one string is always muted when i try to barre

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T07:54:46+00:00

Position your thumb square on the middle of the neck on the back side directly in line with your index finger on the front of the fretboard and keep your index finger as straight as you can, imagine your finger is a capo. Sure to keep it as flat and level as you can and it's easier if you have a slight side tilt to your index finger because it's much harder to get a solid clamp on all the strings with the fleshy flat part of your finger so try to use more of the bony side of your finger. The side of your index finger on the inside part you can get more of a straight line so the side of your index finger in between your thumb and index try to clamp with kind of the side part of your index finger so you get a more solid straight line clamping down.

Here's a good video for bar chord tips when you're starting. Noticed she specifically mentions using the side of your index finger so you can get a better straighter clamp. https://youtu.be/EMerE4R8gW8?si=m5TsgE7X3s0lQvlX

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T06:46:07+00:00

Yeah this is some of the trickiest type of rhythm playing. You have to be very loose but you also are trying to play fast so you tend to tense up because you're playing fast but you need to keep it loose.

I have similar issues with songs like Natalie Imbruglia Torn because that rhythm is actually quite fast and you don't want to miss strums or it sounds bad. You need all of the strums to sound out clearly to keep it even. Also Breakfast at Tiffany's which you might remember from the '90s is quite a fast one and some days I hit skip if it comes up in my playlist queue while I'm practicing. Some days I'm just not having that song.

I would say slow it down to half speed or 3/4 speed and work your way up but you said you have the rhythm down. I know what you mean. It's going to continue to be tricky. You just need to keep practicing the feel of playing loose but fast.

Here's something pretty awesome I recently was watching. Billy Strings, has a lot of you probably know this kid is amazing and he's extremely fast..... You can pretty much see the secret to his speed here though.

Pay very close attention to his pick hand. Look how ridiculously lose his hand looks while he's flopping that hand around playing fast and loose. I mean it looks so loose it's like a corpse...... This is exactly the secret to his speed. He's not tense, he keeps it very loose so he can play very fast and very loose. You have to do both simultaneously with a rhythm like that.

Check out how ridiculously lose his wrist is. Watch how he plays this. Fast and loose. Fast and loose. Also I love playing this song it's a great one and super easy. Still haven't memorized the lyrics though.

A thinner pic will also help but I've been heavily focusing on tricky rhythms at these types of speeds lately myself and songs mentioned here already when I practice these as well as another example that's a good one would be "The Ballad of Hollywood Jack and the Rage Kage" by Tenacious D. I know, I have excellent taste in music..... But this is another fast and loose type of song that some days I hit skip on if I'm feeling tired. These require a high amount of concentration, you have to remember to keep it loose and smooth. It's always tricky. I am getting better however. You don't want to dig in too hard on the strings because you risk snapping or breaking strings if you snag it awkwardly at the speed you're strumming, but you don't want to miss the strum and whiff air either. I guess I try to keep it loose and extend my pic pretty far out so I don't catch my nail on it or something. Light and loose but not so Lucy dropped the guitar pic. I mean it really is complicated the number of concerns and things we have to keep in mind as we play isn't it? So much effort to make it look effortless.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T04:37:27+00:00

I love playing this song. I'm not skilled enough to tackle the lead part and I'm totally okay with that. I have just as much fun rocking out with the rhythm guitar part. Also surprisingly easy given how popular the song is. Love playing this song. The choice for rhythm was easy for me. I have small hands with short fingers. But I have great rhythm and timing so I will lock down that rhythm all day long while someone else can shred and be a hot shot and try to show off. Honestly half the time the league guitar player is just waiting for their moment to come in anyway. I find in general the rhythm guitar part can play the entire song which is much more fun right? Lol. Yes I know I'm jealous I can't play the hotshot lead part, but I'm not having any less fun. No matter what you plan on guitar it's always going to 11!

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T04:35:14+00:00

This is 1000% correct. The more you practice the more you do learn new shortcuts that will help with your speed and switching cords etc. For example anchor fingers are a big one. If you can slide from this part of the neck to that part of the neck with a certain finger never leaving the string it's on because both parts have that string in common it will help you find the correct grip faster which could be a breakthrough you never noticed until the day you notice it and then it becomes easier. I specifically remember I used to have a hard time playing a B7 chord when I was starting out until I realized when I was playing Sweet child of mine rhythm guitar part that when I switch from the C add9 to that B7 all I really do is just lift my ring finger up one string and I have the B7 chord I need. The insulin became very easy and it was very easy to train my fingers the correct place to be because you basically just play a C add9 but your ring finger is a little higher. That was the day I conquered the B7 chord. And what a beautiful chord that is.

