F Chord (Update)

LukinFan

I am having the toughest time with the F chord. I've tried all three ways and either I'm not fastest enough switching to the chord or it doesn't sound as clear as the other chords I play. The barred F chord (barring the entire 1st fret) sounds the closest, but it still doesn't ring out how it should IMO. Any tips?

Update:

BinFrog wrote:

More often than not I don't even play the note on the A string, and keep F to the top 4 strings. It also makes switching to G or C (or Amin) really simple.

Well, this weekend I had a breakthrough of some sorts. It's a cheat F, but I have a variation down that is getting easier to switch to - and the best part is, it sounds like an F!

It's a form of what BinFrog suggested. I'm barring the whole first fret with my index finger (but mainly concentrating on the top two strings - B and E) and then my middle finger is on the G string, 2nd fret, and then finally my ring finger is on the D string, 3rd fret (where my pinky should be). I only strum the top four strings, leaving my pinky to just hangout. I know it's not the proper F chord, but it seems to work and make me feel a lot less frustrated. I guess I'm just not fast enough on switching to the F chord yet, using all 4 fingers - and it sounding good. I figured this could hold me over while I keep practicing the full barred F chord. For some reason I can't do a mini-bar with my index finger, so that's why I tried using the full bar.

Does this make sense?

And thank you again for the suggestions and kind words.

mccreadyisgod

Okay, you have to promise not to tell anybody, but I've been cheating on the F chord behind its back for years.

What I do (most of the time) is play:
e--1--
B--1--
G--2--
D--3--
A--3--
E

---

You finger this modified version of F very similarly to an open-C, just adding the pinky on the D string, moving the index finger down to the G string, and barring the B and lil E with the index; alternately, finger an open-E, then move those fingers up one fret and barre the B and E with the index finger. Regardless of how you approach it, you are essentially cheating by not barring the whole 1st fret.

If this chord is too high-pitched, and you need to accentuate the low F note, then do the opposite, power-chord style:
e

---

B

---

G--2--
D--3--
A--3--
E--1--

You can use both of these chords interchangeably, using one versus the other for effect (higher-pitched and bigger vs. the power of that low note).

DewieCox

Somebody can probably give you better advice(I see somebody probably already did), but I always thought c chord for my ring and middle fingers on the d and g strings and flatten the index for for the b and e strings. Far as barre chords...I always thought they were a bitch til I made sure I was playing with the right posture. Sitting up straight with my "guitar leg" crossed is most comfortable for me.

I "cheat" even more than mig...I play
d3
g2
b1
e1

when I'm just messing with a tune with the chord chart.

All Those Yesterdays

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Okay, you have to promise not to tell anybody, but I've been cheating on the F chord behind its back for years.

What I do (most of the time) is play:
e--1--
B--1--
G--2--
D--3--
A--3--
E

---

I typically do this in place of all barr chords. just sounds better to me..

LukinFan

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Okay, you have to promise not to tell anybody, but I've been cheating on the F chord behind its back for years.

What I do (most of the time) is play:
e--1--
B--1--
G--2--
D--3--
A--3--
E

---

Thank you. Yeah, I've tried it this way too and it sounds even worse. Not sure what I'm doing wrong

RedMosquito22

Definitely a hard chord to get right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=755CdzvXp8E

gimmesometruth27

i had all kinds of trouble with the f chord, and bar chords in general because i have small hands and i had a pretty bad left pinky fracture in high school.. when i was learning i never had the range of motion and dexterity in my pinky until i had been playing for a long time. the way i learned bar chords was to start high up on the neck, around the 12th fret and work on them as well as changes to other shapes there. over time i gradually moved them down he neck, like the 9th fret, then the 7th, then the 5th, and eventually i was able to get it on the first fret. i have enough strength and dexterity now that i don't have any problems. as a mainly rhythm player i pla the f as a bar chord unless i am playing it open as an arpeggio or something.

LukinFan

RedMosquito22 wrote:

Definitely a hard chord to get right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=755CdzvXp8E

this was the same video I used to "learn" the F chord. Mine just do not sound like Justin's

LukinFan

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i had all kinds of trouble with the f chord, and bar chords in general because i have small hands and i had a pretty bad left pinky fracture in high school.. when i was learning i never had the range of motion and dexterity in my pinky until i had been playing for a long time. the way i learned bar chords was to start high up on the neck, around the 12th fret and work on them as well as changes to other shapes there. over time i gradually moved them down he neck, like the 9th fret, then the 7th, then the 5th, and eventually i was able to get it on the first fret. i have enough strength and dexterity now that i don't have any problems. as a mainly rhythm player i pla the f as a bar chord unless i am playing it open as an arpeggio or something.

maybe I'll try this - I guess with more practice it will become easier.

