Chords for Thumb / Wrist Pain In Barre Chords? Do THIS!
Tempo:
91.5 bpm
Chords used:
Abm
F
G
A
Eb
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
Hey, Mike Philipov here from practice guitar now calm in this video
We're going to talk about how to make bar chords feel much easier to play now as a quick refresher
Bar chords are chords that require you to use your index finger on the fretting hand to fret two or more strings
So here's an example of a bar chord
Here my index finger is fretting all six strings [Abm] now bar chords are used in many many different songs
And they are by far much harder to play on acoustic guitar than an electric guitar
Which is why I got the acoustic guitar out for this demonstration
There are two common problems you might run into when you practice bar chords especially an acoustic guitar
The first one is inability to let all notes of the chord to ring clearly here's an example
[A]
[Eb] You can hear there's a lot of string buzzing and the notes aren't ringing out clearly and the second problem is
Often the result of trying to solve the previous problem
Which is a lot of tension that is created throughout your entire fretting hand arm as soon especially in the thumb
Because what usually happens is if you're struggling to fret all [Bb] the notes clearly
[B] most players tend to do is [Abm] squeeze the neck of [A] the guitar very very hard to get all the strings down [G] and
That usually solves the problem
But it creates the second problem
Which is your thumb becomes very very fatigued and if you're playing a song that requires you change between many bar chords
Your hand becomes tired very very quickly
And it's difficult to keep playing [F] the first tip to playing bar chords with greater ease is to pay attention to where you are fretting
Notes now as beginners we've all learned to fret notes as close to [Ab] the fret as possible
However, it's very easy to forget about these fundamentals especially as you get to more advanced levels of playing
Sometimes we tend to think that we're past some of these basics
We no longer have to pay attention to them anymore
And that comes back to hurt you
Literally when you learn to play bar chords because if you're not fretting notes as close to the fret as possible
You're making it much much [G] harder for yourself to play bar chords than necessary
So if you're having trouble with getting bar chords to ring clearly the very first thing you look at is
How close your fingers are to the frets as you're playing the chord for example?
Let's say I'm playing this G major bar chord and having a lot of trouble getting the strings to ring clearly
You can hear there's all kinds of nasty buzzing going over the place
But without applying [Abm] any more pressure if all I do is move the index finger
Closer to the fret and I also move the ring finger and the pinky fingers closer to the frets as well by making just a very very tiny
Barely noticeable [F] adjustment all of a sudden you will feel a world [Cm] of difference in how easy the chord becomes [G] to play
[N] So we aren't increasing the amount of force that's being applied to the strings
We're simply directing that force that's already being applied in a much more efficient way
The second tip for making bar chords feel much easier to play is
To watch what happens with the first knuckle of your middle finger many guitar players
Have this bad habit of flattening out the first knuckle of the middle finger so when they play bar chords it looks like this
This requires you to use a lot more
Tension throughout your entire arm and shoulder and especially with the [G] middle finger to maintain this position
And it also makes it harder to get all the notes to ring clearly
[Eb] If you watch yourself
Playing bar chords in the mirror you may notice yourself
Getting to this position without even realizing it because it's so deeply ingrained into your muscle memory and what you will find is as soon
As you bend the first knuckle of the middle finger all of a sudden your entire arm becomes much more relaxed and the chord begins
To feel much easier to hold and play so from here
It's just a matter of training this new habit into your technique after you are aware of what is happening with
The first knuckle of the middle finger if you notice yourself having this problem
It's just a matter of reminding yourself and paying attention to keeping [Gb] this knuckle bent and curved like this and
Making [F] sure that you're ingraining this new habit into your technique to hundreds and hundreds of perfect repetitions
This kind of focus practicing is what effective
Perfect guitar practice is all about and this is part of what I do with guitar players in my rapid-fire guitar practice training course
To help them learn how to increase the effectiveness of their practice time
The next tip is gonna make all the difference between your arm feeling like it's about to fall off from pain of playing bar chords
Or your arm and your entire body feeling very relaxed when you play these chords and that is to stop thinking about
Squeezing [Gb] your fingers to the strings when you play guitar
Let me say that again if you are thinking about squeezing the guitar neck with your fingers [G] and thumb like a clamp or like a vice
You're doing it wrong because that is going to lead to a very sore thumb and your entire arm and shoulder is going to be
Constricted by a whole bunch of unnecessary excess tension [N] a much better mental cue to use when practicing is to think about
pulling on the strings with the weight of your arm rather than squeezing the strings with finger strength and thumb strength and
Pulling on the strings with the weight of the arm sounds complicated
But it's very simple
All you do is you bring your hand into position to play a bar chord and then you start relaxing your entire arm from the shoulder
on down and what that does is it creates a
Pulling sensation as if your fingers are pulling on the strings and that
Brings the strings to the frets produces a very clear sounding bar chord [A] with minimum effort
[N] Now don't confuse
Pulling on the strings with the weight of the arm with bending strings
You are not bending string as you can hear [A] the chord isn't doing
None of the strings are bent.
