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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harder this time , I can’t do the ring finger half bar code no shoud come from it 🙁
Trying for the rest -
This has been the most difficult lesson for me this week. Some of the chord transitions have proven to be problematic – mind my moves faster than my fretting fingers.
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I worked through this challenge and did pretty well but need to gain more strength to find bar chords useful.
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Way to go girl!!!
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well some good most bad no this was not fun but a step forward nice to see all the comments knowing I was not alone
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I tried. There is absolutely nothing beautiful coming out of my guitar on my 4th day of TAC. But I tried, I will continue working it.
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Well this lesson was difficult for me . I can play it measure by measure, just couldn’t put it all together.I learned from it, so it’s still a win for me .
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Awesome! Sharon good job.
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Like most of you, I found this tough. However, a year ago, I would have not even tried. It may be hesitant and with quite a few buzzing and dead strings, but there is some progress and I can see how helpful mastering this type of transition will be.
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The win? I showed up. I don’t appear to be barre chord ready. I finished the 30 day challenge, I finished the 5 day prep to TAC, and this is the 2nd week of TAC for me. I clearly need to find a beginners barre chord course. Nothing was clean, nothing was clear, and nothing was easy, but I’ve now been exposed to them and they did work a little better for me toward the end. I did try to change my A chord shape from 3 fingers to just the index and it worked pretty well. Im going to make the index A (mini barre) my standard A shape, it may help me get better at barre chords in the future. Thank you
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@Jer_Music , Tony also has two different barre cord courses available here. Look in SKILL COURSES. One is under the TECHNIQUES tab. I think it’s called ‘Better Barre Chords.’ The other is in the 5 Day Challenges and is….. YES a Barre Chord 5 Day Challenge!
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Thanks Blu, I will definitely look into that.
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I can do E shaped bar chords off the low E string. But A shaped are super challenging for me. I see players’ ring fingers almost double jointed the way it compresses the DGB strings. Are there exercises to strengthen the ring finger and increase flexibility?
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@hankfitz
Have you considered trying the A shape barre using the middle, ring and pinky to hold down the G, B, and E strings? I did that for a long time before learning to use the ring exclusively. Now, of course, I find the ring finger version to be much simpler and easier, but the other way works too. -
@hankfitz
Oops, obviously I typed in the wrong string names. Should have been D, G, B… sorry for any confusion.
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The win – I am able to play the bar chords. Getting the initial shape setup is not so quick. My hand is tired after playing that exercise.
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need hand strength,
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Those bar chords- hand started to cramp up after awhile. Will have to go back to this more frequent to build some hand strength.
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I can do it, more or less, no chords are not clean. Needs some work.
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Marking this one complete, but still a long way to go.
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Maybe I summarize the prior comments. At best we learned something and it was educational although painful and not much fun, At worst it just kind of sucked.
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Barre chords are sounding better, transitions are slow
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I got a lot of practicing to do. Having fun.
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Barre chords were one of the first things I learned so they are not too difficult for me. Rhythm is still the thing that I need always to improve on. Great challenge! Ready for tomorrow. Keep working on those barre chords because they will help to open up the entire fretboard.
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I can’t do the index/ring stretch for the A chord shape near the nut, so I used the index/pinkie ( and muted the high E string). it works.
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I can not do far chords with my finger issues. Tried the power chords but really do not like the way they sound. Looking forward to next week.
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My hand is too small to reach the barre for the ring finger for the A shape. Total failure! First challenge in a while that I had to take a hard pass on.
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You still logged in and attempted it, so mark it complete! We’re not going to love every lesson, but they all help us with future lessons and playing.
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Here’s an updated version of your email incorporating your additional feedback:
I found playing the bar chords a bit challenging, but I’m happy I managed to play them, even if they didn’t sound perfect yet. I had a good time with today’s lesson and am eager for more practice. -
barre chords, always a challenge
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Totally impossible for my hand!
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Barre chords are not my favorite but hey I did the work. 🙂
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Bar chords are the bomb.
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this one was tough!
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Ok so the challenge is to work on barre chords. This is definitely a workout! Moving from the A shape back to the E shape is a chore!
I need more practice and more like this to keep me playing barre chords.
Will work on this more on Friday and the weekend. I tire out quickly when working on barre chords. Build strength and stamina. -
A difficult lesson but the small win is that I did get a bit better and I found my barre chords were getting better not always perfect but a bit better and more consistent–just have to keep practicing them a few minutes semi regularly.
