How to Get Better at Bar Chords Video Lecture | Guitar: Become a Pro (English) - Music

okay today we're talking about bar
chords and notice we're talking about
bar chords and not bar chords this is a
19th century France let's call it like
it is and while we're at it why is this
the sixth string and this the first
string why do you go down in string name
six five four three two one as you go
higher in pitch and farther away from
your face doesn't make any sense
I'm changing it this is officially the
new first string but back to bar chords
bar chords suck and it sucks for a lot
of reasons and sometimes if you like ask
somebody like you have trouble with them
how do I get better at it they'll be
like all you just got to keep doing it
and then eventually you'll be good at it
that's really helpful so I'm going to
give a few tips on how to thoughtfully
get better at your bar chords and make
them easier so let's start on the fifth
fret make an a major chord right so the
first thing that you might try when
you're trying to smash all your fingers
into a chord is to maybe change the
angle of your arm to like some like
smoosh your fingers together it's really
not the best way to do it and the main
reason that you might want to try that
is because if you try to borrow it
naturally like if you see somebody else
do it like this you might end up getting
the sound and that B string is kind of
like a big hang-up and the reason for
that most of the time is that no matter
how big your fingers are one of like the
lines of the knuckles will always kind
of fall within the string so there's a
couple tips that you can do to help with
that tip number one is think about where
your thumb is okay so if you look at
when I'm playing a bar chord what I'm
doing is right where I'm having the
problem on the fret bit of one down so
the fifth fret my thumb is directly
behind my pointer finger pinching the
neck in there you can kind of pinch
through the lines in your hands or
whatever string is giving you a problem
so oh some people might have the thumb
back here and try to leverage it that's
really not the best way to do it you
want to pinch between your first finger
and your thumb and try to get rid of
that now another thing is using the the
part of your index finger to bar if you
come straight on like this it'll be hard
to get a good angle at it and you'll get
that buzz eNOS
again so what you want to do is push the
pressure like if you're right-handed
guitar player kind of use your wrist to
give this part of your finger this way
like if you look at your finger you
shouldn't be getting marks straight down
the center of your finger this should be
more off to the side because the side is
like a smoother edge of your finger
where the bone is so you want to
straighten it out and kind of have all
the pressure now you don't go like this
and try to get your fingers over you
want to have the pressure more towards
if I'm looking at my index finger what
would be the left part of my finger so
just scoot your hand back that way and
that should help you get a better
cleaner sound when you're applying that
pressure to a straighter edge of your
finger through the fretboard into the
pinched position of your thumb now to a
certain extent you still do just have to
it'll still take some time to get the
hand in your are the strength in your
hand and the right technique and kind of
just for your fingers to get in the
right position so don't be discouraged
you feel like there's a song that has
like a B minor or an F chord in the
meantime while you're practicing these
things and while your hands are getting
stronger just take a piece of it so what
I mean by that let's take a B minor
chord right here and if you can't do it
where you can hold down the high E
string just forget about it just take
the middle four string the difference
between a five string B minor and a four
string B minor it's kind of nominal so
even if it's just the first free string
right if it's like been a D and g string
make it more of a power chord so you're
technically losing the minor third it's
still work in the context of the song
and it wouldn't be that noticeable
even if it's like let's take another one
let's take a G major Barre right here
I'll really need our three notes these
chords are triads any major minor chords
a tri which means there's three
different notes so when you're playing a
bar chord you're actually usually
playing six strings or five strings and
you're getting doubles of some of the
notes so G major what you could do is
just taking these three
right here so right now I'm on 5d for
Jia and 3b or as I like to call it the
fifth fret on the third-string the
fourth fret on a fourth string and the
third fret on the 5th string and then
that's going to be your replacement for
a barre chord routed here so this would
be a G major chord G sharp a a sharp B C
so on and so forth so remember just work
on the position that your hand is
instead of trying to just contort your
fingers in a way really thoughtfully
think about where your thumb is where
the pressure is coming through the
fretboard and just play different parts
of shapes and then you'll have it down
in no time