I'm not bending any strings here
What I'm doing is letting my entire arm relax and that [Db] transfers the weight of the arm
to the strings and produces a clear sounding chord versus squeezing the strings with just
Finger strength alone and you know, you're doing it right when [N] two things are true
First your fretting hand shoulder must be completely relaxed and you test for this by taking your right arm
If you're right-handed putting it on your left shoulder and then trying to play a bar chord
And if you notice your shoulder rising up like this or if you notice the muscles in the shoulder area
Beginning to tense up as you are fretting a chord, then you know, you're doing it wrong
You're using too much strength too much power from the fingers and thumb and not enough the cue
earlier of using the pulling of the strings with the weight of the arm to produce the chord and the second thing to pay attention to
Is strangely enough your elbow if you're doing it, right?
If you're playing bar chords with the least amount of effort necessary to produce
clear sounding chords
your elbow is going to be very relaxed and be able to wiggle the elbow from side to side as you play and
If you're not able to do this or if you're able to do this
But with some difficulty or with some effort required from the shoulder, then, you know
You still need to relax your entire arm more by using the pulling sensation
I mentioned earlier by using the weight of the arm to apply pressure to the strings
So there you go a few simple tips for you make bar chords feel a lot easier to play
Pay attention to how close your bar finger and the other fingers are to the frets when you play
Make sure that the first knuckle of the middle finger is not flat like this
But it's curved and make sure that you are relaxing your entire arm as you are fretting a chord rather than thinking about
Squeezing the strings like a vice and more importantly understand that effective guitar practice
It's not just about repeating something over and over a bunch of times.
It's about
Identifying what are the exact challenges that are in front of you and breaking those challenges down into very specific very manageable steps
You can easily implement in just a few minutes per day and then practicing with your mind
focused on the right things in the right way to make sure that the right habits are being trained and that your technique is
being mastered in the most effective and the most efficient way [Abm] possible and
This is what I train guitar players to do in my rapid-fire guitar practice training course
You learn how to master all the common guitar techniques and elements of guitar playing
But more importantly you learn how to become your own guitar practice trainer
So you can take all the music all the songs [F] guitar solos and practice materials
You may have struggled with for years and [Abm] know exactly how to identify what specific [Bb] things hold [F] you back from mastering that music
Break it down and take them through the right process by doing the right things in the right way in the right order
To make [B] sure that you not only get the [F] result you want but enjoy every step of the process of getting there
So you can [Abm] check out the link that's on the screen right now and read everything about how the course works
And I look forward to seeing you on the other side and training you to practice guitar like a master to get real results
Until next time have fun practicing implement these tips and I'll see you in the next video
We're going to talk about how to make bar chords feel much easier to play now as a quick refresher
Bar chords are chords that require you to use your index finger on the fretting hand to fret two or more strings
So here's an example of a bar chord
Here my index finger is fretting all six strings [Abm] now bar chords are used in many many different songs
And they are by far much harder to play on acoustic guitar than an electric guitar
Which is why I got the acoustic guitar out for this demonstration
There are two common problems you might run into when you practice bar chords especially an acoustic guitar
The first one is inability to let all notes of the chord to ring clearly here's an example
[A]
[Eb] You can hear there's a lot of string buzzing and the notes aren't ringing out clearly and the second problem is
Often the result of trying to solve the previous problem
Which is a lot of tension that is created throughout your entire fretting hand arm as soon especially in the thumb
Because what usually happens is if you're struggling to fret all [Bb] the notes clearly
[B] most players tend to do is [Abm] squeeze the neck of [A] the guitar very very hard to get all the strings down [G] and
That usually solves the problem
But it creates the second problem
Which is your thumb becomes very very fatigued and if you're playing a song that requires you change between many bar chords
Your hand becomes tired very very quickly
And it's difficult to keep playing [F] the first tip to playing bar chords with greater ease is to pay attention to where you are fretting
Notes now as beginners we've all learned to fret notes as close to [Ab] the fret as possible
However, it's very easy to forget about these fundamentals especially as you get to more advanced levels of playing
Sometimes we tend to think that we're past some of these basics
We no longer have to pay attention to them anymore
And that comes back to hurt you
Literally when you learn to play bar chords because if you're not fretting notes as close to the fret as possible
You're making it much much [G] harder for yourself to play bar chords than necessary
So if you're having trouble with getting bar chords to ring clearly the very first thing you look at is
How close your fingers are to the frets as you're playing the chord for example?
