trouble with section B of cassical gas.

[mocoffee]

Neil:
I been working on barring the "A" cord in the "B" section of classical gas and am having all kinds of trouble. Part of me just wants to simply keep on working at it and another side of me says it can't be this difficult. How can anyone want to put their fingers in such a contorted manner. When I attempt to barr the "A" cord at the 5th. fret and try to bar the "D" cord with my third finger, I just can't seem to play the 6th. string or in this case, the "A" note clean. I'm hopping their is a secret sauce you might know of that will help me play this 6 measure stretch of the "B" section. I've been working on this now for around a week and just can't get this. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks MoCoffee.

[BigBear]

Mo- there is no secret, it's just a damn tough chord shape to make. The A shape barre chord is almost impossible for many players to fret and still play the high E cleanly. Somedays I can do others I can't.

The good news is many songs don't require a clean E. I don't remember if Classical Gas is one of them.

A couple of suggestions, Neil may have others, is make sure you warm up your fingers and hands before attempting this chord shape. And work on bending your third finger backwards to increase range of motion. Obviously, don't over do it and cause pain or damage to your fingers!

I find that that the difference between playing this shape cleanly and not is a very fine line and some days it just isn't there. There is no substitute for me except practice it all the time. The more I practice the higher percentage of time I can get it.

Good luck buddy! It is never easy for most of us not gifted with slender, flexible fingers!

Cheers! :cheer:

[mocoffee]

Thanks for your thoughts BigBear.
I'll give your ideas a try. Let's see...... bend the middle finger backwards. Ouch!! That hurts.
Now for the practice, practice, practice.
Thanks again Bear.
Mo

[Lavallee]

Hi Mo-Coffee, you can look in the lesson for the alternate small bar that Neil talks about. This is what I use (or try to use ).

Marc

[mocoffee]

Thanks. I have studied the video closely and was just wondering if hand wrist position or anything else not obvious to the viewer might help when working through this section of the song.

Just the same. Many thanks.

[TGMatt]

mocoffee wrote:

Thanks. I have studied the video closely and was just wondering if hand wrist position or anything else not obvious to the viewer might help when working through this section of the song.

Just the same. Many thanks.

post a video of just your hand position of this playing the chord, if you dont want to post your face leave it out, and I may convince Neil to look at it early ...