I am really struggling with the F-Chord. I can get good sound with my pointer finger fretting the E and B string. My problem is my when my middle finger is fretting the G string in the second fret, it constantly mutes the B string. Any suggestions or cheats?
Ken
Yep. Here's the cheat.
Watch the F chord tute again.
Pay attention to your finger and hand postures until you can position them to have the chord ring true. The objective is then to finger it like that consistently when changing to the chord on the fly. As always, start slowly focussing upon accuracy, and build speed from there.
Continue to work on it until your problem is resolved.
Another thing that people tend to over look is the position they hold the guitar. Hold it in more of an upright position. This will make it easier to grab the strings with your index finger.
IME I suspect that's that's more of an individual instrument and body thing than technique per se.
Without going into the elaborate explanatory detail why other than to say a function of both the guitar length, balance and fingerboard width vs my body's characteristic arm and finger length, standing or sitting, my Les Paul requires a more upright position to position my fretting hand to play comfortably than any of my several Tele style, Strat style or Concert acoustics. I suspect a full scale length Dreadnought body acoustic might feel similarly awkward relatively for me as my LP. I can't validate that though as I don't own a Dread, and loathing them, avoid playing them.
