NIXON YOU DOLT!!!!!: If I hold a wrench for more than about 3 minutes, I end up damn near in tears from the cramping.

Well, It is difficult to play bar chords on a wrench.

NetOwl: It could be a coincidence that a lot of my favorite stuff to play is in a minor.

On my budget I can only afford chords that are flat or diminished.

You'll notice "vagina" was nowhere on the list of things he found.

CptnSpldng: What do you call a guy who like to hang out with musicians?
A drummer.

What do you call an inverted 6-9 chord?

When the root of the bass is in the mouth of the soprano.

FitzShivering: NIXON YOU DOLT!!!!!: emonk: After spending 15 seconds on a guitar just now, I find that singing in C is easy and fun.

And singing in A is, like, work.

Also, barred F is easier to do than open A because I have big fingers.

But that's just me.

I can't bar a chord to save my life. Something farked up in my hands...I do NOT have the grip strength.

If I hold a wrench for more than about 3 minutes, I end up damn near in tears from the cramping.

Any fark MD's care to tell me what's wrong with me?

I'm sure other people have answered, but I'll throw in my guess. First, I have the same cramping problems that you do. It's not wrist strength, it's that when I try to use my hands for something like that, it causes the muscles to go haywire and cramp up. Probably related to a muscle condition in my family, but who knows.

That said, I can play bar chords on a guitar for about ten hours straight with no issues.

I'd say it's highly, highly likely that you're pressing way too hard on the bar chords. As with almost any chord on the guitar, if you are positioning your fingers correctly (see note later for correctly), you don't have to use very much pressure at all. Make a bar chord as you currently do, but slacken your hand so that you feel almost no "strain" in the shape you're making. Press down as lightly as you possibly can. Play the strings. Keep trying that, pressing harder each time, until you first get a semi-clear chord out of it. Practice using that lightness.

Other things you really should look at (btw, if you're a guitar pro, forgive me for saying some obvious things):

1) What type of strings are you using? Try switching to extra light strings.
2) Is it possible the strings on your guitar are set incorrectly? If you find yourself having to regularly push down hard (or squeeze tightly to make a bar chord), it's quite possible you need to get your guitar adjusted. While some people can prefer high action, if it's giving you trouble, look at getting th ...

You just reminded me, the Bel-Ray method can help with this, too: The rock 'n' roll death clutch is a bad way to grip a neck, however popular it is. Instead, place your thumb on the back of the neck, and leave the rest of your hand free for fingering: don't throttle the neck, but lightly pinch it instead. This is a difficult adaptation if you've already been using the popular but inefficient choke method for awhile, but the benefits are worth it. And it may also feel effete to you -- maybe some of your friends will even laugh at you -- but you don't see a lot of people laughing at masters like Robert Fripp who use it all the time.

gilgigamesh: Looks like he discovered the ubiquity of the I - IV - V chord progression in popular music.

Alert the media.

You mean what every first year music student learns in music theory?

Shocking, isn't it?

Next they'll report that certain post 1900's musicians have branched out into I, V, vi, iii, IV, I, IV, V

/I'm getting a kick out of this thread because for my senior project back in 1997 I wrote a computer program that would analyze 8 measure samples of J.S. Bach's music (condensed to piano score) and then write variations on that.

mekkab: Most guitarists can't even keep all their frets in tune. To B-modal.



/drummer

Mekkab's heart was full of hatred

A. Good country key.

/Chicken wire?

Someone should tell The Axis of Awesome

You know...for songs...

ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha: I actually like the site, except most of the artists/songs seem to just be what happens to be popular now. If he expands the data base it could be useful.

Add in The Police. Andy Summers instantly farks everything up.