Sorry...Barre cords....again

krissovo · #1 June 12th, 2006

Is it me or does anyone else suffer the lower down the fret board you get for barre cords?

I have found a song that I love that uses all barre cords and its the kick I need to get to grips with them, its the sissor sisters and take your mama. The cords are Bb, Ab, Cm and Eb so far so good but I can get Eb and Cm great Ab is acceptable but Bb on the 6th fret is really bad. I can see no reason why this fret should any worse but no matter what I do it still sounds bad. The lower down i get the worse it is, anyone else? What can i do?

Bob Wolford · #2 June 12th, 2006

If it were me I'd transpose the song to the key of E.
Barre chords a some of the hardest chords to master. With a lot of practice and a forgiving fingerboard one can eventually get them.

krissovo · #3 June 12th, 2006

Sounds like great advice Bob but I am learning guitar by playing and not theory, what does transposing in E mean? I apologize for my ignorance in advance but I have seen other tabs that use AM, C, F and G would that be in E at all?

Bob Wolford · #4 June 12th, 2006

by transposing instead of
Eb, play E
Ab play A
Bb play B
Cm play C#m
All of these new chords are part of the key of E and friendlier to the guitar than your chords which are in the key of Eb.
The result, a tune just a bit higher in sound than Eb.

they keys of C, G, D, A, and E are the guitar friendly keys.

Bodies · #5 June 12th, 2006

I'm not sure if by "lower", you mean towards the body or towards the nut but I think you mean down towards the body?
Sorry, I always get mixed up with up the fretboard and down the fretboard and all. >.>

Anyway, if it's towards the body, well, it's weird but I found that the lower I get, the easier it gets...But then again, it's different for everyone!

I guess you can either transpose the song like Bob_Wolford suggested or concentrate your practice at the "problem spot". Personally, I'd work on being able to play the chord correctly instead of transposing the song. That way, you solve the problem directly instead of walking around it. Transposing isn't a bad idea though, if playing that song is all you're really interested in.

Something I tried with barre chords was to barre the chord with the index without placing the other fingers and arranging the index until the notes sounded clear. Then, I went about to placing the others.

krissovo · #6 June 12th, 2006

I do mean towards the body, at fret 1 all is well, at fret 2 and 3 things are still ok but at 4 and 6 I am having a bit of nightmare

As far as I can tell my fingering is the same.

I will try in E but only as a break in between learning the song correctly and keeping me motivated at the same time.

I will also try just with my index finger to see if that will help

Bodies · #7 June 12th, 2006

All righty, good luck with it all!

And remember to have fun while you're at it.

allthumbs · #8 June 12th, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by krissovo

I do mean towards the body, at fret 1 all is well, at fret 2 and 3 things are still ok but at 4 and 6 I am having a bit of nightmare

As far as I can tell my fingering is the same.

I will try in E but only as a break in between learning the song correctly and keeping me motivated at the same time.

I will also try just with my index finger to see if that will help

Check your string hight. Usually it is easier to bar up to about the 7th fret on an acoustic. Most people find barring down around the nut very hard at first, hence the dreaded F chord phobia.

Bennett · #9 June 12th, 2006

I think it's great you're finding songs that at least motivate you to learn barre chords. Whilst transposing is a great idea for practicality, I think it's good for beginners (like myself) to learn with the barre chords just for the familiarity and practice.

As for the issue at hand, I have a similar one, Krissovo. I tend to do better lower down the neck (ie. toward the headstock) than higher up the fretboard. For me I believe it's mainly due to the action being relatively high on my guitar (and higher up the neck) and also because of the reduced fret space higher up.

Nevertheless, I've found that this is improving all the time though, so keep at it. You're not alone but I'm sure you'll see the same improvement I have. Of course it won't happen overnight, but it will .... well, you know how it goes.

cshude · #10 June 12th, 2006

Regarding barre chords- yesterday I was doing a bit of front porch strummin' with my daughter's best friend's dad who is a pro (just when I was starting to feel like I can play pretty good

) and he made the comment "First you learn the barre chords, then you spend the rest of your playing life learning ways to NOT play them." His point was that using barre chords extensively can limit your ability to move around the neck efficiently because you are fretting all the strings when you may only need to play 3 or 4 in the song. Made me think some- might start taking some lessons from him.....

allthumbs · #11 June 12th, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by cshude

Regarding barre chords- yesterday I was doing a bit of front porch strummin' with my daughter's best friend's dad who is a pro (just when I was starting to feel like I can play pretty good

) and he made the comment "First you learn the barre chords, then you spend the rest of your playing life learning ways to NOT play them." His point was that using barre chords extensively can limit your ability to move around the neck efficiently because you are fretting all the strings when you may only need to play 3 or 4 in the song. Made me think some- might start taking some lessons from him.....

Kirk has pretty much been saying the same thing. He doesn't play a lot of full bar chords. He plays chordletts.

bmurnahan · #12 June 13th, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by cshude

His point was that using barre chords extensively can limit your ability to move around the neck efficiently because you are fretting all the strings when you may only need to play 3 or 4 in the song. Made me think some- might start taking some lessons from him.....

In a group setting this may be the case but in solo guitar a full barre may be essential to getting the low bass tones that you want.

I also personally believe that this kind of limiting thinking has nothing to do with the chords, scales etc that we are trying to learn. They are just tools for our use. The limitations have everthing to do with us and the way we think about things.

Back to the original problem. As a couple of others have mentioned, it sound like your action is getting higher as you move up the neck. Get you guitar checked by someone that can do a set up for you. It may be as simple as a neck adjustment and everything will be fine.

Bob

krissovo · #13 June 13th, 2006

My guitar was settup about 3 months ago now and the strings was lowered then so it should be ok but I think I will put it in the shop tomorrow for a check up and new strings and see how I get on tomorrow night

USGold · #14 June 13th, 2006

I think I know what you mean--the barres actually are easier to hold towards the body--butttttttt------------- the frets get smaller and smaller--makes it harder to place the fingers --time is what this takes I am pretty sure---and you may find easier ways to place fingers--like using one finger to cover two or more strings together--you may also want to consider the alternate positions for those chord voicings.

krissovo · #15 June 13th, 2006

All

I think I might have cracked it, when i said that my fingerings were exactly the same I might have telling a small lie.

I filmed myself on a webcam when I got home from work and I noticed on replay that when I was barreing the 6th fret my thumb trailed off slightly and was pointing to the head. Also and thanks to you guys and girls is that I noticed my fingers on the 7th and 8th fret were not cleanly holding down the strings.

Soooooo.....I can now almost play it quite cleanly, just some more practice and i will be sorted.

Thank you for your suggestions