Hi Avleen, I can so much relate to your issue. We are actually sitting in the same boat. I’ve been working on the F barre chord for about 9 months already. Meanwhile, the main problem isn’t to make the chord sound clean (it took me ages to get to this stage and I’ve changed my strings from 12 to 11 gauge), but I now struggle to change to the F chord fast enough. I get the best results when changing from C to F. But all other changes I’m working on are way too slow to use them in songs I’d like to play .
But I’ve already reached a lot. So I know, I’ll also manage to reach the rest. It doesn’t hinder me to move on to the next modules. F chord changes are and will continue to be a fix part of my daily practice routine.
There are so many great songs without any barre chords. I’ve made two (long) lists with songs I’d like to learn. The one is full with songs without F barre, and the other one is filled with songs with F. Although I’m almost exclusivly working on songs from the first list, my repertoire is getting larger - slowly, but steadily .
Have you considered mastering and using the mini F as Justin calls it? mini F is the bottom half of an F chord with the higher pitch sound. I find it works well in several F chord songs and sounds amazing. There is nothing wrong with playing the mini F instead until you master the full barre. The mini F can be moved up and down the neck the same way as a full barre chord for F#- G, etc. I don’t think of it as a cheat, rather a stepping stone and many professional guitarists prefer that version all the time. For a full F, The most important part is do not put your barring finger flat. You have to kinda angle it and use the bony part of your finger. Best of luck. You’ll get it.
The breakthrough for me on the F barre was to use my right arm (playing right handed on an acoustic guitar) to pull the body of the guitar towards me, creating a little extra leverage against my fretting fingers. That enabled me to get the strings ringing out. I also discovered that due to my knobbly fingers that I need to have a small curve in my finger rather that having it straight.
I then picked a couple of songs with lots of F chord action (House of the Rising Sun and Hallelujah from Justin’s beginner song books, later adding in Fields of Gold) and I included them every day in my practice. My F barre is significantly better now (after many months) and I no longer need the right arm lever trick to get the F.
I found the mini F really hard too, but used the same songs with that and it’s getting there too.
I feel you. Getting the F chord to sound clean and ‘perfect’ is a real challenge.
However sometimes the best thing is to just throw yourself at it and play on. At times it actually sounds fine when its not perfect. More ‘human’ in a way.
Then sheer repetition will get you there.
Admittedly I’m not there myself but i still enjoy the ride.
Hope this helps!
Bruno from NZ
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