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Some of the cord transitions are very difficult. I should use the index to barre the strings, but I need to get index positioned first. Makes it slow.
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I love barr chords, although I do tend to get a cramp in my hand when I play them to much.
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Ugh! Buzz,buzz,buzz. Tough one today…
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Tough and tiring, Stick with it.
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Good lesson today, less pressure and keeping my wrist straight was advice given to me that seems to help.
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Please see the suggestion I sent to Support@tonypolcastro.com for a modification to the tab to make it easier.
Dave
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Yes, barre chords are my nemesis. Also, I’ve been following Tony for over two years now, and my head was spinning in confusion from Tony’s explanation. So I can only imagine how newbies may have felt… This was a tough lesson, for sure. Not my favorite.
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What a GREAT Barre chord exercise. I am going to incorporate this into my 5 minute daily warmup!!!
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This is just so difficult. Still struggling second time around. It would help to have diagrams of chords. I know It’s just practice, repition and building strength . However I wonder if I will ever will be able to do barre chords even physically.
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You could print off the TAB and then draw chord diagrams at the top. It might help with the learning process. There are also books and charts of chord diagrams that might help. Some are free to download.
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Try just using the power chords first. Good luck
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Happy to see my barre chords improving. I realised today that if I shift my ring finger upwards a little I can finally achieve more tension across all strings and get that B string to ring out. Little incremental alterations every day add up over time.
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Disaster. Everything sounds flat and muted. I had a really hard time understanding the directions for this one.
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Don’t be disheartened. Looks like you only joined us in December, which means this is bound to be a tough exercise due to the barre chords.
You also need to figure out what works best for YOU in terms of understanding exercises. I usually get my guitar practice in in the evening once I stop working. I often don’t bother to watch the Learn video. I just print off and look at the TAB and see if it makes sense. I tried that today but playing it sounding weird. Then I listened to the Play video and it all made sense and was fun to play.
If I had tried an exercise like this in the first few months of joining TAC I would have been useless at it. It has now been a couple of years and I am relatively comfortable with everything. You will probably get there a lot faster than me but just trust for now. These hard exercises, and that fact that there is something fresh to try five days a week, really moves you along without you even noticing and it never gets boring.
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That’s what sucks about barre chords but you know what? If you semi regularly just practice them for awhile (truthfully, a long while) they will get better.
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Second time around for this one, so still difficult and tiring, but making noticeable improvement – as Tony often says, go for progress, not perfection!
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One year ago these barre chords were my nemesis but by golly a year later they are not anywhere near the problem they were. I will take that as a win. Thanks Tony and all the TAC members who take the time to comment.
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Drawings of these chords would be SO helpful. It’s hard to follow along if you’re not familiar, and Tony goes through it too fast. I have to keep hitting rewind.
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I agree!!!
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@GaryRKarr @vickiegourleyeastlink-ca
You guys are using the TAB and Play links as well as just the Learn video, tho aren’t you? Those are essential for practising. I download and print all the TAB sheets out. Then the Play video helps me understand timing. If you understand a chord from the TAB then you could draw that as a chord diagram yourself. I would never have been able to progress just from watching Learn videos (though they are useful for tips, tricks and alts).-
Oh yes, using all of the above. Just mentioned it would be helpful to have a diagram of the chords on the tab. Thanks
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Yes, though I really have to get the basics first by watching the instruction and trying it first there. Otherwise I will not understand what I really should be doing on the play part. And yeah, the diagram of the chords would be helpful.
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My progress with Barre chords after a year of Tony went from REALLY disliking doing it, wondering how to avoid it, to today, just being uncomfortable doing it. THAT’s progress. 🙂
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The barre chords are a great way to gain strength in my fretting hand. Started out rather sloppy, but ended up pretty good. Im going to do this one for a few days for strength.
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Wow, this is the hardest yet…
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This is very good to know. Learning how to travel back up the neck from G to F and F sharp, I will need to get a little quicker.
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No issues with the E shaped barre chords, but my fretting hand strenuously objects to the A shaped barre chords. I don’t know whether to blame arthritis or poor hand strength, but the A barrés are a no-go. I don’t know if I can claim it as a “small win”, but I compensated by playing them as simple B, G, D string barres, only strumming those three strings on the appropriate frets. Today’s challenge was certainly not my finest hour.
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With me it’s opposite, I could do the A shape chords from the get go, albeit not quick enough yet but the E shape gives me a lot of problems. I can get it to ring clean occasionally with a lot of tweaking but that takes about 3-5 seconds.