Let's say I'm playing this G major bar chord and having a lot of trouble getting the strings to ring clearly
You can hear there's all kinds of nasty buzzing going over the place
But without applying [Abm] any more pressure if all I do is move the index finger
Closer to the fret and I also move the ring finger and the pinky fingers closer to the frets as well by making just a very very tiny
Barely noticeable [F] adjustment all of a sudden you will feel a world [Cm] of difference in how easy the chord becomes [G] to play
[N] So we aren't increasing the amount of force that's being applied to the strings
We're simply directing that force that's already being applied in a much more efficient way
The second tip for making bar chords feel much easier to play is
To watch what happens with the first knuckle of your middle finger many guitar players
Have this bad habit of flattening out the first knuckle of the middle finger so when they play bar chords it looks like this
This requires you to use a lot more
Tension throughout your entire arm and shoulder and especially with the [G] middle finger to maintain this position
And it also makes it harder to get all the notes to ring clearly
[Eb] If you watch yourself
Playing bar chords in the mirror you may notice yourself
Getting to this position without even realizing it because it's so deeply ingrained into your muscle memory and what you will find is as soon
As you bend the first knuckle of the middle finger all of a sudden your entire arm becomes much more relaxed and the chord begins
To feel much easier to hold and play so from here
It's just a matter of training this new habit into your technique after you are aware of what is happening with
The first knuckle of the middle finger if you notice yourself having this problem
It's just a matter of reminding yourself and paying attention to keeping [Gb] this knuckle bent and curved like this and
Making [F] sure that you're ingraining this new habit into your technique to hundreds and hundreds of perfect repetitions
This kind of focus practicing is what effective
Perfect guitar practice is all about and this is part of what I do with guitar players in my rapid-fire guitar practice training course
To help them learn how to increase the effectiveness of their practice time
The next tip is gonna make all the difference between your arm feeling like it's about to fall off from pain of playing bar chords
Or your arm and your entire body feeling very relaxed when you play these chords and that is to stop thinking about
Squeezing [Gb] your fingers to the strings when you play guitar
Let me say that again if you are thinking about squeezing the guitar neck with your fingers [G] and thumb like a clamp or like a vice
You're doing it wrong because that is going to lead to a very sore thumb and your entire arm and shoulder is going to be
Constricted by a whole bunch of unnecessary excess tension [N] a much better mental cue to use when practicing is to think about
pulling on the strings with the weight of your arm rather than squeezing the strings with finger strength and thumb strength and
Pulling on the strings with the weight of the arm sounds complicated
But it's very simple
All you do is you bring your hand into position to play a bar chord and then you start relaxing your entire arm from the shoulder
on down and what that does is it creates a
Pulling sensation as if your fingers are pulling on the strings and that
Brings the strings to the frets produces a very clear sounding bar chord [A] with minimum effort
[N] Now don't confuse
Pulling on the strings with the weight of the arm with bending strings
You are not bending string as you can hear [A] the chord isn't doing
None of the strings are bent.
I'm not bending any strings here
What I'm doing is letting my entire arm relax and that [Db] transfers the weight of the arm
to the strings and produces a clear sounding chord versus squeezing the strings with just
Finger strength alone and you know, you're doing it right when [N] two things are true
First your fretting hand shoulder must be completely relaxed and you test for this by taking your right arm
If you're right-handed putting it on your left shoulder and then trying to play a bar chord
And if you notice your shoulder rising up like this or if you notice the muscles in the shoulder area
Beginning to tense up as you are fretting a chord, then you know, you're doing it wrong
You're using too much strength too much power from the fingers and thumb and not enough the cue
earlier of using the pulling of the strings with the weight of the arm to produce the chord and the second thing to pay attention to
Is strangely enough your elbow if you're doing it, right?
