Howdy! I’m attempting a song that has a B barre chord played at the 7th fret and instead of barring across the strings I want to just do a semi/half barre where my (1) finger is just barring the bottom two strings (B, E). My issue is I can’t seem to get enough pressure to properly get the high e string to ring out. Maybe some people just do it that way anyway and leave it muted? Any tips for a better grip? None seem to help so far but it just may be I need to build more strength since it feels so odd to me. I have no problem with the full-barre chord. Thanks!
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Welcome to the forum Ashton
You can barre as many strings as you need to get e string to ring out. So try barring 3 or 4 using more than just the first knuckle. Or you can fret the full barre chord and just play the e B G D (A optional) strings. You can also play the A shape barre chord with the index finger barring the D G B at the 4th fret and use the pinky on the 7th fret e string.
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Hello Ashton and welcome to the Community.
Justin teaches this grip within a lesson on ‘F chord cheats’ and calls it the mini barre.
The key to the grip is having your fingers arrive from a slightly angled position, not perpendicular to the neck.
See this pic.
Justin’s thumb is behind the neck as this is part of the beginner course. Long-term your thumb can go higher and, ultimately if you’re able, wrap around and grab the low root note on the E string.
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Welcome to the community! The only thing I would add is to consider a gentle pull from the arm. Justin mentioned this somewhere, but it helps such that fretting finger pressure isn’t all from squeezing at the hand. It also has the effect of pulling a little more on the higher (thinner) strings so augments the pressure on the b and e strings.