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Freeking F-Chord
Big Win for me! I’ve been practicing the F-chord over multiple daily sessions during this whole week and finally I got a clean ring of the chord this morning. After doing the A shape exam I kicked back over to doing the E shape and I got it!
I have to contort my hand like crazy, so this isn’t the end of the war but it’s the first battle I’ve won against the F chord since we were introduced.AND… it’s reproduceable! I’ve been able to pick up the guitar and do it again, can even run through the E shape exam. So I’m pretty pumped. I’ve got to figure out how to do it without bending my fingers into pretzels, but I’m on my way!
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8 Replies
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That’s great! Congrats.
My in person instructor gave me tips that made it not so pretzel-ly. It was to make sure that my index finger is exactly parallel to the fret and not angled. The other tip was to move the neck away from my body, almost a 45 degree angle.
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I started angling the finger to mimic Tony, lol!
When I was muting almost all the strings I started looking more closely at Coach. The straight finger wasn’t working. Now that I am able to play it that way, I can’t when the finger is straightened. I pretty much have it coming over the top the fret with a bit of curvature allowing me to reach the 3rd fret nicely with my ring and pinky fingers.Angling the neck forward (which is actually pulling back with the right elbow with the guitar body pivoting on my right leg) definitely makes things easier.
I’m not able to play it on demand yet, but I can form the chord and then tweak away until everything is clean in about 5 – 10 seconds. Then I can hold it long enough to play through the E shape exam. I’m trying to this about 4 or 5 times daily.
The B chord (A shape) is a piece of cake, I can get this in a couple of seconds and hold it indefinitely.
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Woohoo! Congratulations! That’s always such a good feeling to finally play a clean barre!
Looking at the photo, your hand doesn’t look like it’s twisted like a pretzel. My index is like a backwards letter C when I barre. Whatever works for you.
Keep up the great work!
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Thanks Loraine!
I feel like the chords are coming along as far as knowing the shape and executing that. Now it’s all about quickness, got to be able to change chords in a flash if you want to play actual music.
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I just typed the whole thing and it disappeared on me. It really bothers me when that happens.
I’d like to make a suggestion to help you with your transitions between chords. Find a song that’s not too difficult and has more than two chords. You want at least 3 chords minimum.
Take the first 2 chords of a song and set a metronome to about 45 beats on 4/4 time. On the first beat strum the first chord . Take the next three beats to change chords and get correct fingering. Strum on the first beat. Then take the next three beats to switch back to the first chord and strum on the first beat, repeat this process back and forth until you are able to do 10 in a row cleanly then increase the beats by 10 to 55. Continue to do the same process increasing speed as you’re able to play clean chords on each 1st beat for at least 10 times cleanly. Try to go up to 100 150 whatever you want and then go to the next 2 chords, which would actually be the second chord that you’ve already been playing, and the third chord in the song. Start back at 45 beats and again work up to the same speed that you did with the first 2 chords. You will definitely get faster, be more timely and more accurate doing this.
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I love it “freaking F Chord” … songs like a title for a song!
Thats a big win !
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Haha, I wouldn’t discount you writing a song on “The Freakin F chord”! Maybe you already have, since you have such an uncanny ability to write friggen ass songs within minutes. Thats the ‘old Terry I know.
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You’re welcome to use it for one of your videos! Just watched “Tough Pick”, what a hoot!
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