hi lol. trying to learn barre chords now, otherwise i'll be stuck on strumming all day. its hard for newbies, lol, so anyone any tips on playing or learning the barre chords?

Hmm... this question has been asked gazilions times on this forum.
If you do some digging you will find previous threads about the same matter.

Yoroshiku~

I tried an excercise that a band player told me to do to be able to barre ant it worked for me!! :)
For example start with the F chord. Place ure finger on the fretboard for the F chord and then hold the guitar vertically so that the guitar's weight is supported by ure fingers doing the F chord on the fretboard. Make it so that the fingers dnt slip at all ant retain the F chord position. Hold the guitar as far as you can go. Do this excercise the more possible..whenever u have ure fret hand free :P lol
Try to practise strummming the F chord after having done the excercise for some days.. If it doesn't sound good..continue practising..
U can move on to other barre chords then..
Hope it helps.. :)

Practice and be patient (:

It took me 2 months to master barre chords LOL

Hahaha.. So dont worry...

lol
my method was..
for YUI. for YUI. for YUI. and then, after a few days, i got it!

HUH?!?! So fast?! Wow.. :X

lol, i can do a C minor 7 barre chord now! not sure if im doing it right though lol. and im still really slow. think i'll try that exercise djwongtf used.

yvonneleung, you sure u mastered it in just a few days?? thats really quick. or do u mean u can play them with some success after pressing down hard for a long time

well maybe i was A LITTLE exaggerated. but about a week. cuz i kept practicing and practicing the bm7 in goodbye days. cuz i love that song a lot, so i want to play exactly like YUI. so i practiced it EVERY SINGLEE day. but yeah.
and also, my friend taught me a way is just use your middle finger to press against your pointer to add strength on the guitar. keep practicing that and your pointer finger will start to gain strength and you can barre properly then ^^

haha, cool. i am going to practice everyday, until i can get it right. but i think i'll need to get the basics right first lol.

I'm just reposting what i did in another barre chord help threa =P

I got it in a few days too wahaha but since i practice a lot its like a few days X2

1)Most important: bar it as close to the fret as possible. yu can even just press it directly on the line ! Yu use minimum energy like that. i can hold a barre for an hour of i do that i think HAHA

2)Get it right once, then don't try anything else unless yu really need to. i turn my finger to the side since it's flat throughout there ^^ there's more bone there so the skin is tougher, making it easier (paradox? LOL)

3)Use yur thumb. By combining yur fingers and thumb, yu use half the energy! But being able to use both required writst strength. but not much realli. i'm sure yu have it ^^

hopefully these helped ^^ i practice day and night, literally i get up at 3am and play till i have to go to school. so with practice it realli helps. but yu have to practice with the correct postures and stuff, otherwise it's like practicing bad habits >:C

I'm happy because I can do barres now. Not pro like a lot of other people here, but they're correctly done and not too slow either. Gradually making my fingers faster to get into that position.

I took AGES to learn to barre since I was so reluctant to learn. I didn't think there was much of a point since there are alternatives. Showing people barre chords impresses them more than regular chords. XD

I guess all I got that helped me to learn was PRACTICE. You can't master barre chords if you don't practice. Everyday if you have enough time to do so. Finger exercises, like what djwongtf mentioned. Those things help, although I was taught this exercise (which I only did in guitar class to avoid trouble. XD):

Position your fingers (1 - 4) on perpendicular strings on one fret. The goal is to move two fingers not next to each other at the same time, without moving the other two.

finix65 really help alot, ive been using my thumb and finger together to press down hard on the strings. realised i've been doing it wrong all the time lol, barring too far from the fret.

cherii, does that exercise help at all? lol. im still doing djwongtf's exercise lol. hopefully i'll be able to play them in a few days. or months, i have a very important exam this year. if your singaporean then you'll know lol, its the GCE O level exams

Haha yu're welcome ^^ i'm sinaporea too :hee 14 though

i dunno. i think it might should help with strengthening your fingers somehow, but I think that any exercise should be fine.

Good Luck!

Interesting exercise, djwongtf.