to associate things I don’t understand with something familiar to finally get it. -
I find when barring the 1st fret I have to roll my index finger the other way in order to get enough fretting pressure to get clean notes. Arthritis maybe LOL :).
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Interesting that you said it would be harder to barre the strings on the later frets. Maybe it is to do with hand and arm size, but I’ve found it easier to barre the frets beyond the 1st, but the 1st fret it feels like I have to push down harder because the strings are under more tension from the neck? I might be wrong, still a beginner, but I wonder if anyone else has experienced this.
Oh and also, I can get all the strings to ring out after months of practicing, but I still struggle with the bottom 2 strings, especially the B string.
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I agree. It’s easier as I work my way down the neck. No matter where I am I can never get the B string to ring out!
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Tony, it would be helpful for you to show exactly where your thumb is relative to the neck and your barre finger. However, this is a great exercise. Thanks.
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This is an exercise I painfully needed. Practicing barre chords and they didn’t sound very pretty. Now I can bear down and actually play them correctly.
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So glad I found this exercise! Have had consistent difficulties with the “big” F, but didn’t realize that my problem is actually mainly with the g string. This exercise helped to isolate where my problem is. This will go a long way to help me work on that.
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I was trying to do the daily challenge which called for a barre chord. I just couldn’t make that work so I decided to give this a try. Getting some to work, some not. Will keep working. Definitely feel the fatigue in my hand muscles!
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Just got back to this 5 mins later – and now I can do it on the first and second fret! Wow.
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I am getting good pressure on some strings and bad where the finger joints are – where there is less fat on the fingers – harder for skinny women!
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I feel it in my wrist and my thumb. I try to relax my thumb more but then lose pressure on the strings with my fingers
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Been practicing this on my classical guitar with nylon strings, much easier on that guitar. Doing pretty well with it, once I can do it consistently on that guitar, I’ll move to the steel string. Definitely a workout for the hand.
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I find that it’s my wrist, just behind my thumb which gets sore. I have no problem getting all the notes to rig out though, which I guess is good.
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Even with the help of the middle finger resting over my index finger I can feel the soreness of the muscle between my thumb and index finger, good exercise, I am not sure how limber I am after playing this!
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The G and B strings are thuds. I feel like I have a void in my finger. I cannot get it to flatten out enough to make those 2 strings ring. The finger has been broken twice. The knuckle is a little large, so, even rolling the finger on its side is not only painful, but useless. SMH
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Difficult, painful and a P.I.M.A. With that being said; Everything in life does not come easy unless you work for it. When you first go to the gym, it hurts. Once you establish practice at anything you do or work at it takes time and with time and practice comes skill. This is probably the toughest exercise in my opinion. Nothing comes easy as I mentioned. this challenges me to focus on getting great at this! I never in my life backed down from a challenge within reason of course., I’m a human not a sheep. I will focus daily on making barre chords and the dreaded F chord too. Who here is up to that challenge?
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I like focusing on just the barring finger without the complication of fretting with the other fingers.
I think I’ll add this to my (ir)regular warm-up routine.
My hand got tired very quickly.-
My hand needs a nap
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Better than the first time I tried this
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When I’m playing on my Guitars like My Spring Of 1940 Patrick Harmony Or My D-16GT Martin guitar for the customer service at Martin recommended Charlie’s guitar in Dallas to get the action adjustments to specifications just 2/32 off the top of the 12th Fret Low E String
Making barrel cords from these two guitars are very easy do to the distance and compression onto the neck is much easier for me and I can keep My Finger flat -
It’s Very Hard For Me To My Index Finger Rolled To The Outside To Make The Barre Chords
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The meat of my index finger just doesn’t have the pressure to hold a clear B on the acoustic. Just buzzing B’s and while that sounds fun, well it’s just not. LoL. Been looking around for thoughts on this particular issue assuming i’m not the only one. not found a great solution yet. Open to whatever ideas the TAC family has!
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I had to move my ring finger up a little bit to miss the softest part of my finger. I adjust repeatedly to avoid the soft area. I’ve also notices if my hand is slightly swollen (from sodium I guess) I have more trouble fretting. I drink a lot of water and the next day I’m more successful.
