[mus]

I have a question about barre chords: should the pressure come more from the 'squeeze' between thumb and indexfinger or from the hand pushing down on the fretboard? I hope the latter, cause the joints in my left thumb cant do the squeeze in the position the hand is in when making a barré. I'm really worried about this.

[Sano]

For me I use index finger/thumb pressure and then the other fingers are free to move around and fret other notes. In essence the index finger/thumb pressure acts like a temporary capo. Part of moving onto barre chords is getting sufficient strength for the index and thumb to act in that way. There are exercises to strengthen and hopefully help so don't be too disappointed.

Another thing to note is that you don't need to keep the pressure on all the time. eg if you play a barre chord you could play the first beat with pressure, second beat relax, third pressure, fourth relax. That'll give a percussive feel to your playing. And whilst you're doing so your index finger/thumb gets stronger.

I'm a long, long way off from being expert and others may have different, better suggestions.

[wjp01908]

One thing I would say to people just starting out with barre chords is that is not so much strength as accurate finger placement that`s important.

Obviously you need to be able to get the strings down onto the frets and some finger strength is needed for this ( a well set up guitar is a great help in this regard ! ), but to get the individual notes to ring out , I would concentrate on minute adjustments of finger position rather than gripping tighter. You`ll find the right positions with practice and after a while they`ll be second nature.

Avoiding a "death grip" will pay dividends later in terms of speed and fluency and could well save you a bit of RSI down the line.

IMHO

Will

[6string]

For me there is little or no pressure from the thumb.

You can actually do barre chords without putting the thumb on the neck, do your normal barre chord, take the thumb off the neck and pull back from the elbow.

Not that I usually play them that way but if extra pressure is needed it works for me.

[pwgrahamster]

Hi Mus -- One of the most useful tips I ever received was to keep the thumb below the middle of the neck. This forces you to stick your wrist out a bit further than seems natural, but it allows much more even and effective downwards pressure from the fingers (I don't think pressure from the thumb will help much, just as you had hoped). Dropping the thumb helps with bar chords, accuracy, and with long stretches. I find the optimal point for sounding the bar to be just behind the fret.
Best,
Phil

[jdpaz]

A general rule of thumb (no pun intended):

If it hurts, find a different way to do it.

I concentrate on pressing on the fretboard with my finger rather than clamping it between my thumb and finger. This technique utilizes the big(ger) muscle in my forearm rather than the little scrawny one between my thumb and finger.

[solidwalnut]

I actually jam my index finger all the way to the crease (on the E form barres) to help eliminate any squeeze. The leverage is transferred to the meaty part of the finger where, as jdpaz says, it allows me to utilize the muscles in my forearm. Here are several pictures of what I'm talking about.

Steve

[mus]

Thanks very much, this helps me a lot