Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Good night Mr Fujita , hope you are all good, first of all ; Thanks a lot for your effort on the videos, it has been a really good experience learning from them, and I think its one of the best online learning experience in my life.

My name is Juan , and im taking the first lessons.

I would like to ask a technic question about barre chords; form mi finger is really difficult to make the minor 3rs with the root at 6 string it just sounds muted (hope I explain myself correctly) , I don't know if its the anatomy of my finger or is it a bad positioning of the finger; the string gets like exactly on the joint of my hand to make sound the minor 3r; and im struggling a lot to make it sound to the point my fingers and hand hurts, is there any exercise to gain strength or is there a maneuver to make it sound?

Blessings , and thank you Mr Fujita.

Hi Juan,
Good job on your super-duper smart decision to learn from Tomo! I wish I knew about him when I started.
If you are learning on an acoustic guitar, barre chords can be a little tougher to play cleanly.
Remember not to expect too fast. You are making great progress.

Kurt

Hey Juan, welcome to Guitar Wisdom.
I'm in the same boat – the boat named dear-barred-chord-please-be-gentle-to-my-hands :)

This year I have improved a lot. Although there is still a long way to go, at least it feels less scary for me now, so I'd like to share my own experience in case it helps.

First of all, DO NOT learn from all the YouTube videos saying the key is to strengthen your index finger and thumb like a strong capo. I tried those, going through painful exercises every day for one or two months. All I got was frustration and some muscle inflammation.

Then the chromatic scale practice Tomo recommended helped me tremendously. It made me realize how much unnecessary force I could remove. Once I became more efficient, playing barre chords became approachable.

What came next, and what I’m still working on now, is triads. A barre chord is just a triad plus a root note, a higher note, and sometimes an extra 5th, so the core is that triad. Once the core triad is formed, we just add the index finger on top for those other notes. So I feel the ease of playing barre chords is directly related to my ease of playing triads. Yes, playing barre chords at this stage is still quite an effort for me, but it has become reasonable.

In sum, please take your time. Enjoy, and don’t worry. :)

It's wonderful to meet you, Juan! Thank you so much for introducing yourself. What a great question! Good job being mindful of how you practice - Pain is a signal, and you are listening.

Tomo, Kurt, and Yen shared wonderful advice. You can think of the chromatic scale like exercise. When you first start, it may feel challenging and you may feel a little sore, but your body soon adapts to the training. If you are consistent, you'll notice a difference in a few weeks.

Hope this helps! Please keep us updated :)

Thanks a lot !!!! to all

GW - Left hand pressure control - D Bm Em A - DMaj9 B-7 E-9 A13 etc...

Thank you.

Tomo