LukinFan

DewieCox wrote:

Somebody can probably give you better advice(I see somebody probably already did), but I always thought c chord for my ring and middle fingers on the d and g strings and flatten the index for for the b and e strings. Far as barre chords...I always thought they were a bitch til I made sure I was playing with the right posture. Sitting up straight with my "guitar leg" crossed is most comfortable for me.

I "cheat" even more than mig...I play
d3
g2
b1
e1

when I'm just messing with a tune with the chord chart.

I'll try this one too when I get home. A really appreciate all of the advice from everyone. The F chord has beyond frustrated me to where at times I just want to put the guitar down- which I hate because I do truely love to play it

RedMosquito22

LukinFan wrote:

RedMosquito22 wrote:

Definitely a hard chord to get right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=755CdzvXp8E

this was the same video I used to "learn" the F chord. Mine just do not sound like Justin's

Mine don't either. hahahahahahaha

LukinFan

RedMosquito22 wrote:

LukinFan wrote:

RedMosquito22 wrote:

Definitely a hard chord to get right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=755CdzvXp8E

this was the same video I used to "learn" the F chord. Mine just do not sound like Justin's

Mine don't either. hahahahahahaha

ha - but I bet they sound a lot closer to mine!

chorduroy

The F chord is usually the chord which gives beginners the most difficulty. I used to avoid songs back in the day! But after practice like anything else it's now a piece of cake!
Couple of tips for the F barre chord...
- Is your guitar setup properly...how's the action? That F Barre chord on the first fret can be made more difficult if your guitar isnt properly set up...maybe the action is a bit high making you exert more force to fret the chord?
- WHen playing the F Bar chord, roll your index finger slightly toward the nut and use the side of your finger rather than the flat part of your finger

When playing it like 33211 or 3211 - both positions work
- freting E and B on the 1st fret with the index finger is usually the toughest part. Try angling your index finger slightly, like come down at a 45 degree angle as opposed to fretting the E and B straight on. It actually feels a bit more natural IMO. Hopefully this makes sense, it can be tough witout an image or a demonstration.
- again, high action can make this chord (and any chord) more difficult to play
- with continued practice you'll get it...repetition is key!

BinFrog

LukinFan wrote:

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Okay, you have to promise not to tell anybody, but I've been cheating on the F chord behind its back for years.

What I do (most of the time) is play:
e--1--
B--1--
G--2--
D--3--
A--3--
E

---

Thank you. Yeah, I've tried it this way too and it sounds even worse. Not sure what I'm doing wrong

More often than not I don't even play the note on the A string, and keep F to the top 4 strings. It also makes switching to G or C (or Amin) really simple.

LukinFan

chorduroy wrote:

The F chord is usually the chord which gives beginners the most difficulty. I used to avoid songs back in the day! But after practice like anything else it's now a piece of cake!
Couple of tips for the F barre chord...
- Is your guitar setup properly...how's the action? That F Barre chord on the first fret can be made more difficult if your guitar isnt properly set up...maybe the action is a bit high making you exert more force to fret the chord?
- WHen playing the F Bar chord, roll your index finger slightly toward the nut and use the side of your finger rather than the flat part of your finger

When playing it like 33211 or 3211 - both positions work
- freting E and B on the 1st fret with the index finger is usually the toughest part. Try angling your index finger slightly, like come down at a 45 degree angle as opposed to fretting the E and B straight on. It actually feels a bit more natural IMO. Hopefully this makes sense, it can be tough witout an image or a demonstration.
- again, high action can make this chord (and any chord) more difficult to play
- with continued practice you'll get it...repetition is key!

Thanks for the feedback! I recently took my guitar in to get checked out and it was a little off, but that was before I started learning the F chord. I have tried rolling my index finger for the full barred chord, which in result does sound better, but I think I'm still a little off. I'm going to try the 45 degree angle thing though when I get home - maybe I'm off there

LukinFan

BinFrog wrote:

LukinFan wrote:

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Okay, you have to promise not to tell anybody, but I've been cheating on the F chord behind its back for years.

What I do (most of the time) is play:
e--1--
B--1--
G--2--
D--3--
A--3--
E

---

Thank you. Yeah, I've tried it this way too and it sounds even worse. Not sure what I'm doing wrong

More often than not I don't even play the note on the A string, and keep F to the top 4 strings. It also makes switching to G or C (or Amin) really simple.

So you don't play the A string at all? Interesting. If it works and you get the same sound out of it, maybe this is something I can try. thank you!