If you're playing bar chords with the least amount of effort necessary to produce
clear sounding chords
your elbow is going to be very relaxed and be able to wiggle the elbow from side to side as you play and
If you're not able to do this or if you're able to do this
But with some difficulty or with some effort required from the shoulder, then, you know
You still need to relax your entire arm more by using the pulling sensation
I mentioned earlier by using the weight of the arm to apply pressure to the strings
So there you go a few simple tips for you make bar chords feel a lot easier to play
Pay attention to how close your bar finger and the other fingers are to the frets when you play
Make sure that the first knuckle of the middle finger is not flat like this
But it's curved and make sure that you are relaxing your entire arm as you are fretting a chord rather than thinking about
Squeezing the strings like a vice and more importantly understand that effective guitar practice
It's not just about repeating something over and over a bunch of times.
It's about
Identifying what are the exact challenges that are in front of you and breaking those challenges down into very specific very manageable steps
You can easily implement in just a few minutes per day and then practicing with your mind
focused on the right things in the right way to make sure that the right habits are being trained and that your technique is
being mastered in the most effective and the most efficient way [Abm] possible and
This is what I train guitar players to do in my rapid-fire guitar practice training course
You learn how to master all the common guitar techniques and elements of guitar playing
But more importantly you learn how to become your own guitar practice trainer
So you can take all the music all the songs [F] guitar solos and practice materials
You may have struggled with for years and [Abm] know exactly how to identify what specific [Bb] things hold [F] you back from mastering that music
Break it down and take them through the right process by doing the right things in the right way in the right order
To make [B] sure that you not only get the [F] result you want but enjoy every step of the process of getting there
So you can [Abm] check out the link that's on the screen right now and read everything about how the course works
And I look forward to seeing you on the other side and training you to practice guitar like a master to get real results
Until next time have fun practicing implement these tips and I'll see you in the next video
Key:
Abm
F
G
A
Eb
Abm
F
G
Hey, Mike Philipov here from practice guitar now calm in this video
We're going to talk about how to make bar chords feel much easier to play now as a quick refresher
Bar chords are chords that require you to use your index finger on the fretting hand to fret two or more strings
So here's an example of a bar chord
_ _ _ Here my index finger is fretting all six strings [Abm] now bar chords are used in many many different songs
And they are by far much harder to play on acoustic guitar than an electric guitar
Which is why I got the acoustic guitar out for this demonstration
There are two common problems you might run into when you practice bar chords especially an acoustic guitar
The first one is inability to let all notes of the chord to ring clearly here's an example
[A] _ _ _
_ _ [Eb] You can hear there's a lot of string buzzing and the notes aren't ringing out clearly and the second problem is
Often the result of trying to solve the previous problem
Which is a lot of tension that is created throughout your entire fretting hand arm as soon especially in the thumb
Because what usually happens is if you're struggling to fret all [Bb] the notes clearly
[B] most players tend to do is [Abm] squeeze the neck of [A] the guitar very very hard to get all the strings down [G] and
That usually solves the problem
But it creates the second problem
Which is your thumb becomes very very fatigued and if you're playing a song that requires you change between many bar chords
Your hand becomes tired very very quickly
And it's difficult to keep playing [F] the first tip to playing bar chords with greater ease is to pay attention to where you are fretting
Notes now as beginners we've all learned to fret notes as close to [Ab] the fret as possible
However, it's very easy to forget about these fundamentals especially as you get to more advanced levels of playing
Sometimes we tend to think that we're past some of these basics
We no longer have to pay attention to them anymore
And that comes back to hurt you
Literally when you learn to play bar chords because if you're not fretting notes as close to the fret as possible
You're making it much much [G] harder for yourself to play bar chords than necessary
So if you're having trouble with getting bar chords to ring clearly the very first thing you look at is
How close your fingers are to the frets as you're playing the chord for example?
