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64 Part II: Setting Up to Play the Blues TEAM LinG
4. Strum the chord slowly from the sixth string to the first letting each
note sound by itself.
Congratulations on making it through the hardest part of barre chords:
getting the barred notes to ring clearly!
If you’re still having trouble getting all the strings to ring out, try rotating your
index finger slightly so the strings fall under the side of your finger rather than
the flat, fleshier part. This method may help you get a clearer sound because
the side of your finger is harder than the fleshier, flat part and can press
harder with more consistency.
Practice and patience can get you through this difficult time where the
barred part of your chords can sound mushy, and it seems to take inordinate
effort to sound decent. Every guitarist goes through it, but every guitarist
conquers it. Consider it a rite of passage.
After you get a barre chord under your fingers, and it starts to sound acceptable,
start moving the chord up and down the neck. Moving chords is more
about thinking than playing, because you’re trying to memorize the names of
the notes on the neck. So this adjustment may take a little getting use to.
After you’ve gotten the basic E-major form under your belt — or should I say,
fingers — and are comfortable moving along the neck, familiarize yourself
with the other E forms: minor, dominant 7, minor 7, 7 suspended (Em, E7,
Em7, and E7sus). These are also based on their open-position counterparts,
so the concept should come quickly. Moving barre chords of all qualities
around — quickly and accurately with clean sounds coming from all six
strings — is the most important concept for successful left-hand blues
rhythm technique.
Figure 4-5 shows four different E-based forms at the fifth fret — Am, A7, Am7,
and A7sus. Note that these forms, like their open-position counterparts (see
Figure 4-1 for all the open-position A forms), require fewer fingers than the
major form. Hopefully, they’re easier to play, too.
Figure 4-5:
Four
qualities of
E-based
forms.
Am A7 Am7 A7sus
5 fr. 5 fr. 5 fr. 5 fr.