BinFrog

LukinFan wrote:

So you don't play the A string at all? Interesting. If it works and you get the same sound out of it, maybe this is something I can try. thank you!

I also often have the advantage of playing with someone who usually plays the bassier formations of chords. But this ay of playing F is technically correct. It won't be as full as playing all 6 strings, but it sounds like a simple open chord and it's easier to get to and move from.

rollings

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Okay, you have to promise not to tell anybody, but I've been cheating on the F chord behind its back for years.

What I do (most of the time) is play:
e--1--
B--1--
G--2--
D--3--
A--3--
E

---

You finger this modified version of F very similarly to an open-C, just adding the pinky on the D string, moving the index finger down to the G string, and barring the B and lil E with the index; alternately, finger an open-E, then move those fingers up one fret and barre the B and E with the index finger. Regardless of how you approach it, you are essentially cheating by not barring the whole 1st fret.

If this chord is too high-pitched, and you need to accentuate the low F note, then do the opposite, power-chord style:
e

---

B

---

G--2--
D--3--
A--3--
E--1--

You can use both of these chords interchangeably, using one versus the other for effect (higher-pitched and bigger vs. the power of that low note).

Well now that you mention it, just because you cheat on F, who says you can't cheat on all the chords going up and down the neck, so long as you avoid playing the low E string (and on the lower-pitch versions the two high strings) ??? :shock:

rollings

chorduroy wrote:

- WHen playing the F Bar chord, roll your index finger slightly toward the nut and use the side of your finger rather than the flat part of your finger

. Try angling your index finger slightly, like come down at a 45 degree angle as opposed to fretting the E and B straight on. It actually feels a bit more natural IMO. Hopefully this makes sense, it can be tough witout an image or a demonstration.

being a weakling woman & stuff, I have never been able to play any barre chord (including the open F) with fingers "flat on"....

Playing an accoustic, I always have to fully contort my left hand at angles to get the necessary strength to smoosh down all the strings. When I play the barre C and D (at fret 3 & 5) my middle finger and pinky automatically piggy-back down on my first and 3rd fingers... Like friends helping out because they have nothing to do otherwise.

I just played and looked at my hand. It looks like a contortionist...but I get all the tones, even the fully formed first position F chord.

Should I do a little video of this circus act?

gimmesometruth27

Rollings wrote:

chorduroy wrote:

- WHen playing the F Bar chord, roll your index finger slightly toward the nut and use the side of your finger rather than the flat part of your finger

. Try angling your index finger slightly, like come down at a 45 degree angle as opposed to fretting the E and B straight on. It actually feels a bit more natural IMO. Hopefully this makes sense, it can be tough witout an image or a demonstration.

being a weakling woman & stuff, I have never been able to play any barre chord (including the open F) with fingers "flat on"....

Playing an accoustic, I always have to fully contort my left hand at angles to get the necessary strength to smoosh down all the strings. When I play the barre C and D (at fret 3 & 5) my middle finger and pinky automatically piggy-back down on my first and 3rd fingers... Like friends helping out because they have nothing to do otherwise.

I just played and looked at my hand. It looks like a contortionist...but I get all the tones, even the fully formed first position F chord.

Should I do a little video of this circus act?

haha, yep

chorduroy

[/quote]When I play the barre C and D (at fret 3 & 5) my middle finger and pinky automatically piggy-back down on my first and 3rd fingers... Like friends helping out because they have nothing to do otherwise.?[/quote]

I hear ya, it's like some magnetic force field at play. You try to intervene and seperate them, make them more independent but they dont cooperate, they start shaking and always return to their comfort zone. Now that I think of it I've had friends like this except in their case the comfort zone was their parents basement!

Post up a vid of your circus act..

LukinFan

Rollings wrote:

Should I do a little video of this circus act?

PLEASE!

LukinFan

BinFrog wrote:

LukinFan wrote:

So you don't play the A string at all? Interesting. If it works and you get the same sound out of it, maybe this is something I can try. thank you!

I also often have the advantage of playing with someone who usually plays the bassier formations of chords. But this ay of playing F is technically correct. It won't be as full as playing all 6 strings, but it sounds like a simple open chord and it's easier to get to and move from.

Cool- I'm going to try this out when I get home. If I can get this one down, it will at the very least be a good stepping stone

rollings

LukinFan wrote:

Rollings wrote:

Should I do a little video of this circus act?

PLEASE!

