Hi Hue,
Because that would technically be not an F chord since its lowest note would become C (it’s Fmaj7/C). And the same logic applies to all E-shape barre chords when the root note is on the 6th string.
You can find more about alternatives to the basic F chord in this lesson:
@Hue If you are looking for an easy F cheat, look at the Grade 1 song video for “Peggy Sue”. At the 7:04 mark, Justin introduces an Chord cheat that he doesn’t mention in his regular lessons (at least not that I can remember). Just play the E chord and slide up 1 fret and just play the 5 4 and 3 fretted strings only. You are playing an F triad.
If you played the E chord and slide up 1 fret and then play the low F (6 string, 1st fret) with your index finger and mute the highest 2 strings (1 and 2) with your index finger, You have an F chord without the pain of index finger barre pressure. It does put you in a barre chord hand position, so you can play this up the neck where it might be easier to play and at some point in the future as you gain more experience and hand strength, you might find yourself playing barre chord with index finger pressure and playing the highest 2 strings.
Also I wanted to encourage you and say that playing the barre F should not be a barrier to playing guitar, even at a high level depending on the style of guitar you want to play. If you play in the key of G you can avoid the F chord entirely. If you can borrow an electric or a nylon string guitar, you might find that playing the F barre is less frustrating and give you some hope for conquering this one hurdle.
17 days later and I finally learned how to upload my first video and found the time to do it.
The link is: https://youtu.be/ZM795ZriEXM
Sorry that it is just a short video of strummed F chord and stuck 3&4 chords and the riff for this module to demonstrate tone on my Taylor GSmini with old strings this first time since that is all I had recorded. I promise that the next video will be a song. Maybe the next video will be a better recording since I just purchased a cheap tripod to hold my phone. This video was taken with my phone balanced on the files in a file cabinet 
Also, based on the capo on the first fret, I remember I had tuned down this guitar one semi-tone or half step as suggested in an earlier post to make it easier to play an F chord on this guitar.
Thank you for your reply, sorry for the delay in responding as I have only just read it. I find this website a maze and can not see how I get back to the page I first asked a question. It’s only today I have had an e mail to link me back to this page. How you navigate this site is a mystery to me.
Thanks again for your reply j
And even now it seems I have replied to the wrong person as I can not see what I am typing as the keyboard on my phone blocks me seeing the text. This guitar playing is really difficult when the website make no sense.
@Hue Thanks for the reply. You did reply to the right person, if you were responding to the comment on the F chord lesson. The question and response is in the discussion associated with the F chord lesson in Module 9. I also have difficulty navigating the community comments and usually have to go to the specific module page and click on the discussion for that lesson. I can also navigate by clicking on the icon for me in the upper right corner of the community website page when I am logged in. The drop down list shows all the replies to your questions and clicking on each one will take you to the correct location for the reply.
Just wondering if you found a resolution for this issue. Did you develop a callous on the lower part of your finger?
Oh boy. The F chord! I’m not psychologically equipped!
Just coming into the discussion to commiserate. I am finding the same struggles as everyone else. The B string is being stubborn. Seems like the soft part of my finger is going around the strings instead of pushing the strings. I feel like I’m squeezing too hard but I have to or strings don’t ring. The thing hurts all my fingertips and the whole length of my first finger. I switched to my electric, and its only slightly better.
I can get the whole chord to sound correctly if I put a bit of a curve into my first finger, but I think that’s bad technique? My wrist is getting bent way too much. Not only for the big F but also the F cheats. I can’t figure out if my pointing my thumb towards the headstock a little or pointing it towards the ceiling is better for the wrist, but I’m thinking towards the headstock allows my wrist to straighten. But I have a feeling that’s bad technique too?
Dunno. This is certainly making it very interesting.
Nope, honestly I haven’t had much time to play in the last month. From time to time I just pick up the guitar and play Wonderwall. 
I did talk to one of my guitarist friends who said I was doing it right, but I lack the callus. It seems it really is about the practice, but not so much about the finger placement for me as it is building the calluses. I can play it very easily on the electric now, but I still struggle just as hard on the acoustic. I actually haven’t really been playing because funnily enough I joked about pressing so hard on the back of the neck that it would break my thumb, that I actually did press so hard that I injured my thumb. It hurts to move it in certain positions.
It is indeed my problem, my fingertips have calluses and I no longer have issues pressing down on frets, but I never really thought that I would need them on the flesh of my finger, I feel like there should have been some sort of practice that should be in the lessons to build up to this point. I know in Justin’s video he said don’t worry about it and move on with the ones you can do, but I refuse to accept defeat.
