Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi guys. I'm dying for some help. I've heard you all talk about this but I'm missing a tiny detail. When doing any A shape bar chord my pinky is hiding behind the neck and when I go to the seven chord I'm having trouble getting there and barring it. I should be able do this by now. Any suggestions I'll take thanks guys.

Hi Serena, can you share a video to show exactly what you mean? I would say to make an overly conscious effort to prepare all fingers in advance helps.

You have tò remind tò use the side of your finger not the Palm like in a Major d in a form by the five string.but when you go at the SIX string for any chord Major minor dominat also happened tò a minor and dominant chord at the five string you have tò try tò use a Little bit the side of your finger for doing the barre.you can training whit One chord simple search One time you like and alternated some mute note also a simple progression the best Is without looking the fret.dedicated a Little time to a rithm exercise and Remember do not use strong pull you dont have tò feel pain.you have tò educated the move.time After time you can do it.sorry for my englisch have a good time

Thank you Serena for sharing your experience.

When I play open A chord. I can do choices.
1) 1st finger (so I can play D first inversions with 2nd & 3rd fingers.
2) 123 fingers
3) 234 fingers

This way you can choose fingerings with music,

Similar way when I play D open chord. I have 2 choices.
1) 132
2) 243

Open E chord
1) 231
1) 342

Depends on chord progressions.

Tomo

Hi Serena - I don't have very much flexibility in the first knuckle in my ring finger on my fretting hand. In order to play the triad that the ring finger plays on the D, G and B strings on a 5th string root A shape barre chord, I have to really move my thumb higher on the neck to play those three notes cleanly. That's one approach I take. The other approach that I use might be frowned upon, but instead of using my ring finger i'll use my pinky to play the D, G and B strings.

However, since i've been diving deep into triads, I hardly ever play full barre chords anymore. I'll play the 2nd inversion triad on the D, G and B strings with my first finger which leaves the other three fingers free to add some Hendrix type embellishments.

Theres another alternative ive seen eric clapton and john mayer use there pinky to fret the a shape barre instead of using the ring finger.

I had a go at this but it doesnt really work for me so i use my ring finger to fret the triad when playing the a shape barre

Notice in johns peformance everytime he plays c barre using a shape he frets it using his little
Finger similar to how clapton frets a shape barre chords when hes playing layla acoustically

notice how John uses pinky to fret a shape barre chord when he plays c chord

Thank you for sharing!

Tomo

You guys have all been awesome. perhaps I was not fully clear with my question. I will try to make a video this week.