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Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
The only time I worry about using my first finger for a full barre is when I’m picking or arpeggiating the full chord. If you concentrate on fingers 2, 3, and 4, rather than the barre, then the first finger will eventually sort itself out.
* play an E power chord
* play a barre E7 - this gives your fingers more room and leaves one finger free (which is often handy). Sounds nice in many contexts too. It does need more effort of the barre, but is easier for the other fingers.
* play a barre Emaj7. Doesn't fit everywhere but is surprisingly a lot easier to play than a straight E.
* or still with a maj7, leave the first string open (i.e., don't barre). This often sounds better and is easier still.
* Finally, these two:
These are Eadd4 and a plain E triad. You can get a nice groove going switching back and forth between them, which is as simple as moving your ring finger up and down a string. (For the plain triad, if you rotate your wrist a little so that your fingers are a bit flat on the fretboard, your ring finger will mute the 3rd string nicely. For most of the other chords - and most other chords in general - it is better to have your fingers more upright so as to avoid unwanted muting.)
All of these chords work for the D as well, though you need to be a little careful with what open strings you include. In general, you want to leave the open low E out but you can quite often leave the high E in - as part of a D chord it makes a 2nd (giving either Dadd2 or D sus2) and as part of a 7th or maj7th it makes a 9th, which almost always sounds good.
There are lots and lots of other alternatives but I'll restrain myself to just one more - the really, really useful E9
You can move this one around at will (down to the D for example), including or excluding the high E as you please.
Justin Whatshisname teaches people to fret a Root 5 barre chord (the open A shape) using the 3 free fingers crammed together into the same fret side-by side at a slight angle on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings. I find that very difficult to do even for an open A chord where I have to fret the 3rd string with my index finger in behind the ring finger on the 2nd string and the middle finger on the 4th string in a triangle shape. Obviously that would be impossible in a barre chord, so it is a good idea to make your Root 5 barre chords using only your 1st finger across the width of the neck covering all strings, and your ring finger forming a partial barre across the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings. It takes a bit of practice to bend the tip section of your ring finger at this angle, but it is worth the perseverance because your pinky is freed up to play the extra note for a Suspended 4th or 7th chord.
Try just playing an Open A chord using ONLY your ring finger to form the partial barre and leave your 1st finger hovering over the fretboard or nut somewhere. Once you get the feel of that, try playing an open E chord with your middle and ring fingers and pinky only, while still leaving your 1st finger hovering. Now try and switch from the Open E to the Open A using your ring finger to barre the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings.
Now move up to about the 5th or 7th frets where the spacing is closer and it takes less pressure to fret the strings, and substitute your 1st finger for the nut and try and do the same chord changes. Practice changing from a full Root 6 barre chord to a full Root 5 one just by "rocking" your hand down and dropping your ring finger into that partial 3-string barre while STILL keeping your middle finger on the 3rd string behind the partial barre. Leaving your middle finger in place there means you can rock your hand back up again and fall right into place on the Root 6 barre chord again.
It takes time. Quite often people learning to play barre chords are actually using unnecessary pressure without realising it and this can hurt the base of your thumb that is having to squeeze the back of the neck too tightly. If you are getting buzzy or dead strings, try and readjust your hand position rather than trying to press down harder.
Try to play open chords without using your index finger when you can do this all you need to slide the shapes up the neck
until the root note is played on the low E or A string then use your index finger for the barre position.
You don't always need to play a full barre chord as three notes from the chord will work but it's best not to avoid using
barre chords because you want to build adaptability and strength into your fretting hand. Hope this helps.
I don't worry about the high e string being muted (there are VERY rare occasions where a song requires it at which point I have to reassess).
That said, it's not a deal-breaker if only strings 5, 4, 3 & 2 ring out cos the top string is a 5th in this shape and there's already a 5th on the 4th string.