Problem with playing chords

[mattie]

Hi everybody,

as I already said my problem is that I still can't play chords. I've been playing for about 1.5 years now and most time I practice alternate picking and legato and stuff like that which is pretty fun to practice. I also think that I'm relatively good at it.
But I can't move myself to practicing other things, especially chords. My biggest probem is the Amaj-type barre chord. When I do the barre I can't put the other three fingers above each other. It seems like it's physically not possible. :confused:
But when I see a friend doing that it looks like the easiest thing in the world.
Does anyone have some advice what I can do?

thx
Mattie:confused:

[d7th]

The solution is: practice (again :D).
The first thing i've learned was the Fmaj (coz of Smells like teen spirits :rolleyes: ) and it took me 2 weeks, 2h a day, to be able to make it sound right.

[Danster]

Originally posted by mattie
My biggest probem is the Amaj-type barre chord. When I do the barre I can't put the other three fingers above each other. It seems like it's physically not possible. :confused:
But when I see a friend doing that it looks like the easiest thing in the world.
Does anyone have some advice what I can do? [/B] You might try fingering the chord more like a power chord. That is lay your ring finger down across the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings (and leave your middle finger and pinky out of the mix). I have recently adopted this method. Its a little easier to do than I thought it might be. That is, you still want the first string to ring so your ring finger must not touch that string.

But I can't move myself to practicing other things, especially chords. I've recently come across something that helped me here too. It is kinda boring to practice chords without some kinda system. I bought a book a few days ago by Al Dimeola: "A Guide to chords, scales, and arpeggios". It lays out a plan for learning and practicing chords, which so far, I have found to be helpful. I'm not too far into to it to give many details, but the thing that helps me mainly is knowing that I'm following a lesson plan that a master has developed on how to learn chords. I know this is better for me than just getting out a "zillion chords for all occasions" type book and trying to learn them all.
Good luck,
Dan

[potshot]

Originally posted by Danster
You might try fingering the chord more like a power chord. That is lay your ring finger down across the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings (and leave your middle finger and pinky out of the mix). I have recently adopted this method. Its a little easier to do than I thought it might be. That is, you still want the first string to ring so your ring finger must not touch that string.
Good luck,
Dan

Dan, I've tried this fingering, using the ring finger to bar the 2nd, 3rd, 4th. But I find it hard to leave the 1st string ringing. Any hints as to how I might do it better, or is it just practice practice practice?

[Darran]

Originally posted by potshot
Dan, I've tried this fingering, using the ring finger to bar the 2nd, 3rd, 4th. But I find it hard to leave the 1st string ringing. Any hints as to how I might do it better, or is it just practice practice practice?

This is the ONLY way of doing it, trust me.

It takes quite a long time to get under grips, but you WILL be able to do it eventually. Just take your time, and dedicate maybe a couple of minutes a day (max) to practising this.

The reason I say its the only way of doing it, is because eventually when you come to a D9 chord or something, you will have no choice but to barre you're ring finger.

D9

5 (E string)
5 (B)
5 (G)
4 (D)
5 (A)

I struggled for a quite a while with this one (as everyone does initially), but now - no problem.

[EricV]

Or check out this one:


e ---3---
b ---7---
g ---7---
D ---7---
A ---5---
E ---3---


That´s a tough one, too. John Petrucci uses it quite a lot.
Eric

[Darran]

Originally posted by EricV
Or check out this one:


e ---3---
b ---7---
g ---7---
D ---7---
A ---5---
E ---3---


That´s a tough one, too. John Petrucci uses it quite a lot.
Eric

Thats a bit cruel Erik!:D


I too neglected my chord and rhythm playing, and concentrated solely on single-note stuff. Best thing I did was buy some Beatles book, and basically learn to strum the simple things first.

Sometimes the easiest things can be the hardest!

[EricV]

Well, I didn´t say it was easy to fret that one. :)
But it´s a really nice-sounding maj9-chord

I wrote a little ditty using those kinda chords once... it´s called "J´s Lullabye", which will be on the "Talking Hands" album, and also is a part of my live solo-spot.
Here is a Powertab-arrangement for it.
It´s supposed to be played with a delay, repeating the notes a dotted 8th after the original notes...
Featuring two of my favorite chords, the aforementioned maj9 and min11... and nope, I am not fretting all strings at once, I arpeggiate the chords
Hope you´ll like it
Eric

[Rock_Rocket]

Hey Eric,

sounds really nice even as a MIDI. I hope everything's going fine with your album and it'll be finished soon (guess you can't hear that anymore, right? Sorry!) :)

Regards!

Rock_Rocket

[mattie]

Thanks for all those answers. That encouraged me again. :)

Eric, when are you going to release your album? Will I be able to buy it in Germany?

c ya
Mattie

[Michel]

Well, I didn´t say it was easy to fret that one

Bonjour Eric

How can you do this to me I'm to old to fret this one.
this is torture:D
Dont try it Mattie dont try it

B'Bye michel;)