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It worked well! Got to 2x
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Tony, the problem I’m encountering is the high B-E strings my palm gets caught up on these two strings and they sound DEAD….? LoL. I thought it might be me in heaven…being dead, at least it is not HOT STRINGS, I’d be strumming somewhere elsewhere it is a hot time in the old town tonight?…. bad joke. Did you laugh, no sense of humor! But the problem has haunted me for awhile now of barre cords and the same action is the trouble. I have overcome some of it by raising my neck up higher than being level as I can get to index finger over more good sounding strings, and of course the B_E are still my problem of clear barre chords. Any suggestions for this ?
B-and E are not a police issue, it is a guitar issue of poor barre jumping from bar to bar?
Ray -
hand is tired….having trouble with g string
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leave the women alone, the “g” string will vanish I knwo it is hard to do that? LOL
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That was a workout! My hand is tired! This will be helpful.
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Just have to say this – this has been hard (barre chords altogether). I have the index finger I have – small hand, bony finger with deep creases on the inside. And when those creases hit the strings – can’t make good contact. I tried everything known to God and man yesterday to get better contact. I even tried applying a 2″ x 4″ bandaid on my index finger and with that … I could make good contact (but can’t flex my finger, so that’s not a viable solution). I CAN make a good sound with the bottom 3 strings, then I tried it with 4, and that’s pretty good, even sometimes with 5 strings. However, when I try all 6 strings I consistently get a “thud” on the B string and usually the G also. So for now – 5 strings it is. I tried squeezing harder and that does not make it better. Pretty discouraged about this, because making clean barre chords is definitely an important goal. Suggestions welcome – I don’t know of any way to make my index fatter than it is, or to smooth over the natural creases in the index finger. I just can’t seem to span the whole neck without hitting those low spots …
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I struggle as you do but hoping this lesson will make this easier
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Just like some of the posts here I to struggle with the G &B strings. Here I thought maybe my index was too long or short. Guess I just need to build the strength and keep practising.
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My index finger bends so I am not barring all the strings. Ran into my old teacher last week and he said my thumbs is not in the right position??
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Where should my thumb be?
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Shami if you click on the 1x on the bottom right of video you can change the speeds.
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I’m with everyone else, I’m struggling with G ad B. I have been working on Barre cords for a little while. I’m getting what I thought was clean sound but at a slow speed not so much with the G and B. Well just like all the cords in this journey, it’s going to take practice and time.
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The lesson says this exercise is done in 3 speeds.. How do you advance to the next speed?
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After a while you can tell that you use a lot of hand muscles in this exercise
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I workout A LOT, and I find the only way I can get a good sound on the G and B string on the 1st and second fret is if I choke the life out of the guitar neck. This also requires ALL the other fingers helping. I just don’t see how this is helping get better at barre cords.
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I guess I”m not the only one who just can’t get the G and B strings at all. Just thuds no matter how I position my finger
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Any tips on how to fret the G, B, high E strings? i seem to fret the rest just fine but then those are just thudded 🙁
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Completed Fretboard Wizard yesterday. I am terrible at barre chords so looking forward to seeing if this course will help me do better with them.
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Brilliant little exercise. You really have me thinking “troubleshooting”
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Finally made the limbering up lesson! What helped was I would press each string one at a time and add a string each go, so press high e then press high e and b then press high e, b and g…you get what I mean…. It took about a week but also leaning the other fingers into the index finger helped a alot too. Well you think you’re never going to get it and want to throw the guitar but then it happens!
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Have not used my guitar as firewood yet. Your gradual add-a-string approach makes sense @Jill_M. Also @rmckee@mckeegroupllc.com your stress ball daily exercise is worth a try since an old left wrist fracture has been my nemesis for my guitar playing. I actually started this skill course six months ago (just doing this first lesson over and over back then, moved on to less painful skills). Finally realize I will have to suck it up and learn to do barre chords in order to advance my playing to the next level. So I move on to the E-Shape.
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Somebody told me to get a stress ball. Hold it in my left hand by my side. Squeeze 100 times a day. After a week or so my fingers felt stronger when playing a barre. Still lots of work to do.
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Thanks, I will do that! Good Luck!
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I’m just getting started here and can only make it through the drill about 1 to 1.5 times and my left hand stops working… Pain! HaHa! Great tip re the stress ball. TNX.
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One thing I can say is even though I still can’t get all the strings to ring, when I went back to the F chord in the Fingerpicking Jumpstart Lesson 4 I was able to do it. So even though this is a killer exercise it has limbered the index finger up enough to do a F but to do the whole bar first fret is murder and not there yet.
