[rickc]

I have recently been introducing a lot more bar chords into my playing. I have always had a tendancy to avoid them ( no reason really....just plain laziness I suppose ). But since I have been using them more I find I am having problems.

I recently wrote a song that employs mainly bars, but I find that as I use them for long passages in the song ( almost all of it when I come to think ) I am developing a cramp like pain that causes me untold agony. The pain goes up along the crease formed between the thumb and first finger, and almost up as far as the wrist. After playing the song a couple of times I find I can't do it anymore as the muscle there actually cramps up and prevents me from going on. I have to rest it for five minutes or so and shake it about a bit until the cramp goes away. Even after that it is still sore to play for a while. Is this normal ?

I learned to play on a guitar with high action and so had to press hard on the strings to voice the bar chords properly. Now I have a much better guitar but find I still have this problem. Is it because I am making too much work of it....i.e got into the habit of pressing to hard, or using a bad technique ? If so, is there anything I can do to take remedial action and improve my technique.

As far as I can make out I am doing everything correctly, like countering the pressure on the fingerboard at the back of the neck with my thumb, and the thumb does not stick out over the edge of the fingerboard. Is this just a question of building up stamina, and should I just bare with it and play through the agony ? I would worry about RSI if I were to do this. Any thoughts and/or advice would be much appreciated.

[Siege of Troy]

That's really common if your first starting to use those types of chords (it's spelled "barre" chord, just so ya know). The main thing is to build up your hand strength. My guitar teacher once devoted an entire month's worth of lessons to building up strength in my hands. He gave me an old acoustic guitar with high action, and heavy strings, and made me play the breakdown of "Stairway to Heaven", the part right after the solo which is all barre chords. He told me to play until my hand cramped, then take a 30 second break, and go for it again, for 10 minutes, 3 times a day, every day of the month (yes he can be a drill sergeant of sorts, but he taught me a lot). This really helped my finger strength grow rapidly. My hand was sore for the first week, but then you get used to the pain, and then eventually it goes away, if you stick with an good exercise regimen.

B/T/W/, I still do that exercise, but only about 30 minutes (3 days) a week now, and it still keeps my fingers strong.

This post has been edited by Siege of Troy: 11 September 2007 - 09:10 PM

[dadfad]

Yes, mostly just practice. And technique. Here are a couple of links to other earlier barre-chord topics that are worth reading:

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

(And there are others too if you do a search of this forum.)

[muchoguitaro]

yeah, technique can play a big part in making barre chords more painless. try finding the point where you can press down with the least amount of pressure, but which still allows you to play the chord clearly and stick with that. Also try shifting the pressure to a different part of your finger, e.g when you play a Gmin chord, you do not have to exert so much pressure near the top of your index finger as the A and D strings are being held down with other fingers. I find this helps.

[rasav]

Droping down a step will greatly reduce the string tension. DGCFad tuning is great if you're just starting to barre. Of course you'll be in a diffrent key and will probably need to relearn how to sing the song, but that beats repetetive stress injury any day.



Just an opinion, not an actual serving suggestion.

[ninjato]

When doing bar chords, let your arm do the work, not your hand.

Anchor your fretting index finger on the top string and just let the arm drop. The weight of your arm is more than enough to hold the strings down.

Also keep in mind a bar E-form chord you really only have to make sure the low E, A, B and high E string is depressed. Your other finger already took care of the other strings. This means you don't have to do the Spock Pinch to grab a good bar chord.

[monkeybutler]

After ten years playing, i still suffer the same problem as Rick C. My ganglion problem doesnt help, but despite trying all sorts of different techniques, a barre for more than a bar is still painful.