Dear Dr. Guitar,

I'm surprised that my problem hasn't come up in your column yet, but I know there are many others out there with my problem. I've been told I should learn some "bar chords." Why are my current chords insufficient (I know four, so I have everything you need for any song plus a spare in case one of the others breaks)? In any case, I have a bar gig coming up so can you tell me exactly which ones work in bars? A friend tried to tell me it was a different kind of chord that involved "barring" all the strings across one fret, but I tried laying a bar across the frets (I had an old piece of rebar laying around) and found it was all nonsense.

Please help ASAP--I will be playing with a bebop band in a bar this weekend and will need some bar chords by then. (I dunno what kind of music that is, but with such a stupid name it must be pretty stupid music--I figure I'll only need one, two chords max.)

Thanks,

C.L.Uless