I watched Neil's response in the last TG live, but I think seeing my hand position will get me a more detailed answer. (I hope)
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES Barre Chord discussion
Andy, I think you would benefit from having the fret board higher, allowing your arm and wrist to be in line. Right now you are bending your wrist quite a bit and with the strength required to make a bar, I am pretty sure that is why have some pain in your wrist.
My 2 yens
Marc
My 2 yens
Marc
Andy,
With what part of your thumb do you apply the squeeze? If you apply with the lower part, the big glob of muscle at the base of your thumb on the palm side will contract. If you apply the force through the top part of your thumb, it must travel through the sore parts you described. Try applying force to the neck with the tip of your thumb arched backward off the neck and see if it still hurts.
I also agree with Marc's comment on bending the wrist.
Dan
With what part of your thumb do you apply the squeeze? If you apply with the lower part, the big glob of muscle at the base of your thumb on the palm side will contract. If you apply the force through the top part of your thumb, it must travel through the sore parts you described. Try applying force to the neck with the tip of your thumb arched backward off the neck and see if it still hurts.
I also agree with Marc's comment on bending the wrist.
Dan
Andy,
I have nothing to add except that I get the same pain in that exact spot also. I thought I was just getting old, but maybe I need to look closer at my barre chord position. I thought just getting the barre down first was hard for me, now....
Bob
I have nothing to add except that I get the same pain in that exact spot also. I thought I was just getting old, but maybe I need to look closer at my barre chord position. I thought just getting the barre down first was hard for me, now....
Bob
Thanks for all the comments so far.
If you notice at the end of the vid, I drop the neck. The camera is actually shooting from higher above than the neck and so it looks lower than it is. It might still be too low. At the end of the vid when I let the neck drop, you can see how far it goes down to 'level'.
If you notice at the end of the vid, I drop the neck. The camera is actually shooting from higher above than the neck and so it looks lower than it is. It might still be too low. At the end of the vid when I let the neck drop, you can see how far it goes down to 'level'.
Andy- I think your hand position is just fine. That slightly curved index finger position has some advantages because it allows you to put more pressure on the bass strings and on the first string.
This works fine for a normal barre chord. Where you will get into trouble is when you need a note(s) on the D,G and perhaps the B strings in the middle of the barre. This occurs in Romanza at the 7th fret and is a real killer for me. It also happens a lot in Windy and Warm. The middle of your index finger, by being curved, means you are applying pressure on the A-B strings in the middle between the frets and not as close to the fret as possible. Most of the time you will get away with it but not always. It will put a real premium on the height of the action on your guitar.
I think a straight index finger is probably desireable because your finger forms a "knife edge" with more even pressure applied right at the fret. This is the more classical position.
But like you said, you are getting nice, clean tones with the major E and minor Am barre shapes so I wouldn't sweat it too much. Just be aware that some songs may be pretty tough to barre the way you want to!
Personally, I don't think you have much of a problem but Neil may feel differently.
Good luck buddy! :cheer:
This works fine for a normal barre chord. Where you will get into trouble is when you need a note(s) on the D,G and perhaps the B strings in the middle of the barre. This occurs in Romanza at the 7th fret and is a real killer for me. It also happens a lot in Windy and Warm. The middle of your index finger, by being curved, means you are applying pressure on the A-B strings in the middle between the frets and not as close to the fret as possible. Most of the time you will get away with it but not always. It will put a real premium on the height of the action on your guitar.
I think a straight index finger is probably desireable because your finger forms a "knife edge" with more even pressure applied right at the fret. This is the more classical position.
But like you said, you are getting nice, clean tones with the major E and minor Am barre shapes so I wouldn't sweat it too much. Just be aware that some songs may be pretty tough to barre the way you want to!
Personally, I don't think you have much of a problem but Neil may feel differently.
Good luck buddy! :cheer:
HI Andy, My tuppence worth. Now I'm not sure whether your complete position is due to getting a decent camera angle but I would say if not, then you need to raise your left arm up and not lean the elbow against the top of your thigh, this restricts the amount you can rotate the hand round to get the barres, also I believe the thumb should always be opposite the barre finger as if you are squeezing something between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the index finger, which in my opinion should also be as straight as possible. The low arm position restricts movement and as such places extra strain on your wrist at the point you experience pain.
I had been looking at my thumb and fingers all this time and my wife just asked me to try it. So she tried to bar the F and I noticed right away that thumbs despite being called opposable are not actually opposite any of the fingers.
Touch your thumb to each of your fingers and notice that it will not be face on face to any finger. Its actually at an angle for each of them. the way I've been playing is I angle my thumb so that it is face to face with the index finger. That means it is angled about 45 degrees of the neck. The slight sideways motion of the thumb when not angled is enough to actually bypass the muscle group at the base of the thumb.
After a bit of research....
Notice in the purple circle in Fig 1 there are tendons connected to the back of the thumb which travel down to the wrist where they emerge from a casing. The area where they are inside the casing is the area under consideration.
Touch your thumb to each of your fingers and notice that it will not be face on face to any finger. Its actually at an angle for each of them. the way I've been playing is I angle my thumb so that it is face to face with the index finger. That means it is angled about 45 degrees of the neck. The slight sideways motion of the thumb when not angled is enough to actually bypass the muscle group at the base of the thumb.
After a bit of research....
Notice in the purple circle in Fig 1 there are tendons connected to the back of the thumb which travel down to the wrist where they emerge from a casing. The area where they are inside the casing is the area under consideration.
