Learning that darned F chord

Like many, I'm having a hard time looking to play an F chord well. Perhaps strangely, I'm finding that I can do so more easily when playing it as a full barre chord rather than as the four string version that Lisa shows in GF1 lessons. I guess that's because I've been practicing barre chords on my own otherwise, whereas the four string verision of F (on the DGBE strings) requires that index finder twist on the B and E strings that hurts my hand a lot to do.

Right now I'm nearly at the end of GF1, and working on Lisa's song "WIth You I Am Whole," which inolves a lot of F. Anyway, my question: should I focus on refining my barre F and make that "my F", or am I cheating myself in some way? Is there value in hunkering down and working to get that four-string F right, and doing so now? Or is the four-string F simply a cheat if you can't figure out the barre F, and therefore not worth spending time on if I'm making progress on the barre?

Hi musicant,

Personally, I don't find anything wrong with using the Barre F, the only issue is when playing in the open position at the very top of the guitar, barring the F might be more difficult when trying to switch around to other chords.

For example if you had to play this chord progression:

F D G F

Then it might be difficult switching from an F Barred to a D open chord to a G then back to an F Barre.

The four-finger F is only used as an open chord and it's easier to use that F since you can use your index finger as an anchor finger to switch to other chords. It's good to learn them both I think.

Could elaborate on how the "index finger twist" means?

- Billy

Billy, thanks for the response! My apologies for taking so long to get back, I appreciate your quick response. I somehow missed the notification, then went on vacation, etc. :)

I'll continue to try to work the open F, as it sounds like it is useful to know.

You asked what I meant by "index finger twist," as that's where I'm having trouble. When fingering the open F, you need to do a "mini barre" with the index finger to hold down both the B and E strings. To make that work, according to Lisa's excellent lessons, you need to rotate your finger a bit so the bonier side of your finger is pushed against the fretboard. I find that pushing my ring finger against the D string, my middle finger against the G string, and then having to rotate my index finger to get the bone on the B and E strings is very hard on my hand / wrist. It hurts my hand a lot to get into that position. I feel it in the back of my hand, and down into my forearm.

Perhaps I should be doing some sort of stretching exercises?