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Okay, so I've been trying to practice barre chords, and I know it should come with time and practice but after two weeks no matter how I adjust my index finger I can't get my e and/or B string to vibrate and instead get that nasty little "plunk" sound instead (or the horribly grating vibrating strings but that I can help).

Tips for finger placement, anyone?

yea. it took me... two weeks of practice to get the full sound. barre chords annoy me... but yes, practice a lot and you'll have it.

I've been keeping at it and its still not going much anywhere, but mind you I've only had a guitar for about 2 months now and only recently delved into barre chords. I'll see if I can find someone in the music dept. at the university to help me, because almost every song in the world requires a barre-F to sound right and the power-chords just don't sound the same.

One more thing, did you change the the strings on your guitar yet? If they still have the strings that the guitar came with, then most likely after 2 months of heavy use they might be corroded or rusted( not shiny anymore) this can make it harder to play, and if you are changing the strings you might want to take the opportunity to change to a lighter gauge, probably xtra lights if you are still just starting out. As you get stronger with practice, then you can change to a heavier gauge.

Also you can check the action like I said before, a quick check to see if you are ok, is if you hold down fret 1 & 12, and check to see if the neck is bowed, there should be little to no space between the frets and strings, this tells you the neck is straight. If it is not I would get a guitar tech to look at it you may need to adjust your truss rod, don't try yourself if you have never done it you can really mess up your guitar. And do this only after you have put new strings on, if you change gauges then the action will change.

You can just play an open F...No barring required:

1
1
2
3
-
-

It's the exact same chord...You're just not playing the top two strings. You still get all of the necessary notes without it sounding like a power chord.

Barre chords have a specific key (They have more notes). For most rock, you don't need them. But if you go into any genres outside of rock you see a lot of them.

Barre Chords are made up of same notes, just a fuller sound. Trouble sounding all notes clear, make sure thumb position is correct on back of neck, most newbys tend to cradle the neck too much, put the tip of thumb to center or lower side of neck

I feel that the (well I'm probably terming this wrong) kind of strings that are still steel but are more stretchy or something, are easier to play them with.