Bar Chord improvement - through exercises or repertoire?

[BB FX]

Help!

I have been playing for about 2 years now, recently I have become interested in some pieces with bar chords, i.e. Adelita, Leyenda (partial bar on the 4, 5 and 6 string).

I have some technique books with bar chords exercises that I have yet to try.

I only have about 1/2 hr to an hour everynight to practice, between my scale, slur and arpeggios exercises I have only a small amount of time for the actual pieces.

So my question to the forum is; What is the best way to improve my bar chord technique
given my time constraints?

[dap22]

Hey BBFX,
The barre isn't ever any fun doing! Luckily, in Adelita, the barre's are not too bad. For practicing the barre, I really don't know what kind of special excersises would be done to make a barre, aside from just practicing the barre and understanding how far you need to extend your finger to play a full six string barre in all positions without buzzing.
One helpful practice technique would be as follows: Play a C major scale in first position. Now, use the same scale pattern, but create a barre on the first fret (obviously this changes the scale to a C# major position) but continue playing the same pattern but move it up on all the frets up to the ninth position. This allows you to practice holding a barre on many different registers on the neck and also on all six strings and also you will be using movement from all your other fingers in fretting the scale pattern. I find this very helpful, and will certainly improve your accuracy in setting down the barre, and should improve your confidence and strength when doing barre chords.
Learning Adelita by Tarrega and Leyenda by Albeniz at the same time is not something I will comment on, except mention that the level of difficulty on both are on exact opposite sides of the spectrum and I do not reccomend it, but hey, to each his own...only that Adelita is fairly simple and leyenda is quite complicated...yikes! Well, good luck with learning those pieces, they are both incredibly beautiful.
In parting thoughts, being that you only have a half hour up to an hour to practice each night, progressing will be extremely slow and not all that effective. You take out the time it takes to warm up, then the barre excercises, and there is hardly any time to play the new pieces, let alone, rehearse old repertoire. If you want to go the distance, you have to put in the time. Guitar, as with just about everything else, is not somethign that comes easily without putting in lots of dedication and time.
Well, hopefully in time your time constraints will open up, I understand with work and school it may seem difficult to get in those extra hours, but you just gotta do it sometimes! Good luck on the barre, I hope that the excercise I described helps you in beccoming better at doign the barre!

Best of luck,

Doug.

[M. Stephenson]

There is a really ggod book that has a good discussion on barre chord technique:

THE NATURAL CLASSICAL GUITAR: Principles of Effortless Playing by Ryan Lee
http://www.boldstrummerltd.com/classical2.htm

It is mostly a book of discussion with little to no excersises.

Understanding of the mechanics of the barre chord will go along way in helping you achieve your goals.

I really like Leyenda and had the great fortune of learning it with the help of a very good instructor (who recommended the above book to me). It took me several months to get my hands into shape - for about six months I could not play the song all the way thru without my hands giving out. I have been playing it for about 1 1/2 years now and I am still learning about it. I am adding thumb reststrokes, a techniques that has been very challenging but very rewarding.

[cdikland]

If you want to practice barre chords you should ask yourself the following and make it the objective of the exercise.
How little pressure/tension do I need to apply when barring and still make all the notes ring out cleanly without any buzzing??

Essential reading: Check out this post by Dave Markle.
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=003755;p=1#0000 00

Considering your time constaints, I would practice barring using actual compositions. Part 1 of Adelita is good. Most find that barring on the 5th-7th fret is somewhat easier than barring the first, second, etc. If barre chords are new to you I would avoid part two of Adelita for now. The barres in conjuction with the ornaments are not as simple as it sounds when played by an experienced player. For a real workout, try part 2 of (Spanish) Romance-Anonymous. It's a killer...

[BB FX]

Hi All,

Thanks to each of you for taking the time to reply to my e-mail, the information and advise each of you provided is very much appreciated

regards

BB FX

p.s. sorry for the mis spelling of barre

[Marcos]

here's a little trick i do. (some people tuck the guitar closer to the body when they practice this) try practicing barres in the upper frets and mid frets by laying your finger over the strings, and taking your thumb off the back of the neck. In my opinion part of the pressure used in barreing comes from the upper body itself, not just the finger.

[DDague]

Perhaps you might practice your arpegios (Guiliani, Pujol, etc) while going 12up and back; barring only the top 4 strings to isolate the activate leveragers, also keep the finger from hooking (you should be able to look at your LH and see a straight pointer)