[Megaramarie]

Hey all,
so I've been playing for over a week now and all is going great!!
I have taken advice of choosing one easy song to learn and use that as a crutch when I get frustrated.
I've come across my first chord, F#m, that says for you to put your fingers on all these different strings. How do I play this, along with other chords, that require more finger placements than number of fingers I have??
Sorry if this is a totally lame question, but I'm a beginner! Please help!
-Megs

[allthumbs]

Sounds like a barre chord. Barre the second fret with your index finger. Put your 3rd finger on the 5 string- fourth fret and your pinkie on the 4th string- fourth fret. That is an F#m or just cover the first three strings with your index finger, the other two remain in the same position Start strumming from the 5 string instead of the full barre chord using all 6 strings.

[mattz196]

There are some Barre chord lessons on the forum Here

[eddiez152]

allthumbs,

I have a question. Is it possible for have a save folder for links to different posts or threads, like the one mattz reffered to ?

[allthumbs]

You would have to ask Clancy about that. You could have a file in your bookmarks for links to various posts to point members towards various threads and posts.

[si16]

First of all Megaramarie, apologies for hijacking your thread. You can skip this reply as it is off-topic.

Originally Posted by eddiez152

allthumbs,

I have a question. Is it possible for have a save folder for links to different posts or threads, like the one mattz reffered to ?

Eddie, is this is so you can create a folder of interesting threads which you can easily locate and link to? Here is one possible solution :-

1) Go into your User CP and on the menu on the left side of the screen locate the 'Subscribed Threads' sub-section.

2) Click on 'Edit Folders'.

3) On the new screen that appears you will see a section named 'Add New Folders' with three text boxes. Type the name you want to use for each new folder in the appropriate text box (you don't need to use all three if you don't want to)

4) Now click on 'Save Folders' and you will be taken to a screen showing all your active subscriptions.

5) Now if you want to add a thread to your new folder you will need to subscribe to the thread. You do this by either replying to it or by clicking on 'Subscribe to this Thread' in the Thread Tools drop down menu near the top of each thread.

6) Once you have subscribed to the thread go back into User CP and view 'List Subscriptions' which will list all suscribed threads. The most recently subscribed to threads will be at the top.

7) To the right of every thread in this list is a check box. Place a tick in this box for every thread you want to move to your new folder.

8) Once you have done this scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will see a drop down menu. One of the options in this menu is 'Move to Folder...'. Select this and then click the Go button.

9) You will now be taken to another screen where you can select the name of the folder you wish to move the threads to (These will be the folders that you created in steps 3 and 4). Once you have selected the correct folder click on 'Move Items'. The threads you selected will now be moved into the chosen folder.

10) Now whenever you want view any of these interesting threads simply go into User CP, click on 'List Subscriptions' to view all subscriptions. Near the top of the page you will see 'Folder Controls' with another drop down menu titled 'Jump to folder...' From this list you will be able to select the folder you created earlier.

This sounds like a very complicated explanation but there actually isn't much to it. It's probably a lot easier than looking through pages and pages of a forum looking for an old thread. Perhaps Clancy also has simpler, quicker solution.

[Noodler]

The song isn't all I Want is You by U2 by any chance is it?

Love the Rosie avatar!

[redrider37]

Originally Posted by Megaramarie

Hey all,
so I've been playing for over a week now and all is going great!!
I have taken advice of choosing one easy song to learn and use that as a crutch when I get frustrated.
I've come across my first chord, F#m, that says for you to put your fingers on all these different strings. How do I play this, along with other chords, that require more finger placements than number of fingers I have??
Sorry if this is a totally lame question, but I'm a beginner! Please help!
-Megs

Hi, I would drop that song and look on here for the beginners lessons, or choose a song with no barr chords in them, there are lots of songs which you can choose with normal (open chords). You need to build lots of strength in your fingers to do barr chords, that will take you quite a long time, practice them but go to the Beginners guides here and you will be on your way.

[Tekker]

Originally Posted by eddiez152

I have a question. Is it possible for have a save folder for links to different posts or threads, like the one mattz reffered to ?

As allthumbs said, you can use your browser to bookmark forums and give them a name so you know what it is.

In addition if there is a specific post in the thread you want to be able to go to quickly, then click the white number in the upper right hand corner of the post you want. This will open just that post up separate from the rest of the thread. From here on the upper right hand part of the post that says Thread: *title of thread*. Click on the thread title and that will take you back to the original thread but move you down to that post in the thread.

At this point you will see #post followed by a number in the address bar. Once you see this create a bookmark in your browser and when you click on this link it'll take you right down to the post you want to read on the thread.


