The bane of a rhythm guitarist, one of the last chords to tackle - the Bb barre chord - 14441x. I was recently playing a song at my local church and there was plenty of Bb in there, but it wasn't a Bb piece. Normally for that key I will put a capo at 1 and play it in A. I'm not a fan of capo at 1, it bends the strings sharp, sounds out of tune. So sometimes I will put the capo at 3 and play a G. But that only works if you want a lot of treble in your playing - your lowest note now is a G.
It's just that laying down and A chord shape with 2-3-4, and then with your index finger underneath catching the Bb bass note but still letting the top F sing, it is a slow and inaccurate chord. Many years ago I started doing that with my pinky to fret the notes that make up A and then slip in my index finger for the barre chord. This works great for me, it is a fast manoeuvre and I have enough backwards bend in my pinky to still let the top F shine through. It comes at a cost though; it is a lot of strain on your pinky. I have talked about my poor pinky before.
There are some other variants of Bb, for instance 1444xx which is easier to get to, but I find without the bass note it sounds hollow. The other resort is E shape barre chord at 6, the price of that is being slow to access so far up the neck and can sound out of balance - too high - if all the other chords are open. That's a high Bb on top when you are playing 667886! Just mute it can work, or make the Bb pop as a feature.
So after practising the song at rehearsal I had already worn out my pinky, and from experience it is around a week and a lot of self myofacial release involved. On the day I popped some paracetamol, and played 667886 for Bb more than I normally would.
Bb. You are a pain. Literally.
