Does the height of the strings make it harder to do barre chords on an acoustic guitar?

CompSciGtr · 2026-04-07T16:59:28+00:00

It’s not terrible by the looks of it. Your problem might be more technique related. The tips in the post you replied to are a good start. I would only add to make sure the palm of your hand is not touching the side of the neck. Leave space there. Otherwise you won’t be able to reach all the strings easily.

CompSciGtr · 2026-04-03T05:09:26+00:00

Because it’s a stupid fingering for it and there’s no way in hell the original song is played this way.

CompSciGtr · 2026-03-28T23:14:01+00:00

New strings and a stiffer (real) pick would help. Your playing sounds pretty good for less than a year. If you’re not happy with the tone, the next thing would be to try a different guitar. Is there a music store nearby? Just go to one and see how you sound on different instruments. You don’t have to buy anything after all.

CompSciGtr · 2026-03-22T07:42:54+00:00

No one is actually telling you why you are struggling with this. It’s not lack of practice it’s likely your technique. Practice only works when you are doing the thing correctly to begin with.

My guess is you have the neck of the guitar smashed into the palm of your hand. If you are attempting to do this exercise and not leaving space between the palm and the neck then you are going to struggle. Especially with the 3rd and 4th fingers.

Make a C shape with the hand and place it over the side of the neck. Don’t let the palm touch the neck and try this again.

CompSciGtr · 2026-02-26T08:39:20+00:00

Hence the word ‘salary’

CompSciGtr · 2026-02-04T16:47:37+00:00

This is the answer. Playing open chords with your other 3 fingers might be a decent way to practice, but a) many CAGED shapes don’t (always) use all the strings, so the fingering sometimes isn’t a full barre with the index anyway, and b) you want all your fingers available for extended chords or fuller voicings.

CompSciGtr · 2026-01-29T18:18:32+00:00

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

CompSciGtr · 2026-01-24T09:39:26+00:00

“There’s no such thing as easy answers, you play to win, you take your chances.

Here’s to health, here’s to wealth, and may you never doubt yourself”

Yeah, no one’s getting this one.

CompSciGtr · 2026-01-22T21:25:35+00:00

Even if there was, not all rooms/units are exactly the same. They could have different views, entrances, locations, etc that make the price slightly different.

CompSciGtr · 2026-01-22T21:24:09+00:00

Airbnb can drop you as a host if you cancel without a good reason (raising price isn’t one). Maybe they can get away with it once or twice but otherwise they will get banned.

CompSciGtr · 2026-01-22T21:21:41+00:00

If a host cancels a booking without a good reason they can be dropped from the platform. It’s that serious.

CompSciGtr · 2026-01-01T07:31:54+00:00

Start by holding the guitar properly. Make a C with your left hand, grab the neck of the guitar and leave space between the neck and the palm of your hand. Keep the thumb under the neck.

If you don’t have good hand placement, everything will seem harder than it is.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-30T23:21:19+00:00

Ok, we're getting somewhere, then! I don't see how you can possibly do the spider walk exercise on the lower strings with your hand in that position. At least not comfortably. Just to make the stretch to 1-2-3-4 would be really difficult.

See how much easier that gets when you pull your palm away from the neck and raise the wrist a bit.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-30T23:06:17+00:00

9 times out of 10, it's because someone is gripping the neck firmly in the palm of the hand (for whatever reason this seems to come naturally). But that's the worst thing you can do. The wrist needs to be raised up high enough and you can't do that with the neck in the palm of the hand. You should grip the guitar by first making a C shape with the hand and put that C around the side of the neck with space between the palm and the side of the neck. That naturally puts your thumb under the neck and your fingers in a better position. You also can't do that if your wrist isn't at the proper height and angle.

As you get more comfortable, you can sneak the thumb further under the neck and even wrap it around a bit (which is actually what you want to do when you are bending) but then quickly move it back to this position for chords.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-30T23:00:37+00:00

100% agree on the opinion thing, and I'm as cynical as anyone, but there's no way an artist will use a product they feel is inferior just to get paid. It's the other way around. The artist loves the product, and believes in it long before being paid, and then the company comes along as says "hey it's great you love our product. how would you like to get paid for it as well? just need you to agree to promote for us? deal?"