Also, that barre chords lesson is in solidwalnut's lesson forum.
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...lnuts-lessons/

-tkr

[jdpaz]

Meg, you can press down more than one string with the same finger. This is the "barre" they are talking about.

F#m is a pretty hard one for a beginner. The guitar is nice in that there's usually a simpler way to do the hard stuff.

A simpler way to do F#m is to press down the three skinniest strings at the second fret. Just lay your index finger across all three of those strings. Strum just those three skinny strings.

[Megaramarie]

Originally Posted by Noodler

The song isn't all I Want is You by U2 by any chance is it?

Love the Rosie avatar!

Hi Noodler, thanks for the compliment on my avatar.
No, the song is "Why Not Smile" by R.E.M. It's actually really easy (mainly just D chord, G chord, and A chord), but they just threw one monkeywrench in it to discourage me.
Do you have any recommendations for easier songs?
Thanks, Megs

[Megaramarie]

Originally Posted by jdpaz

Meg, you can press down more than one string with the same finger. This is the "barre" they are talking about.

F#m is a pretty hard one for a beginner. The guitar is nice in that there's usually a simpler way to do the hard stuff.

A simpler way to do F#m is to press down the three skinniest strings at the second fret. Just lay your index finger across all three of those strings. Strum just those three skinny strings.

ok, that is perfect to get me by for now. It's just one of my favorite songs and the rest of the chords are "Normal". I will try what you suggest. THANK YOU!

[AX7221]

Originally Posted by Megaramarie

Hey all,
so I've been playing for over a week now and all is going great!!
I have taken advice of choosing one easy song to learn and use that as a crutch when I get frustrated.
I've come across my first chord, F#m, that says for you to put your fingers on all these different strings. How do I play this, along with other chords, that require more finger placements than number of fingers I have??
Sorry if this is a totally lame question, but I'm a beginner! Please help!
-Megs

Well, bar chords are very tricky. In order to play them you have to keep trying to them until you build up enough finger strength to be able to practice them for a long enough to learn them. Also you need to place you index finger correctly despite what you're other fingers are doing/wrist orientation. So you might get very frustrated.

I just thought of an idea that might work. Maybe you can try Open D Minor to help learn barre chords? The way it works is you tune your guitar so when you strum all the open strings it's a D minor chord. So Open Dm is D, A, D, F, A, D. So all the open string will give you the D minor chord, also if you fret all the strings at the first fret, it's a D# minor chord. So where every you barre you will get a minor chord and the note name on the lowest string is the root of the chord, so that's the chord letter name. And to play A major chord you barre all the strings on the same fret, the 3rd fret, then fret the 4th fret on the F string to make it major. So you can barre any fret then fret the F string 1 fret up and its a major chord. It might help in learning barre chords b/c you can play any chord you want w/o having to learn different fingerings for them, which must really cut down on the boredom factor. Also if when you barre if 1 of the strings doesn't ring, or if 2 or even 3 strings don't ring don't let it bring you down, it simply means that once you build your muscles in your index finger you will be able to do it. So doing it this way might be harder in that you have to barre all 6 strings right instead of 4 for F#m in std tuning, but I think you will enjoy it more so you'll be able to keep practicing more. Above all else, if some of the strings don't ring that's no problem, it's just a matter of time.

Okay, I'll talk about how I go into open D minor:
Standard tuning is (low to high): E, A, D, G, B, E. The A and D string are okay, they don't need to be changed. The low and high E goes down 1 full step, the G string goes down 1 full step, and the B string goes down 1 full step. (1 full step equals 2 frets).

Adjust the Low E string so that when you fret the 7th fret on the 6th string it matches the open A string
Then adjust the G string so that when you fret the 3rd fret on the D string it matches the G string.
Now while the B string is still B adjust the high E is string so that when you fret 3rd fret on the B string it matches the 1st string.
Now the highest sting is D, so adjust the B string so that when you fret the 5th fret on the B string it matches the highest string.

I should note I don't use open tunings a lot so there are probably better ways of doing this, and I use a chromatic tuner to do different tunings, but this way will work.

[starsailor]

Originally Posted by Megaramarie

Hi Noodler, thanks for the compliment on my avatar.
No, the song is "Why Not Smile" by R.E.M. It's actually really easy (mainly just D chord, G chord, and A chord), but they just threw one monkeywrench in it to discourage me.
Do you have any recommendations for easier songs?
Thanks, Megs

You could try Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol or Are we the waiting by Green Day, it's got an F in it but not as hard as the F#M and Another one is Breakfast at Tiffanys by Deep blue something, if you want to go back a bit you could also have a go at This land is your Land by Woody Guthrie, it all depends on what kind of music you like, that is a good song to play though



Cheers

Chris