Improbable chord

[Joe Strummer]

I can’t say it is impossible, because I just watched James Hill do it while playing Georgia. He does a barre on the second fret, a scrunched partial barre on the third, and uses his ring finger on the 4th. Ouch. Any tips for getting this?
3
3
4
2

 

[ripock]

I can do it the way you describe if I angle my finger diagonally. However the easiest way for me to to barre the 2nd with my middle finger, barre the 3 treble strings of the 3rd fret with my ring finger, and use the pinky on the 4th fret.

 

[ripock]

what the heck is that? A7b5?

 

[rainbow21]

When I started, a number of instructors/pros demonstrated a nice reverse bend of the finger knuckles. They all said work on it slowly and it will come just like it did for them. After a few months, with this making my arthritis worse and little or no progress being made, I realized that they were all decades younger and likely more flexible to begin with. I stopped forever.

So my work around is to play the bottom three strings only as a x433 chord. Sounds fine and my fingers are happy.

 

[Jim Hanks]

Are you sure? 2433 would be AEGC simply Am7. Why such a complicated voicing?

 

[don_b]

Are you sure? 2433 would be AEGC simply Am7. Why such a complicated voicing?

Maybe it’s a flex.

 

[Joe Strummer]

It is particularly tricky that he doesn’t provide guidance on how to barre the chord. Maybe it is an intentional puzzle. The voicing is partly for melodic purposes. I think it is also because he uses similar 3 note clusters at the bottom of the chord in other places, like
x
2
2
0

There’s a really interesting chord he notates as D9 voiced as
7
5
6
0

There’s a lot of dissonance in this piece that somehow ends up sounding gentle. It reminds me a bit of Debussy that way.

 

[John Colter]

Old age, surgery and arthritis have compromised my left hand. When I want to play Am7 in that region of the fretboard, I use 0453. Not a moveable chord but I find it very useful.

 

[Voran]

I can't barre any chord to save my life, but now I want to try this out of curiosity...

 

[Joe Strummer]

It is in James Hill’s Duets For One book. I’m an intermediate uke player, and I’m able to play all the other chords. Thanks for the excellent tips on getting this barre chord! I should be able to get it with some practice.

 

[Canada Jim]

I treat 2433 (AEGC) as an inversion of a C6, but it has the same notes as an Am7. I don't play it as a barre chord, but play the 2nd fret/4th string with my index, 4th fret/3rd string with my pinky, 3rd fret/2nd string with my bird and 3rd fret/1st string with my ring.
Of course you can obtain the same notes (in a different order and some in different octaves) by playing all strings open 0000 (GCEA).

 

[ripock]

now that I know which chord we're talking about...I use this shape a lot and here's what I do: I barre the 2nd fret with my index by covering the treble strings and muting the G string with the tip of my index and then I use my pinky to get that high note on the 4th fret. It is a rootless chord but it sounds good in the context. The up-side is that I can form this shape in a twinkling of an eye whereas if I play all four strings it takes me a bit of time since I cannot hyperextend my distal phalanges and have to fret the chord with separate fingers.

 

[merlin666]

I love the gm7 shape but on most ukes I would not use a barre at all but use a finger for each string with pinky reaching up to the C string. However, when I just played on my KoAloha concert with a fairly narrow neck I can also press the E and A strings with the middle finger and the index finger flattens by itself though of course pressure is only needed at the tip.

Though I don't think I would use it as am7, cause I prefer to use it in key of F as a slide from Bb6 to C with G string open.

 

[don_b]

It is in James Hill’s Duets For One book. I’m an intermediate uke player, and I’m able to play all the other chords. Thanks for the excellent tips on getting this barre chord! I should be able to get it with some practice.

i got past freight train and i saw the light but georgia was too much for me i guess! any ideas on a different one in that book that would be a little more at the level of the first 2? Maybe I'm just not into that song. I initially bought it because that cover he does of Here Comes The Rain Again is incredible to me, I could take another crack at that one. I fell off when I switched to Low G for a while but your boy is back again with the High G for a month or two now. Any ideas would be great!

 

[rainbow21]

Change the 2433 to 0453 as an option. These are the exact same notes as the g string goes from an A to a G note, and the E string goes from the G to an A.

Same notes in a different order.