I scared myself when I realized after years of playing guitar that I was incapable of playing 6-string barre chords (minor) and have all strings ring out (string 3 in particular). I am positive that I was able to do this before. The sad thing is doing something like F minor, it’s crucial to have the minor third (G#) ring on the G string.
On all minor chord shapes that use the basic minor barre (133111, 244222, 577555, etc) it would either faintly buzz or mute out. I know all the tricks to remedy this: keep my index finger straight; to turn my finger to the outside; reposition my thumb for better leverage. But this wasn’t helping. I have the strength, but it seems my finger is too shapely with joints and muscle that the gaps are too distant to secure the string to the fret.
I was relieved to find out something else was contributing to this- I had a D gauge string on my G string position. I went for my acoustic guitar which is tuned appropriately with the correct strings and I was able to play minor chords with success. Another method I tried (with the high tension string) was to scoot my index finger farther up the fret line (moving the fingertip away from the guitar) and that removed the dead spot with mixed results (probably a good solution if I practiced). The funny thing was that I remember subconsciously seeing the buzz of the G string after putting it on and trying out a few chords. I’ve had it on there a while and never paid attention to my playing. This has probably taught me to pay closer attention to my playing (especially that chords have all notes resounding properly), to change strings to the right gauge instead of putting on spares that I want to be rid of, and to be grateful for functional digits.