Let's say I'm playing this G major bar chord and having a lot of trouble getting the strings to ring clearly
_ _ _ You can hear there's all kinds of nasty buzzing going over the place
But without applying [Abm] any more pressure if all I do is move the index finger
Closer to the fret and I also move the ring finger and the pinky fingers closer to the frets as well by making just a very very tiny
Barely noticeable [F] adjustment all of a sudden you will feel a world [Cm] of difference in how easy the chord becomes [G] to play _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [N] So we aren't increasing the amount of force that's being applied to the strings
We're simply directing that force that's already being applied in a much more efficient way
The second tip for making bar chords feel much easier to play is
To watch what happens with the first knuckle of your middle finger many guitar players
Have this bad habit of flattening out the first knuckle of the middle finger so when they play bar chords it looks like this _
This requires you to use a lot more
Tension throughout your entire arm and shoulder and especially with the [G] middle finger to maintain this position
And it also makes it harder to get all the notes to ring clearly
_ _ [Eb] If you watch yourself
Playing bar chords in the mirror you may notice yourself
Getting to this position without even realizing it because it's so deeply ingrained into your muscle memory and what you will find is as soon
As you bend the first knuckle of the middle finger all of a sudden your entire arm becomes much more relaxed and the chord begins
To feel much easier to hold and play so from here
It's just a matter of training this new habit into your technique after you are aware of what is happening with
The first knuckle of the middle finger if you notice yourself having this problem
It's just a matter of reminding yourself and paying attention to keeping [Gb] this knuckle bent and curved like this and
Making [F] sure that you're ingraining this new habit into your technique to hundreds and hundreds of perfect repetitions
This kind of focus practicing is what effective
Perfect guitar practice is all about and this is part of what I do with guitar players in my rapid-fire guitar practice training course
To help them learn how to increase the effectiveness of their practice time
The next tip is gonna make all the difference between your arm feeling like it's about to fall off from pain of playing bar chords
Or your arm and your entire body feeling very relaxed when you play these chords and that is to stop thinking about
Squeezing [Gb] your fingers to the strings when you play guitar
Let me say that again if you are thinking about squeezing the guitar neck with your fingers [G] and thumb like a clamp or like a vice
You're doing it wrong because that is going to lead to a very sore thumb and your entire arm and shoulder is going to be
Constricted by a whole bunch of unnecessary excess tension [N] a much better mental cue to use when practicing is to think about
pulling on the strings with the weight of your arm rather than squeezing the strings with finger strength and thumb strength and
Pulling on the strings with the weight of the arm sounds complicated
But it's very simple
All you do is you bring your hand into position to play a bar chord and then you start relaxing your entire arm from the shoulder
on down and what that does is it creates a
Pulling sensation as if your fingers are pulling on the strings and that
Brings the strings to the frets produces a very clear sounding bar chord [A] with minimum effort _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] Now don't confuse
Pulling on the strings with the weight of the arm with bending strings
You are not bending string as you can hear [A] the chord isn't doing
_ _ None of the strings are bent.
I'm not bending any strings here
What I'm doing is letting my entire arm relax and that [Db] transfers the weight of the arm
to the strings and produces a clear sounding chord versus squeezing the strings with just
Finger strength alone and you know, you're doing it right when [N] two things are true
First your fretting hand shoulder must be completely relaxed and you test for this by taking your right arm
If you're right-handed putting it on your left shoulder and then trying to play a bar chord
And if you notice your shoulder rising up like this or if you notice the muscles in the shoulder area
Beginning to tense up as you are fretting a chord, then you know, you're doing it wrong
You're using too much strength too much power from the fingers and thumb and not enough the cue
earlier of using the pulling of the strings with the weight of the arm to produce the chord and the second thing to pay attention to
Is strangely enough your elbow if you're doing it, right?
If you're playing bar chords with the least amount of effort necessary to produce
clear sounding chords
your elbow is going to be very relaxed and be able to wiggle the elbow from side to side as you play and
If you're not able to do this or if you're able to do this
But with some difficulty or with some effort required from the shoulder, then, you know
You still need to relax your entire arm more by using the pulling sensation
I mentioned earlier by using the weight of the arm to apply pressure to the strings
So there you go a few simple tips for you make bar chords feel a lot easier to play
Pay attention to how close your bar finger and the other fingers are to the frets when you play
Make sure that the first knuckle of the middle finger is not flat like this
But it's curved and make sure that you are relaxing your entire arm as you are fretting a chord rather than thinking about
Squeezing the strings like a vice and more importantly understand that effective guitar practice
It's not just about repeating something over and over a bunch of times.
