The F-chord - when will it happen?

[pano amo]

A right of passage I suppose for all aspiring guitar players. I can play the F-chord no problem, sounds fine. Its changing on to it from another chord thats the problem for me. It takes me about 2 seconds to get from C to F which doesn't sound so bad but on my acoustic for some songs, thats a lifetime. Is there a technique or trick to this or is it just practice, practice? I've been at it for about 2 months now.
When I change from C to F, I get my 2 finger down on second fret string first, then fingers 3 & 4 together on third fret strings, then bar the first fret with first finger. For me, that's the most natural way and I haven't found a faster or easier way. I've tried in different order but my fingers just get knotted up on each other. Any advice?

btw, I really want to stick with the real f-chord bar technique and not the other somewhat easier F variations.

[anonymous-user]

Have you tried it as a bar chord?

[pano amo]

eh, I thought I was doing that? Perhaps I've explained myself poorly. Could you elaborate?

[55allgold]

Don't know if this will help, but:
1) for both of those chords I use fingers 2, 3 and 4 as a unit. They move as a unit, across the neck (fretting the DAE strings on the C chord, and GDA on the F chord)
2) As I move to the F chord from the C chord, I keep my first finger where it is, but flatten it so that it also frets the top E string at the first fret (a mini-barre, if you like)
3) At the same time, I use my thumb to fret the bottom E string at the first fret

Keep at it - it will happen.

Edited by 55allgold on Monday 1st August 21:32

[turbopug]

The old adage "practise makes perfect" is so true. Stick at it and eventually it will feel natural. I can play in F but I have a nasty habit of playing everything in E. I blame listening to too much Metallica lol.

[RedYellowGreen]

A way of learning chord changes I have found is to just finger (ooer) a chord and then strum it once then change to your next chord and strum that once then back to the first one again and so on and on. Its not musical at all but it does hardwire your fingers into falling quickly to the right places. Well for me anyway HTH.

[anonymous-user]

Sorry OP - misread and thought you were doing the chord with 1st finger over top 2 strings only.

As has been said you need the chord as one unit - all fingers automatically going into shape in one go. That only comes with practice.

[kiteless]

55allgold said:

Keep at it - it will happen.

^ that.

It will come with time, although, pano, make sure you aren't "copping out" on the F position by doing a "cowboy" version of it. If you're still learning, force yourself to play F in the first position like this:



Once you've done that, the whole guitar neck opens up and you can then - for example - seamlessly go from Fmaj to Dm in no time at all.

Yes, switching to and from barre chords takes some time but the effort really is worth it. FWIW the best tune to learn - or was for me - is Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out by Clapton if you want to teach your fretting hand to switch between open and barre chords. Hotel California is another.

HTH

[davepoth]

kiteless said:

^ that.

It will come with time, although, pano, make sure you aren't "copping out" on the F position by doing a "cowboy" version of it. If you're still learning, force yourself to play F in the first position like this:



Once you've done that, the whole guitar neck opens up and you can then - for example - seamlessly go from Fmaj to Dm in no time at all.

Yes, switching to and from barre chords takes some time but the effort really is worth it. FWIW the best tune to learn - or was for me - is Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out by Clapton if you want to teach your fretting hand to switch between open and barre chords. Hotel California is another.

HTH

Yep, you really do need to learn it in that position. Curling the thumb around to get the bass E string is something for more proficient (lazy) players, and it's only of real use for playing things in the key of C because it gets messy if you try it further up the neck and want to add fills to the chord.

Best thing to do is to not even strum; you don't need that bit for the moment. Have the guitar on your lap while watching telly, and just practice the C-F, F-G or whatever chord change without strumming. Just go from chord to chord and back again.

[pano amo]

yep kiteless thats the way I'm learning. Okay, will stick at it. It was taking me 5 or 6 seconds at one stage so I am better. Just thought I may have hit a plateau in terms of my finger position change speed.
I term using the thumb technique, no way, too tricky for an amateur like me! (but thanks all for the suggestions anyway)

[Pentoman]

turbopug said:

The old adage "practise makes perfect" is so true. Stick at it and eventually it will feel natural. I can play in F but I have a nasty habit of playing everything in E. I blame listening to too much Metallica lol.