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So hard , just doesn’t feel like I can get a clear sound
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I’m experiencing same; however, if I make slight placement movements (barre finger higher or lower on the fret OR making sure it is in the center of the fret AND/OR rolling the finger – and wrist – a bit more toward the head of the guitar) I can always find a placement giving me a clear note.
I’m just hoping that over time with practice, my hand & barre finger will figure out where to be by themselves… MUSCLE MEMORY!
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Doesn’t matter what I do, not all the stings will ring out. I’m very frustrated
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Have you checked the action of your guitar? Action is the height of your strings from the fretboard. I have mine set to the lowest it can be without buzzing. This way, you do not have to press as hard down on the strings when you barre.
Also, what strings are you using? Size? Thicker strings need to have more tension in order to be in tune compared to thinner strings. Therefore, you need more finger pressure in order to fret the strings. If you go with thinner strings, you will need less pressure. This the combination of both lowering the action and changing to a thinner set of strings will make you able to play barre chords more easily.
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Not sure where the placement of fingers are for the Limbering up video. Will watch like a guilty pleasure until I’m sure, still confusing for right now.
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Um, yeah . where was this when I tried to do barre chords the first time. Barley made it thru the exercise 1 time before my fretting hand was feeling the burn. Highly suggest a name change for this one. Should be “Bulking Up”
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that’s a killer on the index had some issues getting the ” g” to ring clear trying different positions
It’s coming-
I am also having no luck with the g and b. Did you get the g yet? If so what was the key?
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Congratulations, !
Challenge complete
Come back tomorrow for your next challenge
This helped with getting the feel of it.
Not a very exciting exercise, but I get how it can help. I will add this to my warm up routine.
OK, tried some of the suggestions in the comments. My left hand and arm are fully cramped now, I can hardly type! I was able to get all the strings to sound, but I had to angle my guitar up about 45 degrees like a Spanish guitar player. Time for dumbbells to strengthen my biceps!
Not happenin’, Rolling my index finger to the outside twists my wrist in a very uncomfortable way; it’s almost easier to roll to the inside. Every note is a dull thud. I’ll do the whole course, but I won’t be doing barre chords in my playing. I just can’t see it.
I have to learn this. So frustrating to place enough pressure on fretting bar.
Hardly any clear notes yet. I will keep practicing.
This exercise really helped me a lot. Curling my index was a no go, but comfort of position made a huge difference. I first found a comfortable position of the index with thumb under and then concentrated on the feel of each chord and where it hit the index finger. Focusing on that, I was able to press more between thumb and index (think like smashing a gnat between index and thumb, lol) to make the sound and then relax to stop sound. I was able to Barre all chords without curling and without assistance from the other fingers, and No strained feeling in my hand!
Maybe it’s just me, but I have to associate things I don’t understand with something familiar to finally get it.
I find when barring the 1st fret I have to roll my index finger the other way in order to get enough fretting pressure to get clean notes. Arthritis maybe LOL :).
Interesting that you said it would be harder to barre the strings on the later frets. Maybe it is to do with hand and arm size, but I’ve found it easier to barre the frets beyond the 1st, but the 1st fret it feels like I have to push down harder because the strings are under more tension from the neck? I might be wrong, still a beginner, but I wonder if anyone else has experienced this.
Oh and also, I can get all the strings to ring out after months of practicing, but I still struggle with the bottom 2 strings, especially the B string.
I agree. It’s easier as I work my way down the neck. No matter where I am I can never get the B string to ring out!
Tony, it would be helpful for you to show exactly where your thumb is relative to the neck and your barre finger. However, this is a great exercise. Thanks.
This is an exercise I painfully needed. Practicing barre chords and they didn’t sound very pretty. Now I can bear down and actually play them correctly.
So glad I found this exercise! Have had consistent difficulties with the “big” F, but didn’t realize that my problem is actually mainly with the g string. This exercise helped to isolate where my problem is. This will go a long way to help me work on that.
I was trying to do the daily challenge which called for a barre chord. I just couldn’t make that work so I decided to give this a try. Getting some to work, some not. Will keep working. Definitely feel the fatigue in my hand muscles!
Just got back to this 5 mins later – and now I can do it on the first and second fret! Wow.