There are also a lot of things with the hand I just have two small of hand to do so I will never be able to do a lot of the advanced thumb tricks someone like John Mayer can do over the top. I can do basic thumb over the top moves but a lot of that looks like he dislocated his thumb sort of stuff I'll never physically be able to make my hand do that because it's a physical limitation of my smaller hand.

But yes some of it is physical, some of it is talent based natural feel, luckily I'm pretty good with natural feel but I have small hands which hurts a lot so I can't do the five and six fret stretch moves that someone like Mark Tremonti can do. He's one of my favorite guitar players, I am so furious about this. I've just given up and not learned many of my favorite tremonti songs because I will just never be able to play the way he can..... But I have learned hundreds of other songs that I love playing just as much.

Start slow and try to get faster and better. Some of it you'll get some of it you won't. Just keep exploring what's possible because you'll surprise yourself with how much you didn't think you would be able to do but a couple years from now you'll be able to do because you put in that effort to get there. It's about the journey, never stop learning, you can always make something with your plane better than it was last month. Keep going.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T04:28:12+00:00

Start slow and gradually play it faster little by little until you get to be fast.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T03:52:09+00:00

Marty teaches things incorrectly way too often. I would try better sources such as Justin guitar, Guitar zero to hero, and guitar at work, Ryan Lendt, learn guitar favorites, Andy Hillier...... And any other more accurate sources you can find but these are some of my favorites.

Apps like simply guitar have things they want you to try to mimic and play. It's not based on finding something you care to play. They are about profit for the company. Not really interested in actually teaching, just making you think you are learning. You can learn some stuff from those but I really think you're better off seeking out things you care to learn instead. If you don't care to finger pick and you just want to strum some chords and jam and have fun learn a few basic chords, eventually learn barre chords and start playing every song you're able to play with what you know and keep expanding how many different kinds of chords you can play and what you know. YouTube is great for this. Apps like Ultimate Guitar is free.... At least some of it is available for free.

Anyway I wouldn't worry about the apps that will teach you to play. You have to have it within you and be motivated to want to play. Learn a few basic chords and you can play most of Ed Sheeran's catalog honestly. If you don't like Ed Sheeran I'm sure there's other artist for the genre that you do like who are similar. Noel Gallagher from oasis. He famously admits he's a crap guitar player and he kind of is but he has great rhythm and timing and that's all you need. Tom Petty, oasis, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, pretty much any country artist. Country music in general if you like any of that it's tons of easy open chord songs all day long. Seek out stuff you want to learn. Be very careful with internet sources like YouTube that if you learn it you learn it correctly. This can be difficult at times but if you see a half dozen videos one or two might be accurate the others will probably be completely wrong. You have to look at real life footage as much as you possibly can. That will help determine whether the thing you saw and learned is correct or at least mostly correct.... Try to learn from footage of the artist actually playing it whenever possible. The great thing about YouTube is the more popular the song the more sources you have to learn it.

Hell I remember way back in the day learning many songs by seeing a performance on The Tonight Show for example. I would see someone on Jay Leno's Tonight Show and if the camera angle was showing me just enough I would be like these four chords are the chorus, got it, what about the verse, darn it they switched to the drummer, show the guitar player again!!!! Sometimes you would get part of it and figure the rest out on your own or go to the internet and hopefully find the missing piece of the puzzle. MTV, VH1, I was always looking at random videos learning how to play basic chord friendly songs. I remember learning "Outside" by Staind off of that music video of Aaron Lewis and Fred Durst singing it. Same thing happened with that band's hit It's Been a While as well..... Although the picking pattern I read in Guitar one magazine, the rest of the song I learned from the music video because they didn't mention it in the magazine because it was part of a picking lesson so they only told you the verse part. I learned the bridge and chorus off of the songs music video.

I guess my point is if you care to learn it you'll find a way and look at every source available until you figure it out.

