Originally Posted by: VulcanCCIT

Originally Posted by: rash912

Amy,

obviously its up to you if you decided you want to quit guitar, but come up with another reason, like guitar makes you want to rob banks or something else, but don't accept that barre chords "beat" you..

There are cheats for barre chords, usually the performers you see aren't really using full barres, alot of the time, they themselves are using cheats, usually by leaving the hi E and/or the B string muted. In fact, in one of the lessons on this exact website, there is an instructer that says the exact same thing, because in a playing atomosphere, the top 2 strings (hi E and B) will have a tendenancy to "muddy" the sounds. Im not saying not to eventually learn how to barre all 5 or 6 strings so that all of the strings ring, but in the short term, focus on getting the bottom 3 or for 4 strings (E,A,D,G) to sound, and as you eventually build the strength in your hands move on to adding the B string to sound, give it a bit more time and move into the hi E. I very seldom use full barres.

Remember, guitar is a fun challenge.. if it were easy everyone would play. Barres are difficult for every player, i would expect "barre" non.(pun) You can do it, just learn them in a fashion that you can find comfort with... and don't put down that guitar.

Rash912, when I bought my guitar there was a seasoned pro in the showroom that I was chatting with...he was explaining to me about "Voices". how you can acheive the same should by using different fingerings... is that what you are essentially saying? Instructors, can you chime in on my question?

Amy, I am just starting out, but what Rash says might be a solution... I am also learning piano... in Piano, you have to move your hand from one part of the keyboard to another part...there are some textbook ways but at times I use other ways to get my hand to where it needs to be... so in the end, the song sounds just fine no matter how I got my hand to that section. Hope that helps from afar :D

They were referring to chord voicings. yes, you can use different voicings to achieve different results.

As we are learning, we want to do everything right and not develop any bad habits. Using "cheats", just by the nature of the word, seems like a shortcut and likely a bad habit. In the case of barre chords, its actually the opposite.

A key thing to realize is that we don't have to use all 6 strings in every chord. For a major or minor chords, you only need 3...the definition of a triad! If you look at open and barre chords, there are actually inversions (different voicings) within the chord because some of the notes are repeated. Open G has 2 B notes in it. For a valid G chord, you only need one G, one B, and one D note. The same note in different octaves will make the chord sound fuller, but that's not always required.

So, if we only need 3 notes out of the chord, we only need to strum 3 of the strings. It's extra and unnecessary work to fret strings that we aren't going to strum.

So, in many cases, playing a full barre chord creates exta and unnecessary work.

For instance, the open D chord isn't usually thought of as a barre chord shape or a moveable chord shape. It is though. Slide it up two frets, only strum the strings you are fretting and you have a perfectly valid E chord. Listen to how it sounds different from the typical open E. These are different voicings of the same chord.

Open G as a barre chord seems impossible and ridiculous. If you take only the 3 treble strings, suddenly it's very doeable.

Regularly I use the F chord shape in place of the E based barre chord and the B chord shape in place of the A based barre chord. When playing 3 sets of music in an evening, my hand would be cramped into a knot if I played full barre chords all night. I suspect that would happen to most anybody.