I am getting good pressure on some strings and bad where the finger joints are – where there is less fat on the fingers – harder for skinny women!
I feel it in my wrist and my thumb. I try to relax my thumb more but then lose pressure on the strings with my fingers
Been practicing this on my classical guitar with nylon strings, much easier on that guitar. Doing pretty well with it, once I can do it consistently on that guitar, I’ll move to the steel string. Definitely a workout for the hand.
I find that it’s my wrist, just behind my thumb which gets sore. I have no problem getting all the notes to rig out though, which I guess is good.
Even with the help of the middle finger resting over my index finger I can feel the soreness of the muscle between my thumb and index finger, good exercise, I am not sure how limber I am after playing this!
The G and B strings are thuds. I feel like I have a void in my finger. I cannot get it to flatten out enough to make those 2 strings ring. The finger has been broken twice. The knuckle is a little large, so, even rolling the finger on its side is not only painful, but useless. SMH
Difficult, painful and a P.I.M.A. With that being said; Everything in life does not come easy unless you work for it. When you first go to the gym, it hurts. Once you establish practice at anything you do or work at it takes time and with time and practice comes skill. This is probably the toughest exercise in my opinion. Nothing comes easy as I mentioned. this challenges me to focus on getting great at this! I never in my life backed down from a challenge within reason of course., I’m a human not a sheep. I will focus daily on making barre chords and the dreaded F chord too. Who here is up to that challenge?
I like focusing on just the barring finger without the complication of fretting with the other fingers.
I think I’ll add this to my (ir)regular warm-up routine.
My hand got tired very quickly.
My hand needs a nap
Better than the first time I tried this
When I’m playing on my Guitars like My Spring Of 1940 Patrick Harmony Or My D-16GT Martin guitar for the customer service at Martin recommended Charlie’s guitar in Dallas to get the action adjustments to specifications just 2/32 off the top of the 12th Fret Low E String
Making barrel cords from these two guitars are very easy do to the distance and compression onto the neck is much easier for me and I can keep My Finger flat
It’s Very Hard For Me To My Index Finger Rolled To The Outside To Make The Barre Chords
The meat of my index finger just doesn’t have the pressure to hold a clear B on the acoustic. Just buzzing B’s and while that sounds fun, well it’s just not. LoL. Been looking around for thoughts on this particular issue assuming i’m not the only one. not found a great solution yet. Open to whatever ideas the TAC family has!
I had to move my ring finger up a little bit to miss the softest part of my finger. I adjust repeatedly to avoid the soft area. I’ve also notices if my hand is slightly swollen (from sodium I guess) I have more trouble fretting. I drink a lot of water and the next day I’m more successful.
It worked well! Got to 2x
Tony, the problem I’m encountering is the high B-E strings my palm gets caught up on these two strings and they sound DEAD….? LoL. I thought it might be me in heaven…being dead, at least it is not HOT STRINGS, I’d be strumming somewhere elsewhere it is a hot time in the old town tonight?…. bad joke. Did you laugh, no sense of humor! But the problem has haunted me for awhile now of barre cords and the same action is the trouble. I have overcome some of it by raising my neck up higher than being level as I can get to index finger over more good sounding strings, and of course the B_E are still my problem of clear barre chords. Any suggestions for this ?
B-and E are not a police issue, it is a guitar issue of poor barre jumping from bar to bar?
Ray
hand is tired….having trouble with g string
leave the women alone, the “g” string will vanish I knwo it is hard to do that? LOL
That was a workout! My hand is tired! This will be helpful.
Just have to say this – this has been hard (barre chords altogether). I have the index finger I have – small hand, bony finger with deep creases on the inside. And when those creases hit the strings – can’t make good contact. I tried everything known to God and man yesterday to get better contact. I even tried applying a 2″ x 4″ bandaid on my index finger and with that … I could make good contact (but can’t flex my finger, so that’s not a viable solution). I CAN make a good sound with the bottom 3 strings, then I tried it with 4, and that’s pretty good, even sometimes with 5 strings. However, when I try all 6 strings I consistently get a “thud” on the B string and usually the G also. So for now – 5 strings it is. I tried squeezing harder and that does not make it better. Pretty discouraged about this, because making clean barre chords is definitely an important goal. Suggestions welcome – I don’t know of any way to make my index fatter than it is, or to smooth over the natural creases in the index finger. I just can’t seem to span the whole neck without hitting those low spots …
I struggle as you do but hoping this lesson will make this easier
Just like some of the posts here I to struggle with the G &B strings. Here I thought maybe my index was too long or short. Guess I just need to build the strength and keep practising.
