Try playing the chord at the 5th fret(A barre chord) with the tip on the black line Rob added to your finger. It will take less pressure and help strengthen your index finger.
What kind of guitar are you using? It may need to be set up. It shouldn’t hurt your finger to play barre chords.
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Pressure and finger strength are not the problem. It’s just that for the tip of the finger to be in the recommended position range I would need to press the bottom 2 strings in the red area ( image) where the finger joint is and it’s extremely sensitive area that prevents me from applying the pressure needed.
A properly set up guitar doesn’t need a lot of pressure to fret the strings so sensitivity shouldn’t be a problem. Also your finger will get tougher so it’s not sensitive any more.
Hi Gene,
Stitch’s comment on proper setup is especially important toward the F. If the nut is cut a little high, then pressing hard enough right next to it can be painful. Test your grip at say barre on fret 5 and see how it goes. If this works better, then there are three things you can consider:
- Look into a setup reducing the nut height.
- Reduce the string gauge one step on your next string change
- wait until your finger adapts (building some skin stiffness on the side of the barre finger)
I have trouble just like yours. I have done #2 and #3 as #1 was in good shape for me. I can get a good barre chord but I still struggle with any string under your yellow knuckle. Your ‘too high’ image looks really too high as I would not want my tip knuckle over string 6 as it is just too far to bring that finger back into position for something not a barre chord.
Time for some bad news. 
You are just starting, but you will eventually need to be able to lift fingers 2 or 4 to get minor and 7th chords. I am still struggling with the minors (finger 2) because my knuckle sits right over that string when my finger is in the proper position. If I raise it higher, I fix the minor, but generate a problem on the 7th. I feel like it is a bad idea to get used to two positions for finger 1, so I started to drill this and am seeing the skin stiffen a little which is helping. I am trying to keep finger 1 in a reasonable position and not too high for these drills.
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To add to all the great advice people have already given, I want to say something about electrics. Justin says F is easier on an electric, but that understates how MUCH easier it is. I’d been struggling for days to get that B string to ring out on my acoustic even once, and was approaching the my-tiny-hands-just-can’t-do-this Pit of Despair. Then I tried it on my husband’s electric (unplugged) and got all six strings ringing out, first try.
If you’re struggling, wondering whether maybe F is just impossible for your hands/wrists, but you aren’t lucky enough to have an electric guitar in your home, go to a music store and try one there. It might restore your faith and give you a reason to keep working. I figure if I can make an F on an electric, it’s just a matter of time and practice transferring that to the acoustic.
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the barre finger should go on the metal fret or before it?
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Before it 
.
Welcome to the community, Narcis @Narciz, and welcome to the F Chord journey! As Nichole said, your finger goes before the fret, not on top of it. I remember that it’s difficult to see that in Justin’s video - it sort of looks like his finger is on the fret especially on strings 6 and 5. You’ll notice, though, that his finger is rolled a bit, so a bit of the side of his finger is actually what is pressing the strings. Be patient, and be kind to yourself on this one! In my experience, I’ll think I’ve got it down, only to find the next time I try it doesn’t sound good. It takes a long time to figure out the exact, tiny adjustments to make so your hand will form a clean F. Then it takes time to learn how to do that automatically. Keep messing around with it, you’ll get it!
If you feel like it, we’d love to hear about hour guitar journey so far! You can introduce yourself over here. 
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Does anybody feel like the thing hampering (or that hampered) their F chord (or E shaped barre chords in general) is their second finger? I feel like mine is too long, but when I bend it to hit the string it ends up fitting the string neatly under the nail and I just know that is a future painful incident if I can’t sort it out. I can place my first, third and fourth fingers pretty quickly now, although the pinky is still a little wobbly and mutes the string beneath it fairly often, but the thing that makes an F chord take so long to get set up is my second finger for sure.
Would love some tips if anyone has them!
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Yeah I know what you mean. I think it’s even worse in the Californication riff, where you’re stretching the first and third fingers across 2 frets, and now the second finger is forced into an almost hook like shape just to fit. I had to trim my fingernail on my second finger especially short (to the point that there is nearly no white) to avoid that nail problem you mentioned.
