Leaderboard

It's an 'open secret' (one that so many people know, that they don't think it worth mentioning, so, to the non-initiated, it remains a secret..!) that, when playing guitar, one doesn't have to play all the strings, all the time, for all the chords. It's useful to practice, and so learn, only playing the strings that actually make up the chord (often only three or four...), and skip, or mute, the strings not needed. This applies to both open and barre chords, and even more so for 'movable' chords (where one may play them anywhere on the neck...). If a barre chord proves to be difficult, practice playing it further up the neck, where the first-finger barre may be easier, and gradually, every other day, move down towards the nut. The fingers will become more accustomed, and the barre easier. When barring a chord, try to get the sound right on only the top four strings, for instance, if the barre is difficult to manage right the way across. Then try again, but getting the bottom four strings to sound right (so not playing the top two...). You may also play without a barre at all if you play only the middle four strings (so not the top or bottom 'E' strings...), and compose the chord with the four fingers, without a barre at all. If these notions find resonance with you, I could compose a chord chart showing many ways of playing chords, with no barre, anywhere on the neck. Why does this matter..? Well, one reason is to be able to change chords easily by going across the neck, instead of up and down, making chord changes much smoother (and less tiring...). What songs or tunes do you presently play, and what songs or tunes would you like to play..? Any particular style, or guitarist, group or era..? It would help us to give more pertinent advice. Hope this helps. Douglas

i think some songs are played on electric guitar with barre chords where it doesnt matter at all if there are f# bflat etc. but on an accoustic these chords sound terrible. so i transpose them to open easier chords it sounds much better. you must agree on an accoustic open chords are a million times better than barre? i forgot to mention ive got accoustic guitars only. as for simplifying you are preaching to the converted!!! and at 63 ive come to the conclusion im not going to be a brilliant guitarist, havent got enough time left on this planet. i need every trick in the book to help me. so ive given up on trying to get barre chords sounding as good on an accoustic as open chords and instead devote my practicing hours to learning other stuff. but thanks for the advice!!

ive done some reading and some cheap machine heads are bad and you cant tune down to get it in tune because they just go out of tune too quick, likely by carrying on turning down by themselves. so you have to go lower and then tune up to get it in tune. thats what the seller told me tune back up. and it helped a tiny bit. but they still just turned by themselves no doubt encouraged by string tension. i mean they arent going to tighten up are they? i looked at the design and the worm is designed to be forced in one direction and hence persuaded not to turn. but it can and does. only a tiny bit but thats all it takes. but not now. its perfect thanks to the tiny washers making the screws actually do their job. thanks for trying to help Dad 3353. guitars arent as difficult to set up as people think. i am a builder and diy mechanic and there is nothing i wouldnt take on myself. ive made nuts from scratch even widened the spacing from std. shortened and packed saddles up. plus ive got a ruddy great big hammer.