-
In this thread a lot of people give their take on the F-mini. I want to give some updates on my comments in there:
I talk about “pulling my elbow tight in tight towards my rib cage” and a whole lot of hand rotation and what not. This was 9 months ago and now I can say that most of it is not necessary for me to play this chord today. However, it is quite possibly the journey I had to take to get there. I don’t think going through a lot gyrations in pursuit of playing a clean F-mini is harmful, it most likely helps in the end.
– You have to “feel it” and in order to do so you must feel all the ways it doesn’t work. The F mini is all about getting the optimal position. All chords benefit from good hand position but the F-mini just needs so much more than other chords do.
– AVOID PRESSING TOO HARD! New players (as I was and still am but I’m starting to lose that moniker, tend to push down on the strings with brutal force in an attempt to stop muting and buzzing. It takes a while until you learn that you don’t have to press that darn hard! With a gentler touch this chord is easier to do. Find out how hard you need to press to fret the 2 bottom strings with your index. Keep easing off until they buzz, then increase a little bit. Notice this is probably less than half as hard as you’ve been pressing until now. Then position your hand in such a way that you can fret the other 2 strings. It might help you to raise the guitar neck to improve positioning
https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/challenge-with-f-chord/#post-2153829