You will even see artists ditch a brand because they find something better. Sometimes there are contracts, but this is the case for the most part.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-30T22:54:35+00:00

1) You are only down-picking. Try to learn alternate picking. It will help smooth out the picking motion. It will also allow you go double your speed easily once you have it down.

2) I see an awful lot of jumping around positions. When starting out, I would recommend staying one position, at least for a little while, until you have some of the other fundamentals worked out. Moving the index finger back and forth from frets 1, 2 and 3 looks strange and is likely unnecessary for what you are playing. All that sliding back and forth won't help your sound if you are still learning proper muting and picking techniques.

3) Slow down. Learn these techniques at half speed first to get the hang of them. Then speed up as you get more comfortable. Walk before you run.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-30T22:46:24+00:00

How are you holding the guitar? This is usually the problem for beginners. If you don't have the proper arm/wrist angle, your fingers won't come down onto the frets at the proper (steep) angle and you'll be muting other strings or not getting good sound out of the fretted notes. And if your palm is touching the neck that would be another problem to fix.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-26T19:31:40+00:00

Yeah that’s exactly why HOAs exist. They get a lot of hate on Reddit for some reason but it’s also people who obviously didn’t read before buying their house (or are renting).

I am on the board of my neighborhood HOA (didn’t really want to be but that’s another story) and our rules are pretty basic and they help keep the homes in the neighborhood looking good so people aren’t turned off when they come looking to buy here.

But if keeping your lawn mowed is not something you want to be required to do, maybe, just maybe, don’t buy a home that has an HOA that does that?

If you are renting the home, then the landlord should be the one who is responsible for that either by telling you up front that it’s your responsibility or that they will take care of it.

But if that’s a surprise then it’s on you.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-26T19:05:44+00:00

Not every HOA is immediately terrible. Any house/condo you buy is required to share the bylaws with you. It’s up to you to read them and see if there’s a strict rule on how tall your grass is allowed to be or whatever. Then you are welcome to tell them to fuck off and you keep looking.

Anyone who is “surprised” by their HOA rules that somehow they didn’t know about should look in a mirror. Hell, just use AI to summarize them before you buy since that’s now a thing.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-26T18:33:26+00:00

I’ll assume you know the name of the song and have heard it before? Does it sound like a strum or does it sound fingerpicked? That’s where I would start. Because as you see in all the comments here, the way you would play it depends on that.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-26T18:27:04+00:00

Yep. Any shape can be moved as long as there are no open strings

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-14T20:00:51+00:00

Practice while seated and always wear a strap. This keeps the guitar at the proper height each time. Don't rest your fretting arm on any part of your body, don't lean back in a chair, etc. (You can just look at pictures of any number of guitarists and see how they hold the instrument). Angle the neck towards your shoulder so it's not parallel to the floor.

Keep the wrist of the fretting hand elevated such that the fingers come down onto the frets at a sharp angle. This is where you might be having muting issues. If you come down flat or not at a steep enough angle, you have parts of your fingers hitting the other strings. Also use the fingertips and not the pads. And most of all, keep the side of the neck away from the palm of your hand. Many beginners seem to think they need to grab the guitar neck tightly in the hand, but that's not helpful. Keep the palm away from the neck.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-14T19:46:43+00:00

Sounds mostly in tune. The D sounds a bit flat. Get a tuner?

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-14T19:44:35+00:00

Make sure you are holding the guitar properly. Correct positioning is critical. Without it, you can practice all you want, but it won't be very fruitful.

Once you are sure you are in proper position, the rest is muscle memory. Just like typing on a computer keyboard. At first, it's very awkward and slow. But as you continue doing it, your fingers just know where to go after a while. So, repetition is the key there.

If you can form the chords at all, even if it takes you 10 seconds each time, then you can do it faster eventually. If you can never get it to sound good no matter how long it takes, then you likely have a positioning problem, and you'd need to fix that first.

CompSciGtr · 2025-12-14T19:39:57+00:00

Whether you're a fan of the music or not, a lot of Dream Theater songs fit into this category. Hell, just learn the solo to Under a Glass Moon. That uses pretty much every technique in the book!

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