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Nope too difficult and confusing
Congratulations, !
Challenge complete
Come back tomorrow for your next challenge
harder this time , I can’t do the ring finger half bar code no shoud come from it 🙁
Trying for the rest
This has been the most difficult lesson for me this week. Some of the chord transitions have proven to be problematic – mind my moves faster than my fretting fingers.
I worked through this challenge and did pretty well but need to gain more strength to find bar chords useful.
Way to go girl!!!
well some good most bad no this was not fun but a step forward nice to see all the comments knowing I was not alone
I tried. There is absolutely nothing beautiful coming out of my guitar on my 4th day of TAC. But I tried, I will continue working it.
Well this lesson was difficult for me . I can play it measure by measure, just couldn’t put it all together.I learned from it, so it’s still a win for me .
Awesome! Sharon good job.
Like most of you, I found this tough. However, a year ago, I would have not even tried. It may be hesitant and with quite a few buzzing and dead strings, but there is some progress and I can see how helpful mastering this type of transition will be.
The win? I showed up. I don’t appear to be barre chord ready. I finished the 30 day challenge, I finished the 5 day prep to TAC, and this is the 2nd week of TAC for me. I clearly need to find a beginners barre chord course. Nothing was clean, nothing was clear, and nothing was easy, but I’ve now been exposed to them and they did work a little better for me toward the end. I did try to change my A chord shape from 3 fingers to just the index and it worked pretty well. Im going to make the index A (mini barre) my standard A shape, it may help me get better at barre chords in the future. Thank you
@Jer_Music , Tony also has two different barre cord courses available here. Look in SKILL COURSES. One is under the TECHNIQUES tab. I think it’s called ‘Better Barre Chords.’ The other is in the 5 Day Challenges and is….. YES a Barre Chord 5 Day Challenge!
Thanks Blu, I will definitely look into that.
I can do E shaped bar chords off the low E string. But A shaped are super challenging for me. I see players’ ring fingers almost double jointed the way it compresses the DGB strings. Are there exercises to strengthen the ring finger and increase flexibility?
@hankfitz
Have you considered trying the A shape barre using the middle, ring and pinky to hold down the G, B, and E strings? I did that for a long time before learning to use the ring exclusively. Now, of course, I find the ring finger version to be much simpler and easier, but the other way works too.
@hankfitz
Oops, obviously I typed in the wrong string names. Should have been D, G, B… sorry for any confusion.
The win – I am able to play the bar chords. Getting the initial shape setup is not so quick. My hand is tired after playing that exercise.
need hand strength,
Those bar chords- hand started to cramp up after awhile. Will have to go back to this more frequent to build some hand strength.
I can do it, more or less, no chords are not clean. Needs some work.
Marking this one complete, but still a long way to go.
Maybe I summarize the prior comments. At best we learned something and it was educational although painful and not much fun, At worst it just kind of sucked.
Barre chords are sounding better, transitions are slow
I got a lot of practicing to do. Having fun.
Barre chords were one of the first things I learned so they are not too difficult for me. Rhythm is still the thing that I need always to improve on. Great challenge! Ready for tomorrow. Keep working on those barre chords because they will help to open up the entire fretboard.
I can’t do the index/ring stretch for the A chord shape near the nut, so I used the index/pinkie ( and muted the high E string). it works.
I can not do far chords with my finger issues. Tried the power chords but really do not like the way they sound. Looking forward to next week.
My hand is too small to reach the barre for the ring finger for the A shape. Total failure! First challenge in a while that I had to take a hard pass on.
You still logged in and attempted it, so mark it complete! We’re not going to love every lesson, but they all help us with future lessons and playing.
Here’s an updated version of your email incorporating your additional feedback:
I found playing the bar chords a bit challenging, but I’m happy I managed to play them, even if they didn’t sound perfect yet. I had a good time with today’s lesson and am eager for more practice.
barre chords, always a challenge
Totally impossible for my hand!
Barre chords are not my favorite but hey I did the work. 🙂
Bar chords are the bomb.
this one was tough!
Ok so the challenge is to work on barre chords. This is definitely a workout! Moving from the A shape back to the E shape is a chore!
I need more practice and more like this to keep me playing barre chords.
Will work on this more on Friday and the weekend. I tire out quickly when working on barre chords. Build strength and stamina.
A difficult lesson but the small win is that I did get a bit better and I found my barre chords were getting better not always perfect but a bit better and more consistent–just have to keep practicing them a few minutes semi regularly.
