or How I beat the barre chord in 4 easy steps (and 2 years ;D )
Step 1. practice on a nylon string guitar. It takes a while to build up the strength to keep the index finger flat and straight and the nylon string is gentler at the start
Step 2. Learn Hotel California
Verse Bmin F# A E G D Emin F#
Chorus G D F# Bmin G D Emin F#
Strum Dduudu
Bmin 224432 Barre at 2nd fret Amin shape
F# 244322 Keep the index finger barred and Just move middle, ring and pinky up a string
A x02225 Keep the index barred but just drop it 2 strings and plop the pinky on the 1st string fifth fret
E 022100 Normal E, no barre
G 320003 Normal G
D xx0232 Normal D
Emin 022000 Normal Emin but instead of using the middle and ring to hold the 4 and 5 strings down, use the ring and pinky, this will help prepare for the F# barre
F# 244322 Now without lifting the ring and pinky,
slide them up two frets, roll the hand to the left (if you are righthanded
) and drop the index to barre the 2nd fret, drop the middle finger on to the 3 string and you've got it
The first part should be fairly easy, don't worry about a perfect barre to start with just get used to the feel of it by doing the chord changes really slowly
Mostly it takes lots of practice but after 2 years I think I've got it fairly well.
Step 3. Repeat step 2 until your loved ones are ready to make you a wooden necklace the next time they hear hotel california
Step 4. Once I got Hotel California down, I went hard on the classical piece 'Romance' (check out
Forbidden Games (Jeux Interdits) >> Part 2 )
That has lot's of barre chords and is well worth persevering with if for no other reason than, as any spaniard will tell you... "Played perfectly it will make any woman's heart melt"
which can be handy if step 3 finishes badly
Hope this helps someone
Cheers
Peter