Hello, do you have any good tips on play A-shaped barre chords. I’m especially trying to use my third finger to play notes on the “a” side while barring my first finger to move efficiently on the fretboard.
It’s a hard thing to answer without seeing you in action. There are a few things however worth thinking about.
1: Relax. If you are tensing up and pressing too hard then everything will be more difficult.
2: Related to the above, probably the biggest thing that causes too much tension is posture, guitar angle and position relative to your body, wrist angle, elbow angle etc. Use a mirror and see if anything about the way you hold the guitar looks noticeably awkward compared to guitarist on Youtube etc.
3: You don’t necessarily need to have all of the notes ringing when you play a bar chord. If you are using a single finger to bar the D, G and B strings, you might find that you are damping the thin E string. Unless the song you are playing needs to have that E string note ringing … don’t worry about it. Some people’s fingers can bend – mine can’t, I don’t care. I leave the thin E muted. If I really need it to sound then I’ll use all four fingers. As long as the notes on the D,G and B are sounding then you are playing the complete chord.
Generally, if I’m playing, let’s say, a C major chord (A shape) then I’ll rarely be sounding the notes on either E string, eg..
E: x
B: 5
G: 5
D: 5
A: 3
E: x
If I need the 1st E string to sound then I won’t bar with a single finger, I’ll play it differently.
Hope that helps a bit.
