4 fret stretch (Barre) questions

JasonWood

Blues Newbie
I really hope this is in the right place as far as questions go. I have been playing guitar for 20 some odd years. Iv'e never been great. Picked up bass in 2004, and I've done quite well with that. Gigged a bunch, recorded some albums, and had a lot of fun! Now I,m back at some guitar work again. Which brings me to he question.

I have and continue to have trouble with a 4 fret stretch. I recall trying to learn "Every Move You Make" by the Police back in 99 or so. I had a hard time getting my piney to reach the 4th fret when in a Barre chord. Enter today, and trying to reach the 4th fret (not sure what its called, the hammer on shuffle sound with the pinky, kind of like a suspended chord) in an A7th or E7th barre chord makes for a lot of dead strings for me. I have short fingers I guess. Griff posted something about a 12 bar blues shuffle and playing along without a backing track the other day. So I tried it again. I can reach it, but my piney hags on some of the strings giving a muted sound. I can always play the chord short a few strings, but I would prefer to overcome this and be able o get a 6 string full strum out of it for a shuffle rhythm part.

Any ideas? Stretching? Voodoo dolls? New guitar? Just hire a real guitar player and stick to bass?

Thanks guys! Jason
 

jmin

Student Of The Blues
Hey Jason! I know that Griff has all kinds of instruction related to your question, but this is the only link I could find. Hopefully others will chime in with additional thoughts...voodoo dolls?!!

Alternatives to Blues in E Rhythm Riff

(I remember to trying "Every Move You Make" a few years ago and it is really tough!)
 

ervjohns

Blues Junior
Hi Jason

If you play the bar chords up the neck the frets are closer so it gets a little easier

With the blues in E I will do the 3 fret stretch on the E and A power chord but I go up the neck to do the B (V) chord

In any case just practicing up the neck might help

Good luck with it

Erv
 

tommytubetone

Great Lakes
Griff isn't big on bar chords in a band situation. He's a proponent of "little" chords, since the bass player covers the thicker strings. I've played the blues in E rhythm before and realized the bass player is playing something similar, so I avoid it. If you're the guitar player, there is no need to play all 6 strings, or so I've been told. :D:whistle:
 

Many Moons

Biking+Blues=Bliss
Hi Jason. You really don't have to play all 6 strings. I just play the 5th & 6th strings while playing a barre chord boogie. Fore finger on the root note, ring finger two frets up on the 5th string, and pinkie bouncing on and off the 5th a further two frets up. I find this really comfortable, and if you dampen the strings slightly with the heel of your hand at the bridge, it sounds pretty cool.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Stretching
This is your answer. If you have the AAP the Pentatonic Mastery course has the best stretching exercise I’ve come across. It involves crawling down the neck. It took me two years of daily practice for a couple of minutes each day but now I can do the whole neck and can do the shuffle with the pinky pretty much anywhere. If you don’t have AAP the course is worth every penny anyway so look for one of Griff’s sales.

Stretching daily should be part of everyone’s warm ups, in my opinion.

Eric
 
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