"Gimme an F!"
The worst chord for beginners. [Intermediate Beginner Lesson]
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Thank-you, Dave.
I have been a guitar instructor for over 25 years. I have instructed several hundred students, both beginner and intermediate. Arguably, the most common complaint I still hear from my students to this day, is how to play the "F" chord. Why is this chord so difficult for beginners? Let me rephrase that - Why is this chord so difficult for "some" beginners, but not all of them?
Intermediate Beginner Lesson
I remember having to learn this chord when I was taking guitar lessons in 1976. I was only 13 years old. I had a crappy "Kay" acoustic guitar with awful intonation. The neck was terribly bowed, which meant that any of the chords that I actually could play, never went past the first few frets of the guitar.
The “F” chord is a “barre” chord. A “barre” chord means that you use one or more of your fingers to play the notes on two or more strings.
Getting the "F" chord to sound the way it should, for me, was an absolute exercise in futility. I avoided all songs that had an "F" chord in it - or else I just wouldn’t play it. I hated that chord - but if I wanted to play the songs on my list, I had no choice but to muscle through and try harder to get that damned chord. Well, by the time I was 14, I had it. Soon after this, I had the confidence to build my chord vocabulary with more difficult "barre" chords.
How did I get it? Well, honestly, I don't remember the exact moment that I was finally able to play it. I do remember however, practicing day and night, for hours, pushing myself to keep trying. It was the hardest chord I had ever had to learn, but I did eventually get it.
The way I think it happened for me was because of my age at the time. I was an early teenager in the throes of puberty. I was a small kid kid until I started to grow around the time I started taking guitar lessons. This gradual process went mostly unnoticed by me. I think that while my body was growing, my hands were also growing. My left hand quite literally grew with the neck of the guitar. The fingers on my left hand are slightly longer than the fingers on my right hand. It's true. My left hand fingers are also much more stretched out than my right hand fingers. So, a lot of it has to do with how my left hand grew differently than my right hand. Two years later, I started playing the bass guitar, and my fingers were stretched out even more.
Variations on a theme.
There are four ways to play the "F" chord. One of them, you just really don't need.
The full "barre" F chord (below) is mostly unnecessary. It is slightly uncomfortable, even for the most seasoned guitarist. Yes, it sounds good, if you can actually play and hear all six notes, but it isn't a chord that is used often.
The "short" F chord is the most common, easiest "F" chord for absolute beginners. Notice, only three of the original six notes are used in this shape. You only play these three notes and no other notes.
Next, we have the basic four note "F" chord that is used as the main chord you practice to get. It replaces the previous three note chord above. You only play these four notes and no other notes.
This is arguably the most common "F" chord used in music for most guitarists. It is exactly like the four note chord above, except that we are adding the C (5th) on string five, to give the bottom end of the chord more tonal voicing balance with high and low notes in the chord. The added "C" on the bottom, fills the chord out much better with more lower notes without having to use the lowest F on the 6th string. This is the "F" chord I use in almost everything I play. You only play these five notes and no other notes.
Try not to get discouraged. It can be done!
So, here's the big difference between the way I learned the "F" chord and the way many of my students are struggling to learn it. My younger students have almost no problem eventually getting the "F" chord, because their hands are still developing and growing. The "F" chord eventually became equal to all of the other chords in my vocabulary.
My older, adult students do not have the luxury of “shaping” their hand to fit the guitar. Adult students who have little or no background in music or playing an instrument, tend to struggle with all chords, much longer than the younger students.
I do my absolute best to avoid any deterring energy or words to allow my students to believe that they cannot do something. I encourage them and tell them that all they have to do is keep trying and they will eventually get it.
Some do, some don't. Adults have a difficult time learning new things. Their biggest problem is allowing preconceived notions about what they can and cannot do. I tell them, "You don't get to say what you cannot do. I do. I'm the teacher; and I will never tell you that you cannot do something."
The kids are much more responsive to these words than adults. The kids don't put up mental blocks and hurdles to keep them from moving forward. Kids aren't so easily discouraged by their own lack of confidence.
I would say about half of my adult students eventually do get the "F" chord added to their chord vocabulary and move on from there. Hey, even some of my younger students struggle much more than others. It would be foolish of me to think that everyone can be taught how to play the guitar and learn chords the same way everyone else does. That is why as an instructor, it is my job to be creative, supportive and encouraging to my students so that they are given every opportunity to become better on the guitar.
In the big picture, the "F" chord is merely one chord out of thousands of chords on the guitar. It all comes down to genuine, honest daily practice. If you must spend a half hour or more every day, just on that chord, then do it. Don't make excuses as to why you can't get the "F" chord. That just wastes time and allows you to build walls and makes learning the guitar that much more difficult. What you put into anything is what you will get out of it. Only you can decided the amount of investment you are willing to put into it, to see it come to fruition.
Just keep practicing. Eventually, you will get the “F” chord. If it were easy, everyone would get it right away.