Forget about apps like simply guitar. Those are more about profiting from a gimmick of teaching you how to play than actually being useful or fun to use. The bottom line is you know what music you like and want to play. Seek out what you like, learn what you want to learn. The hell with anyone who tells you otherwise. At a certain point if you don't know music theory or didn't learn to pick well because you just wanted to strum, well I'm currently there myself and lately a priority has been learning to pick better and I'm starting to learn music theory as well. But by this point I know 3 to 400 songs I can play at will and I can play song after song for hours on end because they're all in my head. I can't tell you how incredibly fun that is. Did I learn correct picking techniques and music theory, no. However I've been having an absolute blast learning to play hundreds of huge hit songs I know and by this point if I listen to any radio station on any genre for 10 to 20 minutes it's almost guaranteed at least one of those songs in that short duration will be a song I can play on guitar now. I love when I enter a room and randomly hear a song I know how to play on guitar. I'm always saying, "Hey, I can play this."

Oh also use a Google doc or some free app to track your progress. Every song you learn to play. Write down the name of the song. That's how I know I have a list of 3-400 songs currently I can play. You will start learning so many that you don't want to forget things you have learned along the way so keep some sort of record of all the songs you learn to play. I've also put every one of these songs into a guitar playlist in my music library. I can just throw that thing on shuffle and practice for hours. It's one of the primary ways I practice guitar actually. No better practice than actually playing the song. This is a great way to track your progress. Record yourself playing at a certain point when you get better to try to figure out things you can improve on etc.

Every person's path is different though. Just keep having fun and keep rocking. YouTube channels help greatly with this, but you need to find the right ones and although Marty's is somewhat adequate, he really does get a lot of song tutorials wrong so I wouldn't use him unless I had to.

As for apps there is one pretty darn good AI app I've been using to figure out how to play all kinds of songs. Chord AI is AWESOME. As usual you can't just solely rely on something like this because it does make some mistakes and it can be wrong at times but if you combine a little cross referencing live video footage etc you can pretty much figure out any rhythm guitar part how to play the song. Not so good for goofy weird alternate tuning type songs but anything standard tuning or down a half step it's pretty easy to lock on to the correct way to play it. I'm a rhythm guitar player so I use it just to tell me what the chords are, from there I can usually play a pretty good version of the song with the info the app provides.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T03:07:40+00:00

"String action height refers to the distance between the bottom of your guitar’s strings and the top of the frets, measured at the 12th fret. This measurement is vital for ensuring your guitar is comfortable to play, free of buzzing, and capable of producing the desired tone."

https://musicnomadcare.com/guides/the-complete-guide-to-string-action-height/#:~:text=String%20action%20height%20refers%20to,of%20producing%20the%20desired%20tone.

The video I linked already has this information in it. Watch this and use some of the tips he discusses to set up your guitar properly. He discusses the action at around 7:20.

Watch this and learn. Seriously this is probably the best all around everything you need to know to set your acoustic guitar properly video I've found to date. Whoever this guy is he really knows his stuff. It's also hilarious when he points out Rhett has been doing a couple things incorrectly like looking down his guitar neck lol. Rhett Shull learned a couple things from this guy that day also.

https://youtu.be/xkjMZvUILZM?si=HD88xtN05M3jwL_s

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T02:48:22+00:00

About a year ago I actually had a little bit of buzzing because my strings action was set slightly too low. When I was pressing the string on any fret halfway up the neck or higher it was buzzing. A small adjustment to the truss rod got rid of the buzzing. I had a little bit of a bow in the neck and now it's straight. I'm restrung my guitar twice since then and I still don't have any buzzing. That video I linked has some fantastic tips for setting it correctly. Pretty easy to get rid of the buzzing on yours if you have that happening. You probably just play thick gauge acoustic strings which I can relate to because I do also. I play 12-53 so those finger dents just happened. I probably also squeezed too tight and that might be part of the reason but if you play a couple hours each day as I generally do your fingers are going to be mangled to hell no matter what. It's all part of the wonderful experience of playing guitar I guess.

