Eighth Notes and Barre Chords
Greetings. As I'm moving forward at almost 3 years of Guitar, these are my two biggest objectives. Eighth notes, because some songs seem to call out for it, and Barre Chords, because some songs cannot be played without them. Thinking out loud with all this eighth note and Barre Chord practicing, and here are some thoughts. Input from the Fam and Nate and Chelsea are most welcome!
Eighth Notes
1- A song is listed with a BPM of 120 (such as Video Games by Lana Del Rey that I posted in my Performance thread) and I played it in eighth notes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me, it sounds fine playing it at 80 bpm, since it's eighth notes. Do I really need to play songs at the listed BPM when I'm using eighth notes??
2- Conversely, if a song is listed with a very high BPM, which for me is 140 to 160, quarter notes seem to suffice. Not to mention, is it really possible to play high BPM songs with eighth note if you're not Chet Atkins??
3- Slower BPM songs need eighth notes more than faster BPM songs.
Barre Chords
1- I'm getting the Bar down first, then adding the shape. Does that suffice, or is the ultimate goal getting the entire shape down at the same time, as with an Open Chord??
2- Is it even possible to get these three and especially four finger Bar Shapes down at the same time??
Great comments from everyone above!
Here's one little trick that Nate has challenged me with in the past when I was learning a new chord shape: If there's a particular part of the chord (certain fingers) that I'm always putting down first, I will start practicing that chord by doing the opposite and putting the rest of the shape down first. So for bar chords, if I'm putting the bar down first every time, I can try changing it up by putting the rest of the shape down first and then the bar. Eventually that gets me to where I can put the whole shape down at once. Hope that helps!