It's about
Identifying what are the exact challenges that are in front of you and breaking those challenges down into very specific very manageable steps
You can easily implement in just a few minutes per day and then practicing with your mind
focused on the right things in the right way to make sure that the right habits are being trained and that your technique is
being mastered in the most effective and the most efficient way [Abm] possible and
This is what I train guitar players to do in my rapid-fire guitar practice training course
You learn how to master all the common guitar techniques and elements of guitar playing
But more importantly you learn how to become your own guitar practice trainer
So you can take all the music all the songs [F] guitar solos and practice materials
You may have struggled with for years and [Abm] know exactly how to identify what specific [Bb] things hold [F] you back from mastering that music
Break it down and take them through the right process by doing the right things in the right way in the right order
To make [B] sure that you not only get the [F] result you want but enjoy every step of the process of getting there
So you can [Abm] check out the link that's on the screen right now and read everything about how the course works
And I look forward to seeing you on the other side and training you to practice guitar like a master to get real results
Until next time have fun practicing implement these tips and I'll see you in the next video
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
We're going to talk about how to make bar chords feel much easier to play now as a quick refresher
Bar chords are chords that require you to use your index finger on the fretting hand to fret two or more strings
So here's an example of a bar chord
_ _ _ Here my index finger is fretting all six strings [Abm] now bar chords are used in many many different songs
And they are by far much harder to play on acoustic guitar than an electric guitar
Which is why I got the acoustic guitar out for this demonstration
There are two common problems you might run into when you practice bar chords especially an acoustic guitar
The first one is inability to let all notes of the chord to ring clearly here's an example
[A] _ _ _
_ _ [Eb] You can hear there's a lot of string buzzing and the notes aren't ringing out clearly and the second problem is
Often the result of trying to solve the previous problem
Which is a lot of tension that is created throughout your entire fretting hand arm as soon especially in the thumb
Because what usually happens is if you're struggling to fret all [Bb] the notes clearly
[B] most players tend to do is [Abm] squeeze the neck of [A] the guitar very very hard to get all the strings down [G] and
That usually solves the problem
But it creates the second problem
Which is your thumb becomes very very fatigued and if you're playing a song that requires you change between many bar chords
Your hand becomes tired very very quickly
And it's difficult to keep playing [F] the first tip to playing bar chords with greater ease is to pay attention to where you are fretting
Notes now as beginners we've all learned to fret notes as close to [Ab] the fret as possible
However, it's very easy to forget about these fundamentals especially as you get to more advanced levels of playing
Sometimes we tend to think that we're past some of these basics
We no longer have to pay attention to them anymore
And that comes back to hurt you
Literally when you learn to play bar chords because if you're not fretting notes as close to the fret as possible
You're making it much much [G] harder for yourself to play bar chords than necessary
So if you're having trouble with getting bar chords to ring clearly the very first thing you look at is
How close your fingers are to the frets as you're playing the chord for example?
Let's say I'm playing this G major bar chord and having a lot of trouble getting the strings to ring clearly
_ _ _ You can hear there's all kinds of nasty buzzing going over the place
But without applying [Abm] any more pressure if all I do is move the index finger
Closer to the fret and I also move the ring finger and the pinky fingers closer to the frets as well by making just a very very tiny
Barely noticeable [F] adjustment all of a sudden you will feel a world [Cm] of difference in how easy the chord becomes [G] to play _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [N] So we aren't increasing the amount of force that's being applied to the strings
We're simply directing that force that's already being applied in a much more efficient way
The second tip for making bar chords feel much easier to play is
To watch what happens with the first knuckle of your middle finger many guitar players
Have this bad habit of flattening out the first knuckle of the middle finger so when they play bar chords it looks like this _
This requires you to use a lot more
Tension throughout your entire arm and shoulder and especially with the [G] middle finger to maintain this position
And it also makes it harder to get all the notes to ring clearly
_ _ [Eb] If you watch yourself
Playing bar chords in the mirror you may notice yourself
Getting to this position without even realizing it because it's so deeply ingrained into your muscle memory and what you will find is as soon
As you bend the first knuckle of the middle finger all of a sudden your entire arm becomes much more relaxed and the chord begins
To feel much easier to hold and play so from here
It's just a matter of training this new habit into your technique after you are aware of what is happening with