The problem for me is when practicing I get so frustrated and worked up trying to play it right. And sick of the sound of hearing myself clunk it up time and time again. So get hot and bothered and put it down for another few days... Sigh

[turbopug]

Pentoman said:

The problem for me is when practicing I get so frustrated and worked up trying to play it right. And sick of the sound of hearing myself clunk it up time and time again. So get hot and bothered and put it down for another few days... Sigh

Don't worry too much about it man, stick at it and eventually you'll get it! Look at Tony Iommi, he plays with 3 fingers and he's one of the most influential players ever. If he can do it, you can!

[Pentoman]

turbopug said:

Don't worry too much about it man, stick at it and eventually you'll get it! Look at Tony Iommi, he plays with 3 fingers and he's one of the most influential players ever. If he can do it, you can!

I will google him.
Thanks

[davepoth]

Pentoman said:

I will google him.
Thanks

Then do Django Reinhardt. He only had two fingers.

[turbopug]

Pentoman said:

The problem for me is when practicing I get so frustrated and worked up trying to play it right. And sick of the sound of hearing myself clunk it up time and time again. So get hot and bothered and put it down for another few days... Sigh

I think you're just getting yourself too worked up man. Don't try to do too much at once. just do little bits at a time and eventually you'll be able to piece it all together. Look for youngdamien1 on youtube, that's me. I just do one riff at a time and eventually piece it all together and make a song.

[Kinky]

turbopug said:

Look at Tony Iommi, he plays with 3 fingers

davepoth said:

Django Reinhardt. He only had two fingers.

And Nigel Tufnel had no fingers

[suthol]

Every beginner struggles with quick changes to and from barre chords, back when I were a lad some Irish band called Them had a bit of a hit with Gloria.

Get this simple little tune fluid and your F chord troubles will be over.

[filski666]

Try practicing the barre chord shape higher up the neck, in say a G or A position, the action is lower so the pressure required is less, so it is a little bit easier, or to keep the tuning for a particular song, detune and use a capo..

At the end of the day, practice practice practice!

Good luck

Other thing, if you have a particular chord change you find difficult, don't bother pressing the strings down or strumming, just sit there and keep flicking between the two chords, with your fingers light on the strings, it will help build up the muscle memory because at the moment you are THINKING about where each finger goes and that slows you down....so don't worry about trying to get the chord to actually play, just get your hand to go to the shape, then you can fine tune it so you don't mute the strings as you get faster

[tenohfive]

RedYellowGreen said:

A way of learning chord changes I have found is to just finger (ooer) a chord and then strum it once then change to your next chord and strum that once then back to the first one again and so on and on. Its not musical at all but it does hardwire your fingers into falling quickly to the right places. Well for me anyway HTH.

I do this as well and it works for me.

Personally I put the bar in first then the other three fingers come across together as a unit (as someone else described.) But practicing is the only way to do it.

Funnily enough, having not touched my guitar for a while (until I treated myself to a new one recently) I've been struggling with a clean F. I'm putting it down to the side of my bar finger not having toughened up much, that and being out of practice.

[55allgold]

Pentoman said:

The problem for me is when practicing I get so frustrated and worked up trying to play it right. And sick of the sound of hearing myself clunk it up time and time again. So get hot and bothered and put it down for another few days... Sigh

There's textbook and there's rock-n-roll. If you're interested in playing the latter, my suggestion is to do whatever works. It will get you enjoying playing sooner, and you'll be developing all of the other aspects of playing as you go(right hand, damping, pick attack, etc). And that will get you practicing more. And then you will quickly develop the not-really-thinking-about-it style that you need. As just about every rock-n-roll guitarist has.

It's then so much easier to revisit any 'lazy' habits you want to grow out of.