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Hello,
I’ve been able to get a clean F-chord for months now but I’m still struggling a lot with the changes.
It seems that, between C and F, my wrist needs to rotate a bunch more than in the video.
The angle while playing the F chord is not that bad though, it’s just that I do a bit more of a thumb wrap on all of my open chords.
Is it is normal to have a lot of rotation of the wrist between the open and barre chords?
Or do I need to change my open chords to be closer to the barre chords in terms wrist/thumb position.
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Yes, changing between them requires a significant change in hand orientation. However, as you continue practicing these changes, you become much more efficient at it and the amount of movement reduces alot. Everything you are describing is the same thing I went thru. Yes, it gets better with practice. Yes, it takes longer than you would like. And YES, you will do the happy dance when it all comes together and it just feels natural.
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Do I need callouses on the extension of my index to be able to play barre chords? It feels like my finger’s flesh is too soft to make enough pressure on the strings, and the joints are too protuberant leaving a big dead area on the middle of it. But I’m not sure if that’s the matter or I’m doing something wrong.
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Hi Kerlon, Welcome to the community! And welcome to the F chord. 
This one will require patience. You don’t need callouses like you do on the tips of your fingers. That said, the skin on your index finger will toughen a bit over time. And yup, those knuckles and the space between them are frustrating. I’m still a beginner, and others may offer more specific guidance, but my advice is 1) watch and listen to this lesson multiple times, guitar in hand; 2) read, re-read , and practice the tips Justin writes on the website under the video pane; 3) watch the Nitsuj video for this. Also (I don’t recall if Justin mentions this) a good exercise is to start playing the shape at fret 5 rather than fret 1 - it’s a bit easier to press the strings down there. (Bonus - you’re actually playing an A chord!) Once you get the strings ringing clearly there, back up to fret 4, and practice there. This worked really well for me!
btw - love your profile picture! If you’re up for it, head over here and tell us a bit about your guitar journey - and how ol’ Fyodor influences your practice.
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This was the “aha!” moment I needed, thank you!! I spent a few weeks on the module in hopes of having the barre F chord down before moving on. I couldn’t get the B string to ring out except for once maybe every 20 attempts. I strongly felt that it was close to “clicking” but I wasn’t finding the adjustment needed to make it happen, so I moved on to the next module, but it’d been keeping me up at night!
After reading through and following your suggestion of tilting the guitar away from my body (so that it’s properly perpendicular and I can’t see my fingers on the frets), the chord rang out effortlessly and consistently! I was putting SO much strength and tension into trying to make it work when I simply had the physics wrong and didn’t even realize. Tilting the guitar to its proper position made it so that tremendously LESS effort was needed to play the chord.
It’s also helped elevate my playing in general, as I knew that I’m to the point where I don’t need to look at my fingers while I play; I simply got into the habit of holding the guitar that way without realizing, and your comment helped to make me aware of that. Again, thank you!
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I am so glad my old comment was able to help!
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Hi Kerlon, welcome to the community forum. Justin mentions in the F chord lesson that you should not have the padded or fleshy part of the index finger flat on the fretboard when playing the F chord. Place your fingers on the fretboard for the F chord, then rotate your wrist slightly counter-clockwise and pull hand slightly towards the nut to roll the index finger onto the less padded part of the side of the index finger. It takes a lot of practice with slowly forming the chord. I’m still working on it. Also you will be learning more about playing the F chord in module 10.
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Same here! So frustrating!
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Hello… and on Classical guitar?
My method books tart at I fret or V fret for barré practicings. But I feel unconfortable respect my electric guitar and I suppose is much difficult then acustic guitar. What do you think about this?
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I’ve been struggling to get an ‘efficient’ barre. I have found that i have to press so hard to get a clean note out of each string. After only a short time, my thumb is aching from having to grip so hard. Also when doing a minor chord, as such lifting my middle finger off the G string, i have to push even harder to get a clean sound from the G string. After over a year, this is now stopping me from progressing. So frustrating!
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