Alright very soon I will, Friday night is coming up fast
break out the cotton candy

LukinFan

Well, I'm home and tried out a few things and it sounds even worse than before. If I'm either barring the whole first fret or just the B and E string - the strings that I'm barring sound like shit. I give up

Edit: I know it will take practice - it's just very frustrating because there are a lot of songs that I would love to learn how to play that use an F. Thanks again everyone for the advice

rollings

LukinFan wrote:

Well, I'm home and tried out a few things and it sounds even worse than before. If I'm either barring the whole first fret or just the B and E string - the strings that I'm barring sound like shit. I give up

Edit: I know it will take practice - it's just very frustrating because there are a lot of songs that I would love to learn how to play that use an F. Thanks again everyone for the advice

Don't fret.



AHAHAHAHAH

sorry

mccreadyisgod

Rollings wrote:

Well now that you mention it, just because you cheat on F, who says you can't cheat on all the chords going up and down the neck, so long as you avoid playing the low E string (and on the lower-pitch versions the two high strings) ??? :shock:

If I had done that 15 years ago, I would have made a few million dollars as a member of the Presidents of the United States of America. And the joke back in the day was that Kurt Cobain only really used 3 strings on his guitar.

I think that almost every guitar player has cheated with the so-called power chord (or 5th chord; A5, C5, etc). In reality, the 5th chord is just the root note plus the 5th in that scale, which is usually the lowest 2 or 3 notes in a barre chord. If we eliminated this chord structure, we'd have to eliminate whole bands, if not genres.

I know where the OP is coming from, definitely. I had moments when learning guitar that something just would not click. Once you get past that moment, where you have that breakthrough, it will feel like you've made a 3-month leap in your learning process. But if you only focus on the things you're already good at, you'll never get better. Keep working on the F chord as part of your practice routine (definitely not all of it) and use every cheat possible until one works.

The full-on 1st-fret F chord is the hardest, because it requires all of the strings be fretted at the lowest point on the neck, when the break angle from the nut is the greatest. That's why chords around the 12th fret are the easiest; they're furthest from both the nut and the bridge. That's also why people have suggested getting the action looked at. If your nut is too high, that would make the F chord that much harder. It's one of the reasons that really cheap instruments (not suggesting that yours is, just making a general statement here) will make any person quit learning. Guitar takes a good deal of finger strength, and nobody comes into guitar playing with that strength already. You've gotta learn finger control, build up callouses, learn the notes and structures, figure out music theory, just like every other instrument. But if the action is bad on the guitar you're using, then you are much more likely to quit. Whenever I'm at a music shop, and I see a proud parent buying a $100 guitar for their kid as a present, I want to scream. I've actually approached people and talked them into a $150 used guitar that plays like butter; most of the time, they look at me like an idiot or a zealot. But I know that in 3 months, that brand-new $100 guitar will be sitting in a closet, worthless, and the parents will wonder why. [/rant]

pearljam7

Heres a curveball F

e
B. 10
G. 10
D 10
A. 12
E. x

LukinFan

BinFrog wrote:

More often than not I don't even play the note on the A string, and keep F to the top 4 strings. It also makes switching to G or C (or Amin) really simple.

Well, this weekend I had a breakthrough of some sorts. It's a cheat F, but I have a variation down that is getting easier to switch to - and the best part is, it sounds like an F!

It's a form of what BinFrog suggested. I'm barring the whole first fret with my index finger (but mainly concentrating on the top two strings - B and E) and then my middle finger is on the G string, 2nd fret, and then finally my ring finger is on the D string, 3rd fret (where my pinky should be). I only strum the top four strings, leaving my pinky to just hangout. I know it's not the proper F chord, but it seems to work and make me feel a lot less frustrated. I guess I'm just not fast enough on switching to the F chord yet, using all 4 fingers - and it sounding good. I figured this could hold me over while I keep practicing the full barred F chord. For some reason I can't do a mini-bar with my index finger, so that's why I tried using the full bar.

Does this make sense?

And thank you again for the suggestions and kind words.

chorduroy

Top 2 strings are actually E and A....assuming this is what you meant then that's not an F chord as your missing a C note to complete the chord. F chord is the notes FAC.
You could play an Fmaj7 which is like this:
3210.....3 is F....2 is A...1 is C...0 is E.....if you fret the 0 you get an F which gives you the F major chord. If you play that enough your index finger will eventually want to fret the high E string at the first fret!

DewieCox

chorduroy wrote:

Top 2 strings are actually E and A....assuming this is what you meant then that's not an F chord as your missing a C note to complete the chord. F chord is the notes FAC.
You could play an Fmaj7 which is like this:
3210.....3 is F....2 is A...1 is C...0 is E.....if you fret the 0 you get an F which gives you the F major chord. If you play that enough your index finger will eventually want to fret the high E string at the first fret!

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