GUITAR
12 STRATEGIES FOR TACKLING BAR CHORDS | David Harsh
Bar chords . Some people love ‘ em . Some people hate ‘ em . But what if you really want to play ‘ em , and you just can ’ t quite get your hands to cooperate ?
I ’ ve met acoustic guitarists in my travels who have just about abandoned all hope of playing bar chords . Some of these folks have been playing for decades . accompanying instructional video , while it ’ s available . This will allow you to see and hear me demonstrating several of these strategies .
1 . Make sure you can play open chords cleanly . Think about it ; if we can ’ t play open chords well , it ’ s not wise to try bar chords yet .
2 . Try partial bar chords first . The intermediate step of an F Major chord using the top four strings ( with just our index barring the first fret of strings 1 and 2 ) could be a good litmus test to see if we ’ re on track .
I ’ ve come up with 12 strategies to help you
make some serious progress with bar chords .
I highly recommend watching the
3 . Make sure your action is low enough . I ’ ve played other peoples ’ guitars where I could literally slide my fingers under the strings and over the frets . This keeps our morale low ,