can someone please tell me how to do a bar chord that has 3 fingers in the one fret? like a 'C' bar chord (3rd fret) I know there must be an easier way than using the 3 fingers in the one fret! I hope that makes sense!

It makes perfect sense carpony and the answer is to use only your little finger instead of your middle, ring and little finger to fret D4, G3 and B2 at fret 5 while you 'Grand Barre' at fret 3 with your index finger as usual. Written fretwise it looks like this: 335553 which tells you which strings are fretted where, assuming left to right E, A, D, G, B, E standard tuning. The fingering would be 114441, 1 being index, 4 being your little finger. This fingering also works for all the other barre chords that call for the "A shape barre" up and down the fretboard. Hope this helps, any questions let us know.

GuitarZen

I learned these chords by the name of "slant chords" dont know where the name came from.  But anyway I found the best way to play these chords was:  (1) index finger barring E6, A5, and E1 (3rd fret) and (3) ring finger barring D4, G3, and B2,  (5th fret).  Hence leaving fingers 2 and 4 free to get into whatever trouble ya may want to cause.  I find it made it easier to change to the Am based barr forms and the Maj7 barr forms with ease.
Oh and by the way the above described form is a C chord....

jim

...secret: don't play the E1-string(!), so it becomes a two-finger chording: index-finger at fret 3 across A5-thru-E1 strings (in gran barre fashion) and then ring-finger at fret 5 across D4-thru-E1 strings (in barre fashion)...but the E1-string is NOT played!

when i play an A maj shape barre chord like C maj, it's still x35553 (notice the E1 string is muted?) this is because the lowest not of the chord should be the root note, in this case C, but my fingers are generally x13331, its easier because the end of that finger is the perfect length for that chord in my case, though i have long skinny piano players fingers so it may be a little different for you

...while you are certainly correct in that the "...lowest note of the chord should be the root note...", in reality, this is NOT a hard-and-fast rule and is seldom followed, because:

(A) chord inversions (ie: starting chord on 3rd or 5th or 7th notes, instead of Root)
(B) chord fragments or partials (very common in jazz)
(C) polytonal chords (ie: C6 = Am) where "C" or "A" notes could be root depending upon either 'Key Signature' or 'passing tone' usage.
(D) chord substitutions (very common in jazz)

...in short, now-a-days, the lowest chord note isn't always a Root note anymore.

Use Index finger to Barre 3rd frett then ring finger to barre 5th.
This also strenghtens the fibres in the ring finger and leave other fingers free to arpegiate.

Hope it helped!