The F chord is appropriately named. I think it's the bane of beginners and intermediates alike. Although the instructor might have a fit over this, I came up with a cheat that works for me while I work on developing the coordination and strength to do "f" right.

My hands are too small and chubby to do a finger one barre that covers the "f" and "c" note while reaching around the "e" and "b" strings to put finger two on "a" and finger three on "f". My cheat is to use four fingers instead of three. Rather than attempt to cover the "e" and "b" string with one finger, I use one finger for each string. Finger one hits the first fret of the "e" string (f) and finger two hits the second fret of the "b" string (c). This makes it easy to reach over the "e" and "b" strings with finger three to hit the second fret of the "g" string (a) and finger four over to the third fret of the "d" string (f). This provides me enough clearance to play a simple "f" chord. If I want to go full-on "f", I can reach around the neck to cover the first fret of the low "e" string with my thumb.

The cheat is hopefully a temporary maneuver so I can keep progressing on some songs. I'm still practicing the "f" chord each day in hopes that it starts to click.

bd