Conquering the F Major Chord

Hey guys, new to the site and basically new at guitar. I've messed around before but now I want to take my playing to something more substantial. Here's the rub:

I've been working my way through the beginner's guide and have had little problem up till now. I am unable to form an F-major chord. My middle finger just can't seem to not interfere with the B and D strings when it's supposed to only work on the G. I'm able to form the rest of the chord but I cannot for the life of me get it.

Is there a trick with thumb-positioning that makes your hand more easily contorted to that form? Is there some trick I should know?

Thanks in advance,
Nate

Hi Nate, welcome to GT. Stick around and the resident experts will gladly provide you some insight on sticking the FMajor. That one had me stuck for a while too. I found that, and I know this sounds like a cop out and it's not intended to be, it's just a matter of practicing at it. You'll find the sweet spot for your wrist to get the arch in your hand. Even now I usually just go to a FMajor barr chord because it's a little easier for me to hit clean and quick.

Again, welcome. Looking forward to seeing you around the boards. :)

Let's take a close look at fretting the chord.

There's three things to look for.

Your finger touching the lower string, your finger touching the higher string and thumb placement.

Finger touching the lower string

Normally when your finger gets in the way of a higher string (higher in pitch), it's because it's not perpendicular enough to the fretboard. Look at your middle finger, is it possible that is as an angle which makes it touch the B string? Look at the video again and you'll see Christopher's middle fingers as almost an 90degree angle on the fretboard. That makes it possible to play a single string without touching the others.

Finger touching the higher string

This comes from your finger being too close to the D string. As the D string vibrate, it touches your middle finger and probably does a buzzing sound or mutes the D string. It that what is happening? If so, you need to put your finger tip a little lower towards the B string. As you work on the previous section (trying to be more perpendicular) you'll be able to place your finger lower so it doesn't touch the D string.

Thumb placement

This one isn't always easy to teach. From my experience, not everybody feels comfortable in the same positioning. That said, you can try placing your thumb at the same place as your middle finger. Just as if you were trying to make a clamp using the middle finger and the thumb. Start there and then adjust higher or lower to find the best position that permits you to have a perpendicular finger position on the fretboard and still feels comfortable.

Let us know if this helps you out

Hrmm yeh.. what about the C Major chord? It's almost the same shape.. just the F Major is a little more cramped.. which is probably the problem.. I would try practising going from the C Major to the F Major and then back again a few times.. See if that helps a little bit.. may be the muscle memory of the C Major may help with the muscle memory of the F Major.

I also had issues with F Major.. but then I started to play this other F Major derivative. I -think- it's an Fadd7 which is probably an F7 or a FMaj7.. I am too tired right now to do the math and work out which particular chord it is.


||-----|-----|-----|-----|
||--1--|-----|-----|-----|
||-----|--2--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|--3--|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|
||--T--|-----|-----|-----|


Anyway.. the numbers indicate which finger to use.. the T represents your thumb. To play the F on the bottom E with your thumb like this, you will need to curl your thumb over the top of the fret board. This is how I used to play ALL my F Major chords.. Whenever I'd see an F Major in the sheet music or whatever.. I would play that chord.. It's also extremely easy to switch from this chord to any of the other open chords, or from any open chord to this chord.

Benoit is definitely more correct than I am in what he is teaching you there.. but I thought I would offer an alternative..

These days I use a barred chord for my F Majors..

Hey there again! Sorry I haven't responded in so long, holidays have been very eventful and guitar became a distant priority. Here's an update:

I've found out what was wrong. It seemed that I only have enough hand strength (currently) to either keep my pointer finger notes sounding true or to keep my middle/ring notes true. Neither sounded good at the same time. Whenever I tried to play both mini-sets at the same time, buzzing and finger deformity would ensue.

My solution was to place my middle finger on top of my pointer and ramming it down on the 1st fret notes so that the notes were sustained. I use my middle finger for the 2nd fret and pinky for 3rd fret.

I have a feeling that this is a bad habit and will lead me down dark paths of guitardom. But the chord rings true.

Thoughts?

P.S. Thanks for the tips but I'm afraid my finger strength and stretch isn't there yet to utilize them. I have the hand dexterity of a butcher. Too many years of contact sports.

Yeah, using your middle finger to push the index down will limit you - for instance, you can't use your pinky on the third fret of the E string to play a F major 9th chord.

Try playing the shape higher up the neck - say at the 13th fret. It's still a F chord... the string tension in the middle of the neck is lower so it'll be easier. Then as you build strength, you can shift it down.

What sometimes helps with the F major chord, chords in general, as well as bar chords is not "pressing down" on the strings, but using the weight of your hand and your arm to hold the strings down against the fret, thereby using very little energy and strain. "kind of like hanging on the fretboard"