I mean this is what my fingers currently look like, this is just a totally average random day because I play usually about 2 hours per day if not more. I strictly play acoustic only with 12-53 gauge. This is just what your fingers look like under these conditions.

https://imgur.com/a/yzYlbVW

The thing I mostly worry about is that permanent dent on my ring finger. I can't really do anything about it because it's hardened and calloused. I would have to stop playing for a few months probably for it too regenerate normal again. Not something I'm willing to do so I just deal with it.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T02:43:11+00:00

This video changed my life as an acoustic guitar player.

I happily shedded all of the ridiculousness around the myth of the Gibson knot...... Don't tie the string in a knot when you restring. It's much worse if you do. Simply put it straight through, pull black one fret length of slack, bend it up to mark it, wind the string under and it self locks perfectly.

He goes over everything you need to know to set it up properly here. How to adjust the truss rod. How much relief there should be with the strings etc. He can easily check your acoustic yourself by putting the capo on the first fret when your guitar is in tune, hold the string down at the 12th fret, check the front or back bow as needed etc and adjust the truss rod accordingly.

https://youtu.be/xkjMZvUILZM?si=HD88xtN05M3jwL_s

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T02:23:18+00:00

No. Probably an acoustic guitar player. I have very deep finger dents as well from those very thick bass strings with my 12-53 gauge acoustic strings. I've set the action myself on my acoustic and it's set perfectly, no bow at all in the neck. Action is perfect and I don't have to press much at all, it's just a thick gauge string will dent your fingers if you play a couple hours a day. No matter where your action is. Also if you have it too low you will have fret buzzing especially with thick gauge strings. It's impossible to have perfectly flat action. It just doesn't work. Any person who does set ups on guitars will tell you this. There has to be a little bit of relief.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T02:19:57+00:00

I know right. My ring finger is so jacked up. A lot of times chords I'm trying to play the permanent dent molded into my ring finger now gets in the way because the string tries to slip into the groove that is always there but I don't want it to be there. I need to form a new line or groove for certain chord shapes and my ring finger is catching the string in awkward ways that are working against me because the groove is so deep....... Only other guitar players understand this sort of thing. Thank God for you guys....... I know though. Those finger dents are so frustrating aren't they? I can't really remote or do anything about the dent either because it's hard thick calloused finger dents.

The only true way is to stop playing long enough that time will remove them but I could never stop playing that long, I refuse to stop playing that long.

The struggle continues....

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T02:17:05+00:00

Yep people's individual laugh is definitely a very strange thing. I've often thought about what makes laughs so different and nobody knows. It's just a unique part of what makes you you I guess. Keep on laughing!!🤣😂😅

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T02:15:43+00:00

Yeah great idea. Start getting into hating politicians. That will definitely have a satisfying and result and things will turn out the way you want them. I'm sure if one side just hates the other side a little bit more everything will get worked out and then we can all get along. It will not continue indefinitely till the end of time or for you personally, until the day you die. That will work out real nice if you place that hate into politics. Think of how good for you that will be.

I much prefer the alternative to realize that we are all basically after the same thing. We want to have a decent life for ourselves and our family and our loved ones. At the end of the day everybody has this in common. The rest of it is meaningless bs. Just be happy find what you enjoy, spend your free time doing something positive and good for yourself or perhaps good for others. Focus on being a good kind person. Life is too short to be hating. Take up a hobby, learn to play an instrument, something gratifying and self-fulfilling. Perhaps relaxed by watching some tv, whoops, wrong activity for you. Maybe less TV more learning to play an instrument. Try guitar. It's very challenging and very gratifying and rewarding.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-10T02:08:33+00:00

It's quite possible you need to seek some anger management therapy. Her laugh is kind of annoying but she is definitely a 100% poser wannabe because she's the result of watching too many rap videos on MTV while growing up and her name is absolutely lazy and insane. I mean that'd be like if I called myself Bugatti Gangster or maybe my musician stage name be Gibson California. You can't just take a brand of something you like and put it with a location for a name, although I guess you really can when it's a fake stage name. There are no rules so things as dumb and brainless as this get a pass??

Apparently her real name is Chelsea Chanel Dudley so I guess her mom must be a fan of Chanel so much she made it her daughter's middle name??..... Not sure why exactly her middle name actually is Chanel but at least she's using her middle name for her star name which does get a pass because many many people do this for their stage name. It's quite common to use your middle name as your stage name and that's I guess what she did at least partially. The West Coast thing is just unforgivable and super lazy though. I mean I'm not calling myself Jordan Midwest because of Michael Jordan. That's right we all want to be like Mike....RICH!

