I'd have been able to play it had it not been for you pesky Fm

1

Does anyone have a top tip on how to make a Fm chord ring out on an acoustic please?

It doesn’t matter where I place my index finger I just cannot get the open G string to ring out.

Works fine on my electric.

Thanks. :slight_smile:

2

Two ideas,

  1. Try rotating your barré finger slightly to get it on the more bony part of your finger.
  2. Try moving it slightly sideways across the fretboard (only a little bit) to see if you find a part that rings out.
    I often have this problem myself and usually find that one of those two works.
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3

That’s just one way to play an Fmin, which is an Emin shape at the first fret. A power chord as a cheater chord works well in most cases.

You also get an Fmin with a Dmin shape at the 3rd fret, and another one with an Amin shape at the 8th fret. Choose the hill you want to die on. :+1:

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4

Tune everything down a semitone. Capo on 1st fret. Practice and it will come :wink:

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5

With an E shaped F min barre, don’t you barre the G string as well to get G#? There is no open G, in my understanding.

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6

I have the exact same issue and have yet to resolve it. I was advised to try different versions, but they’re not working for me. Quickly going from F to some variation of Fm and back again quickly is beyond my abilities.

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7

I’m confused here Stefan. There are no open strings in a barre chord.

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8

When playing Fm I squeeze my barre harder and flatten my index finger. If I played all barre chords like that it would be hard, but an Fm here or there is fine. Took a bit of practice though.

The Greensleeves chord melody in grade 3 is a good one to train this, I find fingerstyle is good for honest development on if the right notes are ringing out or not! Strumming can hide them.

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9

I recall that in Justin’s lesson on E shaped minor cords he discussed using the middle finger to lean on the index finger and add pressure to help get the third string fretted properly. That has worked well for me.

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10

i noticed that no one asked about confirming the nut is cut properly. If the nut is too high it makes it difficult to get the barred strings to ring.

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11

He is referring to the note that is unfretted by another finger, a note under the barre. I think people do for convenience often refer to those as open strings even though the barre has replaced the nut effectively. I’ve heard similar reference to ‘open’ when people talking through things with a capo in use.

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12

Thank you everyone for your replies. I will give your suggestions a go and see which works best for me.

@sairfingers Gordon, @DavidP David is right, I was just referring to the string that is causing me an issue. So I guess it’s the G# that is causing the problem.

@John_in_Dot John, I think my nut should be okay. I did have a luthier do a setup on the guitar last year.

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13

Oh, I remembered one other thing that helps me! Not that I have it perfectly myself.

But I notice that the crease of my joint lands in the third string so extending my index finger less than half a centimeter up (so the tip extends a little further beyond the edge of the fretboard) helps.

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Now, I’m sure you already do this…with all my Eshape minor chords I put always middle finger above index to help the pressing.

It works for me too.

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