The electric was only slightly better for me, but now I can do it with ease, the acoustic still gives me the same amount of trouble, and I think for now the best thing I can do is keep practicing on the electric to build up the calluses.
When my friend showed how she played the F chord, she had a curve, which is what I was finding myself doing naturally. Everyone plays guitar differently, some hands are big, some are small, you have to find what’s comfortable for you. As for my thumb I just let it sit naturally on the back as I’m squeezing with it.
Edit: I should say that the curve I do is slight, and I’m still right on all the frets. I also rotate my finger or roll it back so to speak about 5 degrees.
Hi Stacy, more than any other chord F is a really personal thing, especially how you lay your first finger for the barre, a slight curve is ok if it works imo. As for thumb position I think I slightly angle to the head, again it’s what allows you to create the right pressure.
Out of interest, how long have you been working on F?
Whether this helps or not I’m not sure, but here’s a front and back couple of photos of my F grip. My thumb is pretty “up” but the pressure is about halfway up the neck.
Oh I hear you. I noticed myself being pretty busy in September, to the point that a few days would pass between practices, and I am normally a practice-every-day kind of person.
Well its good to get some clarification that you’re doing it right from someone in-person. Oh no, you injured your thumb! That’s a bummer, because then you have to give it time to heal and that usually means not using it much at all.
Yeah, needing a callous down lower is interesting. Sometimes I am surprised at things that Justin doesn’t mention in his lessons. I mean, I realize he can’t say every single thing every one of us needs to hear. And he does include SO much detail and encouragement, and he nails it for me almost every lesson. He’s so good at knowing what people are thinking and worrying about. Sometimes I find if I go back and watch his old videos on a topic, it will have answered a nagging question. So, I get the full picture by watching both versions.
Perhaps my style will be to have a slight curve. And getting almost on the dang fretwire is helpful. Just barely rolling backwards has worked for me so far. At least until I get better at it.
OK, then I will keep that in mind and not try to obsess over a straight finger, at least not right now.
So I am kind of in a confused state right now about thumb placement in general. I started out naturally sitting my thumb up in 3/4 position or even barely gripping the top of the neck without crossing over the top, directly behind my first or second finger, depending on where I needed pressure. I have short arms and small hands so I have to find a pretty curled finger positioning on most chords and sometimes I really have to push the wrist forward (basically just on G and C, and now F) and it creates a pretty bent wrist. I have to sort of fight myself to keep my thumb in the middle part of the neck (vertically), but it does seem natural to keep it behind my first or second finger (horizontally). Its finding a lesser evil between bent wrist and muted strings sometimes.
So I noticed on one of Justin’s videos he has his thumb behind the first fretwire when he is fretting at the 2nd fretwire. I know no two hands are the same, but it was still very interesting to me. So I have been playing around with positioning the thumb behind the first fret, or pointed that direction at least, and it honestly does relieve some wrist bend sometimes, but I think I have read that in general it is bad technique for most open chords. Anyway, those are just some thoughts I’ve been having.
I’ve been on the F chord for a measly week now.
I had been practicing for about 4 hours a week for a couple of weeks before I injured my thumb, and still didn’t get it. I blew through most of the other lessons and had them down within a few days, so I definitely understand the frustration. It’s making me feel like the first day I ever picked up a guitar. I expected it to be difficult, they don’t call it the F chord for nothing, but dannng. I do hear once you master it, everything else comes a lot easier. I really believe it’s got everything to do with the calluses, cause I can see my finger sitting perfectly on the strings, but the fat on my fingers is just too soft and it cushions the string instead of pressing it. Thought about taking some sandpaper to my finger to speed up the process (kidding… kinda)
Don’t get too worries after a week Stacy! Justin’s all too right I’m afraid that this one will take a while, a long while!, to begin getting comfortable. Slow and steady wins the dreaded F….! 
I can now report that I can 99% of the time get the F chord and also the barre chords up the neck to the 8th fret. Anything higher than that is still a problem!
The main issue now is getting the chord fingering quickly and changing to other chords. Lots of OMC’s required I think
Well done Stuart! I would say up to 8th fret is good enough really wouldn’t worry about playing it higher up the neck until you encounter it during the song.
That is the exact same story as mine Rhys. I’m still trying to get it down just right though. Also, it’s like having to re-learn songs as well because my brain is still wanting to land the F’s in the old way.
Ahhhhhh, the joys!
I had an injury some years ago and now i cant rotate my forearm 180. Barre chords have been a challenge obviously. Any tips on how to work around that?
Welcome to the forum Sufyan.
Without seeing how you can hold your guitar the only thing I can think of is to play your guitar in the Classical position with the neck at a 45 deg angle. This will let your forearm remain in a neutral position.
