No holds barred

And so we come to what feels like the beginner guitarist's equivalent of hell on earth - the F barre chord.

You're barred!

Up until now all I've been doing are open chords, where you put fingers directly onto the string and then strum away. Barre chords involve putting your index finger across all the strings in a straight(ish) line. Effectively you are using your finger as a capo and then using your other three fingers to make chord shapes.

Getting your finger across all the strings so that they still make a sound when you try to play them, rather than a dull, muted noise is hard. However, I had problems even before I got to that stage as I couldn't physically put my finger across the strings and then put the other three fingers down. This wasn't a case of laziness or anything like that. For whatever reason when I put my index finger down, my other fingers were flailing all over the place and there was no chance of getting one of them, let alone all three of them, in the right place while keeping my index finger down. This did not bode well at all. So I did what I often do in situations like this when I'm struggling - I screamed for help.



It was good to discover on Facebook on Twitter I wasn't the only one who had gone through this struggle. A few tips came in quickly and following them, along with a few other hints I'd found on Google, got me going. The improvement wasn't as dramatic as I've seen when learning new chords but that's understandable. While open chords are different, they all use the same technique to make the shape. This was a completely new style of playing and was always going to be hard to master.

Gradually I was able to make progress. Some extra strumming while watching TV definitely helped and I began to feel confident - perhaps too confident. As I keep thinking the best way to learn chord changes is to do them in a song I thought it was time to give something a go.

Unfortunately, while playing any chord on its own seems straightforward after a bit of practice, changing between chords is usually quite difficult. And while I can do most chord changes so far without looking at my fingers, I'm nowhere near that stage with the F barre. While plonking down some fingers and changing to some other fingers can be done, plonking down fingers and then trying to barre a chord is extremely difficult.

A laid back polar bear. Don't think that's what the song is about...



So it proved when I tried to play Laid by James. This is a family(ish) blog so I won't go into detail about what the song is but let's just say it doesn't involve chickens producing eggs. Anyway, as like so many songs so far, it was effectively the same chord sequence over and over. This meant there was only one change to and from an F barre during each sequence, an ideal way to get started. However, I found it rather difficult - and it would usually be about half way through the bar of barre (more bars than Wetherspoons in this blog) before I'd managed to get the chord shape AND was able to play a note that sounded something like a chord.

Sadly not the type of bar being talked about



To quote The Beatles, I have to admit it's getting better. Practice doesn't make perfect yet, but it does lead to improvement. Problem is, this is only one chord change - F barre to G and back. The number of chords I know must be into double figures and trying to change between all of them with some degree of competency is going to take some amount of practice. Fingers crossed - although that was the problem when I started barre chords...