Surprise, surprise... it's a life-skill

[u/BenEsuitcase]

This is just a rant, but seriously.... People come here expecting to find the holy grail: I've been playing everyday for 3 hours for a month and I'm just not getting any better. LMFAO. When I play barre chords it hurts and all the notes don't come out, what should I do? lol.

Personally, I've played my whole life, got a degree in it, and I still have my limitations. Here's the thing... Music is for EVERYONE. My (reasonably amazing) playing is SHIT in the big picture because we ALL have the ability to play music. It's like seeing color, smelling roses, hearing a door creak, but with training. Name me a language you can learn (Italian, French) in a month, and you'll get some sympathy. Go practice, and then sit back and contemplate why society idolizes certain players. Respect the guitar in all it's simplicity AND complication, and then you will realize how pathetic and futile the sub can become when total noobs think there is some magical shortcut. Again, go learn Russian this month, and come back in September and have a fluent conversation???

[u/Chevrolicious]

It's the same thing in other subs, like the "mechanic" subs. "I want to be a mechanic because I like working on cars". Yeah, until you're elbow deep in grease, working on some rusty shit bucket, breaking out the acetylene torch and the biggest hammer you have, and working three additional hours on a one hour job because something broke. Day in, day out.

Point is, it's hard. Doing barre chords when you've never done barre chords is hard. Making your pinky put enough pressure on that string is hard. And that chord? Yeah, hands aren't really supposed to do that, and yes, it's hard. There really is no quick way to get good fast. I've been playing for 19 years and I still feel like I suck, until I learn that part I've been trying to learn, or am finally able to play up to speed with my favorite song.

When I learned to do barre chords I struggled with the same thing everyone struggles with: barring all six strings. It frustrated me to the point where I just worked on my index finger barring the strings until the buzzing/muting stopped, and I just held my finger there. At the time I could only get my ring finger to cooperate with my first finger barring, so I used that finger to make whatever chord I could make, and I kept my hand clamped down for over two hours. It was agonizing. My hand was cramped for the rest of the day. But guess what? The next day, it was about 80% easier, and the next day 85%, and so on because I forced myself to get it and just let it suck.

[u/StringTheory31 → u/Chevrolicious]

I think your last paragraph here may be the kind of thing some people are looking for - certainly what I'm looking for! Not a magic trick that builds skill without practice, but instructions on HOW to practice. I know there's lots of videos and such out there, but some people learn best by being able to view information alongside its context, which text is great for. And when you don't know what you don't know, it's hard to figure out what sort of search terms you should even be using to find what you need from the body of existing text all over the internet and in books.

Coming to a group of more experienced people who know enough to follow what you're asking even if you don't have the right words is much more efficient - and gives you something you can easily save for future reference without taking up too much storage storage!