barre chords

[Kris10mf]

ok so im trying to learn barre chords and right now they're kicking my ass. Any tips on how to become better at them. Also about how long did it take you to learn how to do them effectively?

[patrickhowell]

What you need is finger strength, and the only way you'll get that is practice. It's tough, and it won't sound great for awhile, but just keep trying to play them and eventually it'll be no big deal. Good luck.

[11:11]

it took me about a week to be able to play them, but it takes many hours of practice to be able to transition between them smoothly. try messing around with the placement of your thumb behind the guitar, because thats what was screwing me over when i started learning them.

[mattcore]

also look at whether your strings are too heavy, especially on acoustics i've seen people using 60s and above and wondering why their hands feel like they're going to fall off after a song or two. aside from that just practice and the thumb placement.

[lew_1987]

You can start by not doing full barre chords, for example with an F:

http://www.cyberfret.com/chords/dm-F/images/f.gif

As you can see you're still barring the bottom two strings with your index finger, and so this is a good way to start off, to build your finger strength.

[eraserhead]

just practice. that's all it is. you'll eventually get it. work that index finger strength.