My index finger bends so I am not barring all the strings. Ran into my old teacher last week and he said my thumbs is not in the right position??
Where should my thumb be?
Shami if you click on the 1x on the bottom right of video you can change the speeds.
I’m with everyone else, I’m struggling with G ad B. I have been working on Barre cords for a little while. I’m getting what I thought was clean sound but at a slow speed not so much with the G and B. Well just like all the cords in this journey, it’s going to take practice and time.
The lesson says this exercise is done in 3 speeds.. How do you advance to the next speed?
After a while you can tell that you use a lot of hand muscles in this exercise
I workout A LOT, and I find the only way I can get a good sound on the G and B string on the 1st and second fret is if I choke the life out of the guitar neck. This also requires ALL the other fingers helping. I just don’t see how this is helping get better at barre cords.
I guess I”m not the only one who just can’t get the G and B strings at all. Just thuds no matter how I position my finger
Any tips on how to fret the G, B, high E strings? i seem to fret the rest just fine but then those are just thudded 🙁
Completed Fretboard Wizard yesterday. I am terrible at barre chords so looking forward to seeing if this course will help me do better with them.
Brilliant little exercise. You really have me thinking “troubleshooting”
Finally made the limbering up lesson! What helped was I would press each string one at a time and add a string each go, so press high e then press high e and b then press high e, b and g…you get what I mean…. It took about a week but also leaning the other fingers into the index finger helped a alot too. Well you think you’re never going to get it and want to throw the guitar but then it happens!
Have not used my guitar as firewood yet. Your gradual add-a-string approach makes sense @Jill_M. Also @rmckee@mckeegroupllc.com your stress ball daily exercise is worth a try since an old left wrist fracture has been my nemesis for my guitar playing. I actually started this skill course six months ago (just doing this first lesson over and over back then, moved on to less painful skills). Finally realize I will have to suck it up and learn to do barre chords in order to advance my playing to the next level. So I move on to the E-Shape.
Somebody told me to get a stress ball. Hold it in my left hand by my side. Squeeze 100 times a day. After a week or so my fingers felt stronger when playing a barre. Still lots of work to do.
Thanks, I will do that! Good Luck!
I’m just getting started here and can only make it through the drill about 1 to 1.5 times and my left hand stops working… Pain! HaHa! Great tip re the stress ball. TNX.
One thing I can say is even though I still can’t get all the strings to ring, when I went back to the F chord in the Fingerpicking Jumpstart Lesson 4 I was able to do it. So even though this is a killer exercise it has limbered the index finger up enough to do a F but to do the whole bar first fret is murder and not there yet.
So hard , just doesn’t feel like I can get a clear sound
I’m experiencing same; however, if I make slight placement movements (barre finger higher or lower on the fret OR making sure it is in the center of the fret AND/OR rolling the finger – and wrist – a bit more toward the head of the guitar) I can always find a placement giving me a clear note.
I’m just hoping that over time with practice, my hand & barre finger will figure out where to be by themselves… MUSCLE MEMORY!
Doesn’t matter what I do, not all the stings will ring out. I’m very frustrated
Have you checked the action of your guitar? Action is the height of your strings from the fretboard. I have mine set to the lowest it can be without buzzing. This way, you do not have to press as hard down on the strings when you barre.
Also, what strings are you using? Size? Thicker strings need to have more tension in order to be in tune compared to thinner strings. Therefore, you need more finger pressure in order to fret the strings. If you go with thinner strings, you will need less pressure. This the combination of both lowering the action and changing to a thinner set of strings will make you able to play barre chords more easily.
Not sure where the placement of fingers are for the Limbering up video. Will watch like a guilty pleasure until I’m sure, still confusing for right now.
Um, yeah . where was this when I tried to do barre chords the first time. Barley made it thru the exercise 1 time before my fretting hand was feeling the burn. Highly suggest a name change for this one. Should be “Bulking Up”
that’s a killer on the index had some issues getting the ” g” to ring clear trying different positions
It’s coming
I am also having no luck with the g and b. Did you get the g yet? If so what was the key?