A shape barre chord revisited
I learned to play A shaped bar chords with the tip of my index finger just touching and therefore muting the low E string. I have always noticed that Neil plays this shape with a full 6 string bar and in a recent fly on the wall he mentioned that doing it this way makes it easier to get the high E to ring true. I find this to be true but doing it this way makes me more susceptible to strumming the low E ( I know that the low E is the 5th of the chord). Better to strum with the 5th on the bottom and have the high E ring or with a muted 5th and no low E. Thoughts?
I bar the 6 strings because it makes it easy to switch quickly between E shape and A shape bar. I try not to strum the Fat E in the A shape bar (aiming with the pick).
For finger picking one might think it does not make a difference but if you take Classical gas per example, there is a sequence of DA-CG-Bsharp and F that is fairly quick and if you bar only 5 strings on the A shape it would require a lot of gymnastic to get in time.
Because I use most of the time my pinky (I know, I know, not recommended )which I can bend more, the high E rings (most of the time ). I use the ring finger in the case where a 7th is needed in the A shape bar chord.
Marc
For finger picking one might think it does not make a difference but if you take Classical gas per example, there is a sequence of DA-CG-Bsharp and F that is fairly quick and if you bar only 5 strings on the A shape it would require a lot of gymnastic to get in time.
Because I use most of the time my pinky (I know, I know, not recommended )which I can bend more, the high E rings (most of the time ). I use the ring finger in the case where a 7th is needed in the A shape bar chord.
Marc