[Loraine]

You are definitely not alone. Neither the mini or full F come easily at the ger. . I agree with much of the above advice. Positioning the thumb more towards the headstock around the 2nd fret! Angling the fingers as suggested where tou are using more the the firmer side of the index on the high E and B string. The biggest reason you’re muting them all when you barre is because you flatten your fingers when you’re stretching for the 1st fret.

Suggestion is to push your elbow downwards, and slightly outwards (forward), so that your fingers automatically curve and you get added pressure on your fretting hand to help with the barre. I can’t stress enough how important it is to stretch angethe elbow downwards when barring. The added pressure is what will keep Spanish pressure on the barre. Fret the high E and B string as close to the fret, while turning a,ightly towards the headstock. This adds pressure to the fingers. You may your barring finger down. You may have to really move your body to allow for the elbow to push down. I push it out forward slightly, because this adds pressure.

The only other advice is to keep practicing, remove your fingers after every try and replace them. Before removing your fingers, really study your arm and wrist to see where the problems are, such as muted strings. Make corrections next time. When you finally can play each string cleanly, and the barre sound clean, then again stop and study the positioning of your hand and fingers.

For practice with full barre chords, I play 7 Spanish Angels, by Ray Charles and sung by Willie Nelson ,to practice barre chords, but it has more than just the full F, so wait until you learn them.

[Loraine]

Welcome to the TAC family @Shawnee56 . You have some great goals.

Just a means of support, I have major depression too. TAC and the people in the forums literally saved my life. I was a full time caregiver of my mother who had Lewy Body dementia, which is difficult because of sun downing, hallucinations, anger and physical attacks, and constantly listening to the people she was seeing and conversing with. They told her things that caused paranoia, distrust, and more. I had to literally lock us in the house, because she would wander and run away. She’d end up at random strangers homes or having bad falls all the time. I was trapped in the house, and it didn’t help that there was a lockdown from Covid. I found Tony’s advertisement and joined. I was an extremely slow learner. This did not come naturally, but I can play many of those songs and so much more. I’m still not great, but that’s my claim to fame. My dad always told me I had good form, but I wasn’t good at sports, piano, violin etc, so I simply stopped trying.

I decided early on to post the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was a great way to get me to learn and grow. I went to virtual open mics starting in my 1st or 2nd year. That was probably the most rewarding thing I’ve e done, I began playing and singing very simple 2 and 3 chord songs. It helped to have songs whose words simply matched the music, because singing and playing is extremely difficult to learn. I nearly quit at the end of my 2nd year, because I wasn’t as good as my friends.

I supplemented TAC with a private lessons, although I’ve been on hiatus since early October from a bad fall that has resulted in 2 surgeries, with the talk of a 3rd, but Ive shon myself and others my resilience in my life with major depression, dealthsmof most family in the past 8-10 years, wing a single teen parent and persevering and getting an education, and my daughter also. I’ve experienced homelessness, and so much more, but I got through it all. I’m only telling you this, because you have also proven resilience by returning, because this is something you really”y want. It’s a motivator. Depression sucks the life out of us, but we continue to fight back from it.

You seem to re Alize that guitar is not a easy instrument to play, but it’s not impossible. I’m nearing 5 years with TAC, and I know I’ve improved greatly. I’ll never be a great player or performer. But, that okay. I am having a blast learning new songs and trying out different guitars, strings, playing different guitars. I’m still having fun. I play every day, and it’s the highlight of my days.

My suggestion is to do the 30 days to play, the how it works in the skills section, and then jump into the daily challenge;

[Loraine]

Welcome to the TAC community! Great job. You do the hammer ons really well. Rang out clear. You have great hand eye coordination.

[Loraine]

Welcome to the TAC community!

I have to agree that the C chord gives many people problems initially. You didn’t mention exactly what you’re having difficulty with. If I had to guess it would be that your ring finger is interfering with you playing a clean D string. That is usually the issue most have. First, make sure your wrist is pushed as far forward as it can to cause your fingers to go into an automatic arc and force the fingers to play on the tip of your fingers. Next, place your fingers as you normally would. Play each string individually. Which string is muted? Look at your fingers to see how they are placed. Is your ring finger slightly touching the D string, thus muting it. There’s an easy fix. The low E (6th string or string at the top of the neck) is not in the C chord. That is why you strum from the A string. So, it’s okay to move your ring finger up towards the low E. In fact, you can cover part of it. Now try playing each string individually again. Did that clear up the problem?

