The F Chord Lesson on JustinGuitar

After four years, I still have problems with F and with barres in general. I have very skinny fingers, with a fairly wide proximal knuckle joint and no finger meat between my distal and proximal joints. Anyone with advice on how to build finger meat? Do I need implants? :wink:

I have been practicing the full F barre chord for about 3 weeks now and making progress. I understand from this lesson that this is only an intro to barre chords and if I am not mistaken, barre chords won’t be covered again until the intermediate level.

For the song practice for this lesson I have been practicing House of the Rising Sun. Today I checked out Justin’s utube on this song and he does not use the full barre F and instead uses Fmaj7.

I am wondering if songs like House of RS which use mostly open major and minor chords do not use a single barre chord in the mix for practical purposes (ie playing and performing the song).

And secondly, in the lesson I am only using the barre F for practice purposes?

Is there an example of a song that would use a single barre and all open chords otherwise?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Try this one - https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/bobby-mcferrin-don-t-worry-be-happy-chords-tabs-guitar-lesson-sg-135

Try Dancing in the dark - Springsteen. Or Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac. For full F. Both on the App.

The next bit for is power chords…:grinning:

Or this one https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/johnny-cash-hurt-chords-tabs-guitar-lesson-bs-611

Hi Attila,

I’m not sure if barre chords won’t be covered again until the intermediate level. Maybe someone else can comment here.

Regarding example of songs where you can practice the barre F:
in Justin’s song recommendations for module 10 you find a couple: https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/songs-for-module-10-bg-1010
And if you then take a look into the discussion of this module, there are many more: Songs For Module 10
And in this thread you find even more: How do I find songs with the F barre chord?

Hope this is not too overwhelming now… :smiley:

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The song actually uses the “mini” F chord which is quite common in songs rather than a full barre chords, from the lesson tab

image

Not sure if Fmaj7 would work in this instance if you played it finger style that open e may sound a bit off.

:sunglasses:

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Or this one https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/david-gray-please-forgive-me-chords-tabs-guitar-lesson-bs-601

Oasis - Don’t Look Back in Anger

Well technically two but it’s F and Fm which is just lifting one finger off from the F barre

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I’m giving the F Chord a workout via Don’t Look Back in Anger! Fun tune.
The F Chord is still a work in progress and although slow it is coming along.
I’m trying to hold the face of the guitar more vertical. Tempting to lean it back to see your fingers but this also introduces more angle.

8Feb24 - still F chording! Re Don’t Look Back Am-E-F progression … We all appreciate there is a lot of muscle development going on in the F Chord process. Try middle, ring, little on Am-E, then the F is relatively set. Just a short term step, but it may help strength and confidence.

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@wiredforsound Kevin, I’ve thought about it and the only thing I have thought of other than taping some split rubber tubes or pipe wrap between your knuckles, is to get a tight fitting leather or rubber glove and cut off all the fingers except the first finger, for which you would just cut out the fingertip for using the first finger with other chords. This might let you play barre chords, but I make no guarantees. Hope you find an answer.

I had a bit of a breakthrough with my barre chord practice last night. I have quite fleshy fingers, and I was struggling on the the high a and e strings. No matter how much force I used, the notes were either muted or buzzy. I’ve been discovering that more force ≠ better playing.

I’ve been using a tip I got from @LievenDV to practice at the 5th fret, where the action is more forgiving. That was working, and i was able to take that and move up the frets, all the way back to F. But I couldn’t just nail the F if I went straight there.

So I was looking at my hand and realized that if I thought of my finger as sweeping (or squeegeeing) the string to the fret! And viola (:wink:) my fleshy finger was an asset, not a hindrance.

I hope this helps anyone who’s struggling with their barre chords.

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Good for you Eric small victories is what it all about.
Have to correct you on some guitar terminology
The A and E strings are low not high strings. It goes by pitch not where they are from the floor. Same with A at the 5th fret to F at the 1st fret. It’s going down the neck as in down in pitch.

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I meant B and High E :sweat_smile:, but I take your point of keeping consistent with up and down as in pitch.

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Thanks for sharing this, Eric. One never knows what visualization will help tackle that nasty F. I’m going to give this imagery a try!

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Oh man, muting the B string has been killing me on the the F barre. I will have to try this.

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Is it strictly a matter of the amount of pressure on the strings (mashing the pee poo out of them) to get them to stop buzzing with this chord?

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Welcome to the forum Liz
Are you rolling your finger over slightly like Justin suggests or are you laying it flat?
If you need to put that much pressure on the guitar the strings are probably sitting in the creases of your finger around your knuckles. It could also be your guitar needs a set up.
Try playing the F chord at the 5th fret(this is and A chord).
Pay attention to where the strings lay under your index finger.

Hi Liz @Rogcharb,
Rick @stitch gave you good advice. I’ve been working on this for quite a while now, and still Eric’s recent observation above helped me think about fretting that barre differently. In this case, I think the visual is what helped. Keep at it, keep trying different things, and stay patient!

One thing I’m always fighting against is pressing TOO hard on the strings. It strains my hands, my wrist, and my shoulder. I try to go back and practice my open chords as lightly as possible. Then, try the same with your barre chord, maybe on the 5th fret. Get as close to the fret as you can, that will help the buzzing.