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I need help learning how to position my thumb for enough pressure to accomplish Barre Chords. I have tried doing this for a while now and can’t seem to get the hang of it so that it rings true and doesn’t sound “dead” when I try to Barre Chord. Any suggestions. I am a chick with fairly small hands, so maybe that has something to do with it? I don’t know…help!
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Barre chords are definitely one of the more challenging things to overcome, but you can do it – even with your small chick fingers 🙂 Just keep adjusting your wrist and where your thumb is on the back of the neck. I’m assuming you’re playing acoustic guitar? (It’s more difficult on an acoustic). So you’ll have 2 challenges with barres, the first will be learning how to play one while sitting down.. then you’ll find that it’s another challenge to play it standing up with the guitar on a strap. Because your wrist will be at a different angle. Learn it sitting down first though.
Just keep practicing it… keep adjusting your thumb and wrist and remember you’re kind of squeezing the guitar neck between your pointer finger and thumb. Just keep playing with it and you’ll get it, but do know that it’s not easy for anyone to get that down. Your playing will be at a whole new level though once you can play barre chords.
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Barre chords aren’t that hard if you learn how to fret them correctly. The first thing you don’t do is lay your first finger flat across the neck. It needs to be slightly arched cause usually you are only barring the 6,5 and 1st strings. Your middle finger, ring finer and baby finger are pressing down on the other strings most times. Go to Guitar Principles.com and there is a ton of info there on playing correctly as for fingering, chord changing, holding the guitar and exactly how your wrist should be bowed when playing certain chords. thanks
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@liv2worship wrote:
I need help learning how to position my thumb for enough pressure to accomplish Barre Chords. I have tried doing this for a while now and can’t seem to get the hang of it so that it rings true and doesn’t sound “dead” when I try to Barre Chord. Any suggestions. I am a chick with fairly small hands, so maybe that has something to do with it? I don’t know…help!
I know that this is an old post but I thought I’d reply in case it helps another newbie (like myself).
I’ve been trying to play now for 5 months and found barre chords very difficult if not impossible. I have a Steinberger Synapse electric guitar, perfect for travel and I enjoy playing it. About 2 months ago a friend tried to play my guitar and he said it needed to have the action lowered. I didn’t even know what that meant? I took it to a luthier’s shop (that’s another new word I learned – luthier lol), who adjusted it for me and said that my guitar had the highest action of any guitar he’d ever worked on. It came like that when I bought it brand new from musiciansfriend.com.
Playing is still a challenge for me because I’m slow but I can finally play barre chords! Frankly, the guitar feels like a totally new and different instrument, gentle touch creates notes I couldn’t even dream of achieving before, whereas in the past I had to use a lot of pressure with my fingers for simple chords. I simply didn’t know.
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