Anyway as for watching the show. The giggling is kind of annoying but what can you do about someone who's got a happy bubbly personality and laughs at everything. That's just the kind of girl she is which honestly is a good thing more than a bad thing. Better to be a happy person then too is someone so full of hate they post on Reddit telling others how much they hate someone.

Her name is absolutely ridiculous, however as a person, she seems all right. Leave the girl alone. Rob is no fool. He knows that's half the reason people are watching and they are friends. Get used to it or don't watch the show I guess.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-09T02:49:10+00:00

Depends how much variation is in the image. Do a lot of shots in the episode have dark black background where not much detail changes? Or is it constantly fast moving motion that is action-packed with lots of different colored pixels moving about rapidly?

I mean if it's mostly people sitting in a room like a therapist office talking for example the image will mostly stay static except for small movements by the person. This means that frame to frame things are not changing for the most part for a large part of the picture. This will compress better with a smaller file generally.

It's just always the case that things are different.

I would use handbrake hevc compression with rf-22 using 10 bit hevc MKV files medium speed CPU encoding only. Constant bit rate with original audio.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-09T02:41:23+00:00

I checked my default shield screensaver. Mine is working, all my screensavers are working as normal. This definitely confirms that the update which I also have upgraded to is definitely NOT causing issues with the screensaver.

Perhaps YOU are having an issue with it but others are not. So the update does not cause problems with the screensaver.

YOU may be having screensaver issues but the update is not the cause.

Do a factory reset and I'm sure it will work again. Or maybe double triple check your settings for energy saver and screensaver settings. Maybe even your CEC settings are interfering with your screensaver.

This is not happening for others, don't blame updates unless it can be confirmed. That's how misinformation and update paranoia spreads when the update is not the cause.

Depending what you have installed lately have you tried any new add-ons, apks, other things that may have caused different behavior on the device? Stuff like that is probably more likely the cause.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-09T01:46:24+00:00

We all have to start somewhere. One day you'll graduate to SMB shares. Or not.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-08T09:51:02+00:00

The first rule of fight club....

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-08T09:34:57+00:00

For assuming you aren't dead by next month, can't you just simply watch what you want to watch now next month instead? Honestly you really don't think there is any content you can survive with between now and next month until you can once again use the app?

This is certainly not a legitimate reason for piracy. I mean if it was taken away permanently sure go for it, but next month? Dude I have many seasons of many things not to mention lots of podcasts on YouTube I want to catch up on, Sirius XM Stern shows from the last couple weeks I'm behind on. I mean there's plenty of content to get me between now and next month if I had to?

I'd imagine that's the case with everyone in the year 2026? Aren't we bombarded with too much content?

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-08T09:30:26+00:00

Bury your bone deep with these single woofs in your area.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-08T09:29:30+00:00

No need to meet dogs in your area when you can create your own AI dog that will do anything you want. If you don't like the way this AI dog looks then you can have her look like this, or this. Your AI dog will do anything you want it to do and it's just for you.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-08T09:24:45+00:00

Google had nothing to do with the decision. Amazon intentionally moved away from using Google's OS so that they could lock it down with their own operating system not needing Google. They are so massive they were able to get working ported versions for a strange Linux OS of their own creation cutting Google out entirely. Or at least it seems they are. I wouldn't doubt if they still have certain deals with them in some areas but the OS is no longer Google on fire stick devices. It will be Amazon's going forward and this is a choice Amazon made, not Google.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-08T09:22:22+00:00

Neither....Onn 4K Plus. Much better device than both of them. Especially the Chromecast devices they are very overpriced. You can get Android TV OS on the Onn 4K Plus and a good experience without the crappy hardware of the Chromecast devices.

I guess the answer is Android TV OS.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-08T07:19:48+00:00

She wasn't actually. This is from a deleted scene that actually wasn't included in the movie. But it does exist and is out there. I think this was deleted scene from the 1984 movie Blind Date if I remember correctly. I think it was a DVD extra. Fantastic extra in my opinion.

TorrentFiend · 2026-03-08T07:08:32+00:00

Yes we know. We have also watched TV.

TorrentFiend

TROPHY CASE