Barre Chord Question

[Jak Angelescu]

Hey everyone! I was waiting for my food to cook the other day so I decided to sit down and fiddle around on the acoustic. I started getting the basics of Roman Sky so I pulled up their Grammy Museum video to try to actually learn it. On a chord I was having trouble with, I paused the video a thousand times and when I finally caught what he was doing, I quite literally said, “You have GOT to be kidding me.”
The stretch for me is absolutely insane! When I flatten my ring finger down, I have to press so hard to get any sound to come out that after only about ten minutes of practicing it, it feels like I can’t even bend my knuckle downwards anymore it hurts so badly. I’m being quite serious when I say it feels like I’m about to break my ring finger small knuckle. There are two other ways I’ve developed to play the same chord but with different fingerings. One would be to use my middle and ring finger on the same fret in place of the flattened ring finger. The only problem with this, is that what Syn does beforehand makes this transition pretty difficult. So my question is, should I gently build up that ring finger knuckle strength or could this possibly be damaging to the joint and work on the more complicated transition instead?

 

[idssdi]

I have no idea whether it will damaging your joint. For me I usually try to make my life as easy as i possibly can(I don’t always succeed) and that counts for guitar playing too so if the other way is easier for you try to practice the transition from the part beforehand using that fingering. On the other hand building strength is always a good idea just not sure if it worth damaging the knuckle(maybe someone else can chime in on this). Personally I change figerings all the yime if it suits me better

 

[Daniel Sobota]

I have the same problem (without even attempting to play Roman Sky lol). My guitar instructor always tells me to “press it harder!”, and I always manage to play it only when he adds extra pressure on the finger. I guess I could use super glue, eh? But yeah, it’s probably the best to keep strengthening the finger. I’m no expert, but that seems the most logical solution.
Hopefully both of us master it asap.

 

[Richard O'connor]

What chord was it out of interest?

 

[Jak Angelescu]

The Bb double barre with the added E note on the B string. But I’ve been playing around with it and luckily I figured out that using my middle finger barred instead of the ring finger feels a little more attainable lol!

 

[idssdi]

Ill try it when I get home. Just from memory i would probably use my ringfiger for the bar and my pinky for the added E. It sounds like a Bbdiminished5 thing

 

[Jen Hapke]

Haha, this is funny because I’m through the very same thing I started reading your comment and I instantly knew which chord you were talking about.
I wanted to learn Roman sky (acoustic) I watched the video and that chord is so insane!!!! I tried it but I just can’t put my pinky on the e on the b-string while i keep my finger on the 3rd fret.
What I thought of instead is to play the e as the high e string open and mute the b string ( in this case I don’t bar on the 3rd fret)
So the weird chord
e–0
B–x
G–3
D–3
A–1
D–x
Then I play the normal Bb.
Ofcause you can work on the chord the way he does it. I think with lots of practise it’s doable.
I haven’t worked any further on the song because I’m working on technique and scales and play some songs I know how to play.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

That was one of the other ways I was trying to play it but it didn’t sound the same to me. It doesn’t sound as full as his does. But that comes to another part of my question: at what point to we change things to become doable and when is it being lazy?

 

[Jen Hapke]

Yeah I think it doesn’t sound the same. But at first I tried it with only playing Bb instead and that was so stupid. This part of the song is a great example what difference such little things make.
I think you have to decide on your own how much time you want to invest in these little things. I would ask myself: Is this something that I can use in over situations to or is it just for one song. If you want to use such crazy stretches in your own songs then I think the time is well spend in practising it.
How much do you gain with learning this chord?

 

[idssdi]

@jak I think it’s okay as long as it doesn’t change the fullness of the chords

 

[John Tierney]

If the stretch is your problem, try this (do it when I practice Every Breath you Take by the police)
1) First: show up all 4 fingers like from Kindergarten lol. It is ESSENTIAL that your thumb is on your palm as CLOSE as you can comfortably to the pinky knuckle. This gives you ALOT OF STRETCH.
2) Using shape from #1 fret the chord and see where your at.
3) Following #2 ask: Is this comfortable? Yes – your done: No – follow-up questions
4) (if No was answered in #3)
The barring hurts – arc your wrist up and play the chord SLOWLY (don’t want any clunkers)
Other notes – try to make your fingers very perpendicular to the frets, no extraneous barring (unless absolutely necessary) and play SLOWLY)
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HAND ADVICE
If it hurts at all STOP RIGHT AWAY! Doing it more will hurt the ligaments in your hand. Try this
1) In to Yoga? Let’s do some, make praying hands like the emoji (very important) at your chest. Then maintaining this shape pull it to your belly button . Next rotate your hands so the fingers move away from you to stretch under forearm muscles.
2) pretend your doing a chromatic scale NO GUITAR. Use that 4 shape from above and move the thumb across the palm moving your fingers down VERY SLOWLY.
3) Shake your hands.
4) All else fails: stretch in any way you can
Hope this helps let me know how it thorns out

 

[Jak Angelescu]

@Jen thank you for putting that into perspective for me! It helped a lot! I’m going to keep working on it to see if I can get it because ultimately in the long run I think I’ll be limiting myself if I don’t. And eventually I want to take classical guitar seriously again so I may as well “suck it up”

 

[Jak Angelescu]

@john your advice was just awesome! I do stretches and stuff but you offered some really good ones that I don’t do! I use to do yoga but I don’t anymore. I guess I’ll pick it back up again

 

[John Tierney]

@jak Happy to help keep going