Thanks. It helps to have the encouragement. Some days are better than others. Consistency to make it ring true is the goal then using the One Minute Changes to make it work for future songs.
1 Like
The B string was hard for me, I kept at it until the side of my finger got calloused a bit that made a difference. It will be a while before I can change from other chords to F with any certainty though.
3 Likes
Donāt despair Dave, it must have taken me at least 2 months to both find the right position and start to get consistent, and then another solid month of working on OMC exercises.
Iāve got relatively large hands and long fingers as well and had issues with both the B and high E string. What worked for me was having my barre finger quite high, whereby the first joint of my finger is sitting on the low E. With my anatomy that put the second joint over the bottom 2 strings which suddenly unlocked it. Weāre all different obviously but have a play around with the height of your finger as well is my own experience.
I also never thought Iād get it, and with me finding mini-F a real PITA as well it felt like a huge roadblock. Practice and experimentation will get you there.
1 Like
2 months!! I must have been doing this 6 months (lost count to be honest) and still canāt get it without placing fingers slowly. Moved on to power chords and will have to live with using Fmaj7 instead. 
2 Likes
Feels like Iāve put my foot in my mouth now Stuart!! Iād still say keep at it if you can!
1 Like
No problem for me. I may get shouted at but more to life than playing guitar!!
1 Like
Iāve been practicing for about 2 years now, and I can honestly say that I finally became confident with the F/C (my preferred F cheat) in the last month or so. I could do the F barre chord reliably before I finally got the āF cheatā.
Since all the practicing we do has a holistic effect, I suggest you work at the F chord cheat for a month or two, then take some time off, then come back to it again. I rotated the F-to-C or F-to-Am OMC into my practice routine from time to time, and found that when I went back to practicing it after some time off, my performance was significantly better.
YMMV,
Ed
3 Likes
True enough, no shouting here!
1 Like
Just so nobody feels lonely, Iāll come in and say I am another one that has been working on my F chords for more than a year. I have no suggestions other than persistence, which seems to be what will eventually work, at least for me.
It took a month or 2 for slow finger placement of the bar chord to get all the strings ringing, and OMCās since then. I have also had times when it seemed to stop working altogether and I had to go back to get the bar chord back again. Lately I have had a couple of times where I was able to get the F on a chord change(slow tempo) without fumbling.
I think once I get this down, I may miss my daily F chord practiceā¦ 
2 Likes
You left a clue here that may answer your own question. Not putting the other three fingers into position will make barring the 1st fret far more difficult. This is why most, even advanced, players roll their middle finger on top of their index finger when playing an Fm. Fretting the other three strings will make it easier to barre the chord. Practice by putting all of your fingers in the proper position.
The other advice I read here that will likely help is to play a G or an A further up on the neck (exact same shape, just a different position). After you can do those consistently, revisit the F.
2 Likes
Thanks!
1 Like
Loving the course so far but really struggling with F Chord. Specifically, the B string for me is always muted. Looking closely at my index finger position, it seems that I am barley pushing it down compared to the other strings as it seems to be underneath the joint crease in my finger. Tried moving it up but I feel like my index is then way to high above the fretboard, moving down then leaves it difficult to fret the 6th string.
Curious whether anyone else has ran into similar trouble and how they fixed it
1 Like
Lotās of people have trouble with the B string.
I just did a search in this thread for āB stringā, and got more than 10 hits.
There are multiple suggested remedies as well.
1 Like
The consistent solution to the B string is to gently pull towards you with the fretting arm, stabilizing with the strumming arm. This leverages the finger down onto the thinner strings.
Justin goes through this in his lesson. I found it hard to do, not physically, but to add that little bit of consciousness to include the slight pull. It is slowly starting to happen naturally.
1 Like
Iām still working on consistency myself, but the tip that worked most effectively for me was the slight roll to the side of the index finger. If my finger is flat on the neck I have the same issue you describe, when I roll it slightly is the bony bit of my knuckle on the b-string which means a better connection and more pressure down.
3 Likes
I was not new to guitar when I first started with Justinās lessons. I really thought that I knew how to play a barre chord. So when this portion came around, I was kinda cocky that I will breeze through this portion easily. However, when I started to play the barre note for note. To my utter horror, all this while my thinnest two strings were being muted. This was such a horrible surprise to me. Now, I have to relearn this beast. Agh!
Nonetheless, Iām glad to learn from the master incarnate himself. Letās go!
1 Like
When I was just starting with the F barre learning, My wife and I visited a friend of hers, whose husband played guitar well enough to have been in a few casual bands.
We were playing a little (because that is all I could do) and talking and I was discussing how much trouble the F barre was to learn.
He says āyour teacher really wants you to get all the strings to ring out on a barre cord?ā 
He couldnāt and realized just then he probably should! Glad I could teach him something!
I think subpar barre cords are common. But as Justin says āpractice makes permanent, so practice perfectly ā and we should not learn sub-par skills, to the best of our abilityā¦
6 Likes
I can play it 1st try except from the 2nd thinnest string . The B string .
Any advice ?
1 Like
Try the rolling of the index finger over a bit technique. Everyoneās fingers are different so just have to adjust until the strings all line up with a āboneyā bit, best you can.
It can take a while so donāt beat yourself up. It will come.
2 Likes
There is actually another (and easier) way of doing the F chord. You put your 1st finger on the first fret of strings 1 and 2. You also put your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string. You put your 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the 4th string and donāt strum strings 5 and 6. This type is easier and makes the exact same sound as your version. Try it!
1 Like