The ARP Musician and Gitfiddler thread

[Mac Daddy]

Well was talking to psYk about fret hand positioning for barre chords and he suggested starting a thread like this. I know there are other musicians and guitar players here and might be a good way for us to share and learn.

First a quote


Q: How many guitar players does it take to change a light bulb ?
A: One hundred ... 1 to change it and the other 99 to stand around and brag about how they could do it better


Now on to the first topic fret hand positioning which is crucial. What I am demonstrating is a technique I was taught while I was taking classical guitar lessons in college. PsYk has issues with his wrist to begin with but this should help him. Even I had issues before I used this technique.

1) Position your thumb in the center of the neck
2) Extend your wrist to eliminate pressure on your
fingers and thumb

I included pics and if you do this correctly you should feel no pressure in your wrist, fingers or thumb.

In addition to the pics including an original tune from my old band the Storm Kings that uses many funky barre chords lol. Thanks to Adrian providing a techARP host for this .. Cheers dude

http://www.techarp.com/dmack/mdjs.rar

[The_YongGrand]

Woohoo! Another guitar player here! Classical guitar!

And I'm also into a little bit of blues now - Otis Rush's All My Love.

(I'm still having troubles with the pick, but I squeezed out the 1st riff!!)

[Mac Daddy]

Originally Posted by The_YongGrand

Woohoo! Another guitar player here! Classical guitar!

And I'm also into a little bit of blues now - Otis Rush's All My Love.

(I'm still having troubles with the pick, but I squeezed out the 1st riff!!)

Holding the pick is an involved process too but usually comes down to personal preference. Thumb and index .. thumb and middle and thumb and ring fingers I have seen used by different players.

Let me know if I can be of any help and the link for Jazzy Stuff is up

[PsYkHoTiK]

Wewt!

I really hate Barre Chords...

But I am getting semi decent. I just hate it when a string falls in the 'crack' on my finger joints and ends up sounding muted. :\

Hey, can you show me how to do this one Barre? I'll tell you what it is when I get home (its in my tab book) because I just can't seem to visualize it.

Yeah, holding the pick is a lot about preference. I know a few other buddies of mine who play and they all hold em differently.

I like to hold mid way so I can dig in.

As for hand position, I'll take a pic when I go home. I feel some pressure on my thumb.

Thanks!

[The_YongGrand]

To have effective barre, you gotta make the index finger straight, and try not to apply too much pressure. And also, try adjusting the barre by the index finger all over the strings, and then slightly push and tug until all of the strings do not sound damp.

Agh, really difficult to explain it by words.

Let me share to you guys about the difficult barres:

Personally, the most difficult barre for me is, maintaining a full barre and then with the little finger (4) and the ring finger (3) at least 2 frets away from the barre finger. That is from one of Aguado's very difficult etudes. I never even bothered to finish playing it because it is very tiring piece.

Another one is using the little finger as the barre to cover the 1st 3 treble strings and the first finger is pressing the lowest F on the guitar. That one is from Bach's Prelude BWV999. Seriously, still I could make mistakes out of it until now, at least I could like stumbled on it two out of 5 plays of the same song.

The peculiar one is from Tansman's Danza Pomposa - some of the barre doesn't cover ALL the strings, but you must barre the last 3 bass strings together while the another half of your barre finger doesn't touch or away from the other 3 treble strings.

From what I see, many electric guitars have quite low action - so barring will be much easier.

[PsYkHoTiK]

The prob I get is when you have a hammer on, and 2 pull offs across 3 frets (like frets 3, 5, and 6).

|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6-6-6--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6p3h5-5--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6-6-6--0-0-xx-0-0-xx--xx-x--|
|--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6-6-6--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6p3h5-5--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6-6-6--0-0-xx-0-0-xx--xx-x--|
|--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6-6-6--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6p3h5-5--0-0-xx-0-0-xx-6-6-6--0-0-xx-0-0-xx--xx-x--|

I love arpegiating Barre Chords though.

[Mac Daddy]

Cool The_YongGrand and I usually play everything on acoustic with high action before I play it on electric

PsYk there is a lot of that in Dee by Rhoads will try and take some position pics up for ya

[PsYkHoTiK]

Sweet bro.

It's funny how I know two acoustic only players that have trouble using a pick but for me, I feel weird not having a pick.

I guess just the different nature of music.

Chugging on 16th notes with my bare thumb on the 6th string would make my thumb raw...

[Mac Daddy]

I rarely use a pick on acoustic guess your right on nature of music

[PsYkHoTiK]

Yeah since I play more rock / alt / metal using a pick is almost a must.

The only song I tried without a pick was the intro to stairway to heaven.