Some of the cord transitions are very difficult. I should use the index to barre the strings, but I need to get index positioned first. Makes it slow.
I love barr chords, although I do tend to get a cramp in my hand when I play them to much.
Ugh! Buzz,buzz,buzz. Tough one today…
Tough and tiring, Stick with it.
Good lesson today, less pressure and keeping my wrist straight was advice given to me that seems to help.
Please see the suggestion I sent to Support@tonypolcastro.com for a modification to the tab to make it easier.
Dave
Yes, barre chords are my nemesis. Also, I’ve been following Tony for over two years now, and my head was spinning in confusion from Tony’s explanation. So I can only imagine how newbies may have felt… This was a tough lesson, for sure. Not my favorite.
What a GREAT Barre chord exercise. I am going to incorporate this into my 5 minute daily warmup!!!
This is just so difficult. Still struggling second time around. It would help to have diagrams of chords. I know It’s just practice, repition and building strength . However I wonder if I will ever will be able to do barre chords even physically.
You could print off the TAB and then draw chord diagrams at the top. It might help with the learning process. There are also books and charts of chord diagrams that might help. Some are free to download.
Try just using the power chords first. Good luck
Happy to see my barre chords improving. I realised today that if I shift my ring finger upwards a little I can finally achieve more tension across all strings and get that B string to ring out. Little incremental alterations every day add up over time.
Disaster. Everything sounds flat and muted. I had a really hard time understanding the directions for this one.
Don’t be disheartened. Looks like you only joined us in December, which means this is bound to be a tough exercise due to the barre chords.
You also need to figure out what works best for YOU in terms of understanding exercises. I usually get my guitar practice in in the evening once I stop working. I often don’t bother to watch the Learn video. I just print off and look at the TAB and see if it makes sense. I tried that today but playing it sounding weird. Then I listened to the Play video and it all made sense and was fun to play.
If I had tried an exercise like this in the first few months of joining TAC I would have been useless at it. It has now been a couple of years and I am relatively comfortable with everything. You will probably get there a lot faster than me but just trust for now. These hard exercises, and that fact that there is something fresh to try five days a week, really moves you along without you even noticing and it never gets boring.
That’s what sucks about barre chords but you know what? If you semi regularly just practice them for awhile (truthfully, a long while) they will get better.
Second time around for this one, so still difficult and tiring, but making noticeable improvement – as Tony often says, go for progress, not perfection!
One year ago these barre chords were my nemesis but by golly a year later they are not anywhere near the problem they were. I will take that as a win. Thanks Tony and all the TAC members who take the time to comment.
Drawings of these chords would be SO helpful. It’s hard to follow along if you’re not familiar, and Tony goes through it too fast. I have to keep hitting rewind.
I agree!!!
@GaryRKarr @vickiegourleyeastlink-ca
You guys are using the TAB and Play links as well as just the Learn video, tho aren’t you? Those are essential for practising. I download and print all the TAB sheets out. Then the Play video helps me understand timing. If you understand a chord from the TAB then you could draw that as a chord diagram yourself. I would never have been able to progress just from watching Learn videos (though they are useful for tips, tricks and alts).
Oh yes, using all of the above. Just mentioned it would be helpful to have a diagram of the chords on the tab. Thanks
Yes, though I really have to get the basics first by watching the instruction and trying it first there. Otherwise I will not understand what I really should be doing on the play part. And yeah, the diagram of the chords would be helpful.
My progress with Barre chords after a year of Tony went from REALLY disliking doing it, wondering how to avoid it, to today, just being uncomfortable doing it. THAT’s progress. 🙂
The barre chords are a great way to gain strength in my fretting hand. Started out rather sloppy, but ended up pretty good. Im going to do this one for a few days for strength.
Wow, this is the hardest yet…
This is very good to know. Learning how to travel back up the neck from G to F and F sharp, I will need to get a little quicker.
No issues with the E shaped barre chords, but my fretting hand strenuously objects to the A shaped barre chords. I don’t know whether to blame arthritis or poor hand strength, but the A barrés are a no-go. I don’t know if I can claim it as a “small win”, but I compensated by playing them as simple B, G, D string barres, only strumming those three strings on the appropriate frets. Today’s challenge was certainly not my finest hour.
With me it’s opposite, I could do the A shape chords from the get go, albeit not quick enough yet but the E shape gives me a lot of problems. I can get it to ring clean occasionally with a lot of tweaking but that takes about 3-5 seconds.
Nope too difficult and confusing