The first knuckle of the middle finger if you notice yourself having this problem
It's just a matter of reminding yourself and paying attention to keeping [Gb] this knuckle bent and curved like this and
Making [F] sure that you're ingraining this new habit into your technique to hundreds and hundreds of perfect repetitions
This kind of focus practicing is what effective
Perfect guitar practice is all about and this is part of what I do with guitar players in my rapid-fire guitar practice training course
To help them learn how to increase the effectiveness of their practice time
The next tip is gonna make all the difference between your arm feeling like it's about to fall off from pain of playing bar chords
Or your arm and your entire body feeling very relaxed when you play these chords and that is to stop thinking about
Squeezing [Gb] your fingers to the strings when you play guitar
Let me say that again if you are thinking about squeezing the guitar neck with your fingers [G] and thumb like a clamp or like a vice
You're doing it wrong because that is going to lead to a very sore thumb and your entire arm and shoulder is going to be
Constricted by a whole bunch of unnecessary excess tension [N] a much better mental cue to use when practicing is to think about
pulling on the strings with the weight of your arm rather than squeezing the strings with finger strength and thumb strength and
Pulling on the strings with the weight of the arm sounds complicated
But it's very simple
All you do is you bring your hand into position to play a bar chord and then you start relaxing your entire arm from the shoulder
on down and what that does is it creates a
Pulling sensation as if your fingers are pulling on the strings and that
Brings the strings to the frets produces a very clear sounding bar chord [A] with minimum effort _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] Now don't confuse
Pulling on the strings with the weight of the arm with bending strings
You are not bending string as you can hear [A] the chord isn't doing
_ _ None of the strings are bent.
I'm not bending any strings here
What I'm doing is letting my entire arm relax and that [Db] transfers the weight of the arm
to the strings and produces a clear sounding chord versus squeezing the strings with just
Finger strength alone and you know, you're doing it right when [N] two things are true
First your fretting hand shoulder must be completely relaxed and you test for this by taking your right arm
If you're right-handed putting it on your left shoulder and then trying to play a bar chord
And if you notice your shoulder rising up like this or if you notice the muscles in the shoulder area
Beginning to tense up as you are fretting a chord, then you know, you're doing it wrong
You're using too much strength too much power from the fingers and thumb and not enough the cue
earlier of using the pulling of the strings with the weight of the arm to produce the chord and the second thing to pay attention to
Is strangely enough your elbow if you're doing it, right?
If you're playing bar chords with the least amount of effort necessary to produce
clear sounding chords
your elbow is going to be very relaxed and be able to wiggle the elbow from side to side as you play and
If you're not able to do this or if you're able to do this
But with some difficulty or with some effort required from the shoulder, then, you know
You still need to relax your entire arm more by using the pulling sensation
I mentioned earlier by using the weight of the arm to apply pressure to the strings
So there you go a few simple tips for you make bar chords feel a lot easier to play
Pay attention to how close your bar finger and the other fingers are to the frets when you play
Make sure that the first knuckle of the middle finger is not flat like this
But it's curved and make sure that you are relaxing your entire arm as you are fretting a chord rather than thinking about
Squeezing the strings like a vice and more importantly understand that effective guitar practice
It's not just about repeating something over and over a bunch of times.
It's about
Identifying what are the exact challenges that are in front of you and breaking those challenges down into very specific very manageable steps
You can easily implement in just a few minutes per day and then practicing with your mind
focused on the right things in the right way to make sure that the right habits are being trained and that your technique is
being mastered in the most effective and the most efficient way [Abm] possible and
This is what I train guitar players to do in my rapid-fire guitar practice training course
You learn how to master all the common guitar techniques and elements of guitar playing
But more importantly you learn how to become your own guitar practice trainer
So you can take all the music all the songs [F] guitar solos and practice materials
You may have struggled with for years and [Abm] know exactly how to identify what specific [Bb] things hold [F] you back from mastering that music
Break it down and take them through the right process by doing the right things in the right way in the right order
To make [B] sure that you not only get the [F] result you want but enjoy every step of the process of getting there
So you can [Abm] check out the link that's on the screen right now and read everything about how the course works
And I look forward to seeing you on the other side and training you to practice guitar like a master to get real results
Until next time have fun practicing implement these tips and I'll see you in the next video
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