Barre chord dominant 7th difficulty

[Reuben B]

Hi all,
I’ve been struggling with this and getting a bit frustrated. I wonder if anyone has any tips (or share my struggle).

In some lessons Brian often plays the (dominant) 7th chord by removing the pinky finger from the barred E-shaped (from CAGED) chord. An example of this is in the recent lesson EP445 for the F#7th chord (17 second into the first video).

Well my problem is that on my acoustic guitar, I can’t seem to make a sound with the 4th string with this 7th chord shape, that is, the string that actually sound give the (flatted) 7th sound. This seems to be less of an issue on my electric.

I had to wonder if there’s something not quite right with my guitar setup or if I’ve just been playing barre chord “wrong” all this time. I’d appreciate any tips.

Thanks!

[Michael L]

Hi Reuben, you’ve not necessarily been playing barre chords incorrectly… on acoustic guitars it’s sometimes tricky to get the placement of the first finger right. Hand strength can come into play also. On the full E-shaped chord it’s relatively easy to have the tip of the finger on the 6th string and have the base of the finger cover strings 1 and 2. When you lift the pinky on string 5, sometimes that string hits the first finger right at the joint where there’s not as much flesh on your finger and you don’t get good fret contact. I’ve done this enough now that I have a small callous right at that joint.

I find that adjusting the first finger in a couple of ways can help. Try moving it up or down slightly, that is toward the ceiling or toward the floor. Just a little movement can make a difference because a fleshier part of the finger contacts the string. You can also try moving it a little closer to the fret wire itself… almost on top of it. There’s a sweet spot there between fretting the note weakly (too far away from the fret) or muting the note (too much on top of the fret).

Final thoughts… it also could be in your guitar’s setup. If the action is too high it’s much harder to fret the notes. Heavier strings make it harder, etc.

Hope this helps… sorry to tricks to fix it, just experimentation and practice.

[Reuben B]

Thank you for the suggestions and responses. I’ve tried different ways of barre-ing and some worked better, at least at lower end of the neck. It’s still harder as I go up the neck. Consistency still seems to be a problem for me, so I guess I just have to keep practicing and experimenting. Yes, on my acoustic go-to guitar with a shorter-scale / slightly higher-action neck (with medium-gauge string) it feels harder than on my other acoustic or electric.

BTW, I am new to the AM community. So glad to see a very supportive community here. I’ve been learning a lot from the lessons just within the last several weeks.

[Jean-Michel G]

Hi Reuben,
The topic of barre chords seems to be very popular ther last few days… 😉
In a recent answer I posted a link to a YouTube video from Justin Sandercoe (JustinGuitar) where he breaks it down to the smallest details. You should be able to find it easily.

Barre chords are harder to play on acoustic guitars than on electric guitars, and depending on string action and string gauge, they may be _much_ harder!
In addition to Michael’s great suggestions, I’d recommend spinning the barring finger ever so slightly towards the nut (the finger will curl somewhat, that’s ok); this brings the bone of the knuckle in contact with the fingerboard instead of the flesh of the finger.

Good luck. Keep at it!

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