The F Major chord is a hugely popular chord on the guitar, but one that causes all sorts of problems for beginners.
As you can see from my example, the F Major chord can be one hell of a frustrating chord that makes people want to curse from their hearts or make grown men and women cry and smash their guitars up in frustration.
Well, fear not guitarists. In this blog, I’ll show you how to play the F Major chord in a progressive way starting with the complex versions and then breaking these down into simpler forms.
The F chord is used in other keys, too. Quite often, when a musician is playing in the key of G Major, they will substitute out the F# diminished chord to bring in an F Major chord. This makes the F Major chord important.
Here are a bunch of songs that use the F chord on guitar.
• Gulabi Aankhein ( Mohammad Rafi )
• Give me some sunshine ( Sharman Joshi and Suraj Jagan )
• Jaane Jaan ( Kishore Kumar )
• Channa Mereya ( Arijit Singh )
• Phir aur kya chahiye ( Arijit Singh )
How to play F chord on guitar?
Here are all the shapes, but read the complete blog before starting out!
Shape 1 – (The F full barre chord)
This is the version of F most feared by beginners, and I can see why. It is a tricky chord. Barring across all 6 strings is tough, especially so at the first fret.
To get good at this version, you will need to spend time perfecting the quality of your barre. This means using great technique and following the advice in this post on barre chords.
For example, how straight it is, how close to the fret it is and how high it is positioned, and then adding in one finger at a time to gradually complete the chord and practice with the metronome. Don't play the chord. Only do F chord shape practice. Remove your finger and place again, then continue this with a metronome.
Shape 2 – (Half Barre F Major chord)
Here, we have the same version as we have for shape 1, but this time, we have moved the barre finger so it only frets the top two strings (B and high E) while fingers 2, 3 and 4 still fret the same notes. This is a valuable version to practice when building up to shape 1.
One helpful tip
The change from F Major to C Major is a very common one in music and it is one many struggle with.
The great thing about this shape is that changing to and from C is pretty easy too.
When changing from F to C, leave your ring finger and index finger where they are, lift off the pinkie and move the middle finger to the D string.
It’s a smooth change when you have tried it a few times. Practice with a metronome or you can practice with the mentioned song -
( Give me some sunshine ) A really helpful song to improve F and C.
Shape 3 – (Great for beginners)
This is probably the ‘go-to’ shape that everyone starts out with. That is because it uses just 3 fingers and there is no barring at all. Well basically it's F Major 7 but you can play this shape if you are a beginner or you want to play some song with an f chord.
It’s an excellent shape to start out. Therefore, you have to be careful when strumming that you don’t strum unwanted strings. I only choose this chord when playing songs that only require these strings.
Get learning the F Chord on guitar!
As a roundup, if you are a beginner, start with shape 3 and then work your way up the list so that eventually you can play them all.
Shape 2 is a luxury but one that I recommend you give a go once you are comfortable with the rest.
The chord of F is probably the first chord that really gives a beginner a lot of bother so take your time and try out a few of these. Find what works best for you and what you like the sound of and then learn one of the above songs using it.
Also, once you have learned how to play all these chords, you must get good at changing between the chords.
Once you can play all these shapes, that will be a great sign your guitar playing is massively improving.
Hopefully, you have now seen a variety of different ways to play this chord and they are all suitable for various skill levels.
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