Just started learning the F barre chord. How was your F barre chord journey?
Hi, I’m a beginner who just started learning the F barre chord.
I can’t get string 1 and 2 to ring clearly without applying insane force. Hmm I guess I have to just keep practicing until I can make it ring clearly without much effort.
How was your F barre chord journey? I’m sure experienced players here can enlighten my path.
I wish I knew at the time that a good amount of pressure should come from pulling back at the shoulder of the fretting arm, bracing the guitar body with your strumming arm chicken wing. You can practice this by fretting the F without your thumb on the back.
Also, you could try to play the A barre chord at the 5th fret with the same shape as the F barre on the first fret. Will help build some strength
If your nut is a bit high, try putting a capo on the first fret and play everything the same, but a key lower.
Also advice from Marty Schwartz is to stop avoiding songs with F. Just play them with a poor F. They will start to clear up. F is hard to practice on its own because you use too much pressure at first and it tires your hand out quickly.
The slight roll to your finger that others have mentioned sounds like pretty good advice to me. I’d also try playing songs that you are already comfortable with in a barred position. For example, playing a classic I-IV-V progression (like G, C, & D or A, D, & E) at the 3rd and 5th fret. There is much less resistance at that part of the neck, and it pulls your hand in closer which can straighten our the muscles in your arm a bit if you have a smaller frame; this makes for less stress for your muscles across your list and the base of your thumb. So, while you develop the technique with less factors fighting against you, you can focus just on that technique, and not on learning a new song, or really feeling like you are having to work on something completely new - just different - which can make for a better mindset as well.
Your action is likely really high if you find you need to apply a lot of force. You can always practice barre chords higher on the neck too. There’s less resistance higher up.
Everyone feels this way. For me, positioning my thumb and holding the guitar neck closer to 45 degrees made this cord (and almost everything else) much easier. When you are struggling, it can also mean that your hand muscles are getting tired. Take a break and come back to build up strength.
The F chord (like other bar chords) became a lot easier for me once I realised that I don’t have to press down six strings with the index finger, only three.
I remember learning to play this stupid chord for a couple of months. How I used to look up my favorite songs and pray there was no F in there! It really was just a matter of practice until they became natural and now, they’re probably the chord shape I play the most since they’re movable!
I’ll echo the advice from some others in this thread.
Getting your thumb in the right position to support your index finger takes a lot of the stress and fatigue off your hand
rolling that index finger a bit more to the side lets you use the straighter and bonier part of the finger so it’s easier to keep the pressure applied to where you need it (which is really only 3 strings)
Good luck! Eventually when it clicks you won’t even think about it anymore ☺️
“Looking for songs without an F”, yeah that’s literally me right now.
Thank you and everyone else here for the advice.
I remember that A open chord was once impossible for me but now it just feels natural. I’ll update this post once I can say the same for F barre chord. Probably in a year or so 🙂.
I'm mostly surprised I've almost never heard anyone complain about F minor, which IMO, 18 years later, is still a pain to play, if you need to play it over and over in a song. Getting the minor third on the G is a lot harder to me than any other common bar chord.
Depending on what I’m playing, I cheat and pull my thumb round the back for that bottom string 🙃 if it’s a song full of barre chords then I’ll play it properly, but if I’m just playing basic chords then I’ll do it the lazy way!
I put my hand in position adjusting until all the strings rang and held it for 30 seconds at a time making sure the strings kept ringing true throughout the exercise. Then practiced jumping from other chords with a metronome faster and faster until it just became another chord.
It’s more of a muscle memory and tendon strength thing and tendons take a lot longer to strengthen than muscles.
You’ll be surprised how little force you’ll be using later on versus what you’re using now. Things will get more and more efficient as your technique improves. But until then, someone else here suggested rolling your barre finger back a bit so you’re fretting the barre more with the side of your finger. That’s good advice as the side of your finger is a bit bonier, and the strings can’t get lost in the creases at your finger joints as easily. Another thing that helps is instead of squeezing so much with your hand, pull back on the neck with your whole arm and use some of those larger muscle groups to apply pressure to the fretboard. Some people use a sort of downward version of that where you use the weight of your arm to add pressure in a down and back direction.
One thing to keep in mind which may help is that you don’t need to hold your barre across all six strings. Your other fingers are covering the A, D, and G strings, so you only need to focus your barre on the E, B, and e strings. And when all else fails you can consult Uncle Ben .
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