I’ve heard it before but just found out for myself. A good setup makes all the difference. I bought a new Taylor about 9 months ago and figured it should be fine “out of the box”. I struggled with the F chord on it but as I mentioned before it was fairly easy with my electric. I figured I just needed more practice.
Well after reading comments saying you need to get your guitar professionally setup I finally took mine to the local guitar store and OMG I cannot believe the difference. I can now play the F chord as easily as any other chord. All the rest of the chords I know are even easier to play and I can change even faster and play them cleaner. I’m now working on the Bm barre chord.
F Chord Day 1 - trying to figure out what sadist came up with this random combination of contorted fingers and pain infliction. I was so excited when my fingers stopped hurting from pressing on the strings with my fretting hand. I didn’t know there were other painful opportunities! Not really looking forward to day 2 of F chord practice - but I will persevere and I am determined that I will get this down!
In doing rapid transitions from C to F I am forever hampered by the fact I have put so much effort in learning to mute the low E with my third finger when playing C. I often find myself still muting the low E on the barred F, which is unfortunately just like playing a small F (so what’s the point?). Where this inevitably gets me is when I’m playing at speed. Fine tuning that third finger on the switch is finicky and I feel like I’m too often trying to pull/bend on the A string to avoid it. I’m considering lifting off and resetting altogether. Anyone else have this problem?
Yes Lunac I have the same problem. In fact just yesterday I started working on changes to a barreless F (fingers 3, 4 & 5 only) just so I could concentrate on getting those fingers placed correctly and quickly.
After a really long time away from guitar it has been interesting starting over. I had forgotten how much it hurt when I first started. It is really really good to be past that now. I am lucky in having a fairly decent acoustic from the early 70’s and an inexpensive electric. I am amazed at how much easier it is to play the electric. F on the electric is easy and I can slide it up and down the fretboard. Not so easy on the acoustic but I am getting there. I alternate practice days. The electric days help me to believe the acoustic days will continue to get better. My advice to myself is to stick with it.
I feel I’ve finally made my breakthrough here, about 2 months after doing the module!! When I started my practicing on F chord my index finger was way too low and I was getting such a buzzing noise from the B string, no amount of rolling the finger seemed to fix it. In fact all I could seem to do get a clean note was squeezing so hard with my thumb it was impossible to achieve consitently, let alone change to it.
But I’ve now moved my index finger up so B and high E string are pretty much under my finger joint and wow, it works!! I’m getting changes to it much more consistently now and actually playing full F in songs (House of the Rising Sun and Californication at the moment).
So I really just want to put across Justin’s comments about everyone being different and that with persistence you will find what works for you.
It’s still a F*** chord, but maybe without quite so much anger now
Picture for reference
Absolutely and there will be plenty more moments like these to come! I remember for me one of many vividly engraved into my brain was playing a barre chord in a Hendrix way with thumb over the neck, that’s hell of a task or at least was for me to figure out thumb placement!
There’s a bony/fleshy bump in most people’s index just above the 2nd joint. I started thinking only in terms of where that was being placed and imagined my pressure point being around there as if my finger was only that long. The low E doesn’t take a lot of pressure to get it to ring. It usually looks after itself. When I play a lot of F chords that point of the finger is where I see lines and redness.
Just seen a post on FB by Justin showing someone who “only started his guitar journey a couple of weeks ago? His cover of Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers is sounding ace!”.*
Really!! Two weeks to learn this and the F barre chord. Not 100% sure I believe that to be honest. If this is correct then that is absolutely amazing. I’m on month 3 trying to nail the F chord and not really anywhere close yet.
Kind of surprised that on one has picked up on this. This is really impressive that someone who has only been playing for a couple of weeks is playing a Grade 4 (according to JG) song with full F barre. Wonder if he has done anything else of Justin’s courses or just learnt Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I’m almost always just muting the B string. This is still sooo tough and I get cramps in my wrist. But I WILL beat this MF someday. It really helps - as suggestet by some on here - to move it up one or two frets to get a better grip. But with the index on the lowest fret…ugh…
F has not been easy so I have been trying it higher up on the fretboard. Kind of by accident I started sliding the F up and down looking for a spot where it seemed easier to play. This helped. I also discovered that if I started with F and slid it directly up to the 5th fret where it is A and then the 6th fret where it is B flat and then back down going fret by fret to the 3rd fret where it is G it sounded a lot like Dock of the Bay. Had to work on timing a little but it sounds pretty good and added some fun to the F struggles.
This is a common issue. It is all about the curl you get on your finger ends from each knuckle.
When playing an open C major chord, your 3rd finger is elongated and the knuckles keep the curvature shallow, not flat but not very arched. So pushing the tip up to touch the low E string is just an extension of its projection towards its rightful place on the A string.
When playing an F barre, the 3rd finger needs to be much more arched, the knuckles curled much more inwards. This should prevent the 3rd finger from reaching too far beyond its correct position, it should not by default push upwards to the E string.
Try practicing just this by playing an open E chord using fingers 2-4 only - the same shape as you would employ in a 6th-string root barre chord.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Approved Teacher
Just started this lesson this weekend and it drove me to join the forums! I WILL Learn it though, because many of the songs that will make or break my enjoyment of guitar seem to include this monstrosity (or its ‘cheat’ cousins)
Can only agree here, it has been the longest chord for me to get through but I do feel like I’m progressing now. I think I did the F chord module back in January, I’m on module 12 now but still have OMC for F to C, Am, D and G on my practice routine as well as trying to nail a couple of F songs.
Practice is the only way here, it took me a number of weeks to find the right spot for my index finger to consistently achieve the barre properly. Have faith and it’ll get there!
Thanks Adrian. Funny isn’t it how there’s these little moments on the guitar journey, cracking Dm chord changes was another one I remember vividly!!