If it’s a different issue, just let us know. There’s always someone that can answer a question or help with something. You can also take a photo of your hand and send that to be looked at.

[Loraine]

Woo hoo, happy 6th TACiversary!! I appreciate you always being there for me and for others. It’s been nice to be on this journey with you and it’s good to see someone that still causes it a TACiversary like I do. I still can’t finger pic though.

[Loraine]

I didn’t dabble a day in my life until I came to TAC. But I’ve been coming now for several years, and I still Love the hell out of playing guitar and I still play every day I’m not a great player I’m not musically talented and I have the worst vocals in the world but I have fun and that’s all I care about so if you’re having fun just keep doing what you’re doing.

[Loraine]

Well done! I’m envious of your long fingers. They’ll be your savior with guitar.

[Loraine]

This was absolutely beautiful @davidw99 !

[Loraine]

@BarbaraM it’s great that you wanna play with others because you will grow as a guitarist doing so. When searching on meet up make sure you’re not just looking locally because a lot of them are done online now through Zoom and you don’t have a delay on there as long as you have original sound for musicians on so search for virtual open mics, song circles, another plays on words. Try typing and just acoustic guitar. I found several that way.

[Loraine]

Awesome job! I knew the song immediately. It sounds beautiful on that guitar. Keep at it, and you’ll have it down in no time!

[Loraine]

Hi Artie I have to agree with all the other comments I want to add a few. Sorry, I tend to write a lot.

Many people don’t think that you’ll learn much in 10 minutes and that’s not true. You’ll actually advance faster than you will if you continue to work something over and over and over. I find that even now when I’m learning or practicing something. If I sit there and try to play it multiple, multiple times I find them getting worse and worse and worse, and I get more frustrated as time goes by. The fun has just been sucked out of me. It’s better to stop long before you get to that point.

So for <font face=”inherit”>lessons, going through the lesson tutorial, you should mark it complete after you e gone through it the first time. You can continue to work on it, but the goal is to introduce you to a functional aspect of playing guitar through tools such </font>as scales, improv, and learning pieces of a song to show you how those skills transition into being used in a song. So during a lesson, give it your best go . When the video ends, mark the lesson complete. Continue practicing, if you like. I wouldn’t do more than an extra 10 minutes or so. <font face=”inherit”> Give it a good go, but don’t get hung up on it. you to give a good go, but don’t get hung up on it. Definitely move on the next day and forget about the day before. As mentioned already, you will get another go around on that lesson in a few months to see your improvement, but a particular skill can be used in multiple lessons. </font>

<font face=”inherit”>What is really interesting to observe is that the minimum 10 minutes a day done day after day allows your finger dexterity to improve, your ability to fret and transition faster through building what is called muscle memory, your guitar knowledge and vocabulary will expand, you’ll venture out to try the skills in songs and improve further. It will seem less arduous as you continue to learn. </font>

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[Loraine]

I’M RETAPING, BECAUSE i DIDN’T REALIZE HOW FAST I PLAYED IT.

[Loraine]

Hey Pete, It is very much like you mention. Often times you do have to raise the neck of the guitar in order to push the elbow down and out. I find it helps with the pressure to move my elbow outwards, while you say you pull it in to be by your ribs. If you push outward, away from your body, it force your wrist and hand to curve and gives more leverage to fret the barre. The curve of the hand puts pressure on the barre. Everyone is different, so what works for you may not work for someone else. Also, a clear barre chord doesn’t necessarily take a lot of pressure. If you find the sweet spot where the chord rings out clear, stop Anfang note the position of your hand and fingers. Also, if you think about it, most barres only need to have 2-3 strings fretted. The other strings are covered by

[Loraine]

You’re welcome. I completely relate to the issue with a broken hand wrist not healing properly. I fell extremely hard in Philadelphia the 1st week of October 2024. I broke my wrist in 3 places and dislocated in 4. I’ve had 2 surgeries already, and the surgeons not happy with how the plate is pushing upward. It’s causing a lot of pain across the top of hand and base of fingers. I had arthritis in my thumb before the,fall, but it is much worse now. I have the larger bone on the outer part of my wrist, that is sticking up and is very painful. Surgeon said it is displace from the force of the fall, and he thinks it will go down on its own. He did say that playing guitar has really helped with dexterity.

[Loraine]

It’s simply an iconic song, because of Judy Garland. Check out Eric’s video. Mine is much more Judy Garland than Clapton. Sign of the era we grew up in.