How, how, how, HOW to switch from G to F??

HELP!

Been trying for 8 months. No luck.

Any tips please?? I can form the F and have it ring out perfectly, even the Fm, no prob. Changing fluently, on the other hand, from anywhere to F, is just no go.

Frustrated

Which F? F major 6th string barre chord? F major 5th string barre chord at 8th fret? Are you needing this for a song or is this general learning?

The answer you are going to get, consistently, is "it will come". I'm surprised others haven't responded with that before me. It will come!

But you are making the same mistake I did. Looking at my practice log I worked barre chords for about 9 months. With some retrospection I wish I had followed my own advice that follows. But I can play just about any barre chord cleanly, even F at the 1st fret!

Since you are getting them it to ring clearly you have overcome the major hurdle to getting barre chords mastered, the finger strength. What I would suggest is move on and just work those changes a few minutes of each practice session. Work that G to F. If you get it fairly good, not perfect, work the next chord change to F. As you continue to improve your over all muscle memory and dexterity those changes will continue to improve.

Sorry yes, it is the F barre at 1st fret. For some reason or other changing from G to Bm at the 2nd fret is a bit easier. Don't know why.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'll will try what you said. Maybe changing from other open chords to F will help my muscle memory to improve.

Originally Posted by: vanrooy.gert

Any tips please?? I can form the F and have it ring out perfectly, even the Fm, no prob. Changing fluently, on the other hand, from anywhere to F, is just no go.

Do this drill to focus on that specific motion.

Play a chord. Strum it once to make sure it's clear. Stop.

Play an F chord. Strum it once to make sure it's clear. Stop.

Repeat.

Don't waste time & energy trying to strum in time, play it in a song, or anything else. Just alternate between some chord & F. Pick several chords to put in that drill so you can build skills getting into & out of F.

You can dedicate practice session time to this. You can do it outside a practice sesion while sitting on the couch watching a show.

The point here is to take some difficult physical motion & drill it & only it until it becomes second nature. Hope that helps!

You are probably just defeating yourself honestly. Now you are hyper aware of it and stressing out and making it worse. This is where sometimes having an in person instructor can help. When someone can watch you and give advise and encouragment on the spot, it can really help.

I've never had this issue- and I've played a lot of guitars including cheap ones. All I can think of is...

1. Get some in person instruction to look over your mechanics.

2. Do some hand strengthening drills.

3. Practice it higher up the necks (say A major barre chord to C# to E.) to develop muscle memory. Drill it literally 100 times- then do it again, every day! Works for me.

4. To troubleshoot and eliminate the guitar, go to GC and try playing some expensive electric guitars with correct (read low) action and see if the issue is gone. It might just be that your guitar action is way too high at the first fret. They can often lower the nut on your guitar to make playing easier (or, just buy a new guitar!) It might also be a truss rod thing.

5. Put a capo (at loosest setting that still sounds good) at the 10th fret- then keep going lower. If it sounds worse at the F, you are on to something! Also, just visually look at the string height. Using lighter weight strings might also help.

6. It could, and probably is a combination of all the above.

In terms of switching from F on the 1st fret to a G...if you haven’t already tried this, one idea is to slide the F barre chord up 2 frets to the G barre chord on the 3rd fret. Mininal finger movement and the G barre chord on the3rd fret is a nice sounding and useful barre chord to in your toolbox

Originally Posted by: vanrooy.gert

HELP!

Been trying for 8 months. No luck.

Any tips please?? I can form the F and have it ring out perfectly, even the Fm, no prob. Changing fluently, on the other hand, from anywhere to F, is just no go.

Frustrated

Something that's not often said is that timing is everything in chord changes. I was teaching my wife a C to G (open) chord change and at that moment, in her mind, the change should be instantaneous. It's not. It's within a rhythm or pattern. Listen to songs and you'll notice small breaks in rhythms that allow for chord changes. Often you'll notice this in 'bar' structure. Like a G chord for one measure (for instance a measure of four notes) and then a chord change to the C chord on the second measure. Between those two measures is a small rhytmic gap.

Like:

G G G G -and- C C C C -and- G G G G -and- C C C C

1 2 3 4 -and- 1 2 3 4 -and- 1 2 3 4 -and- 1 2 3 4

That 'and' is that breif moment between chords is a small gap wherein the chord change happens. This is because nobody can really make chord changes instantly. Listen to strummed acoustic songs. An example us America-Sister Golden Hair. That is a textbook example of a clean and clear chord change that requires a space for the next chord.

The point to you is not to be dejected on your perceived failure to quickly change chords but to understand those chord change gaps and also, slowing down your rhythm speed when practicing to do the change more slowly but accurately. Once you get that groove down, you can start speeding up.

Early on, speed is not your friend. Patience and repetition is. Take your time and get the changes down.

I've said this in other threads but after playing for decades, patterns I'm not used to, I still do this. This is a tool of all skilled guitarists. The ability to slow down and drill on something is a tool you will always use. I certainly do...though I catch myself even getting cranky, like 'Hey, I should be doing this faster'...then checking myself. I mean, don't we all!

Good luck!