Chords - Key of F

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Key of F

The key of F is not used too often for guitar in the strumming style at least because it has a lot of barre chords and not a lot of ringing open string ones. It can be a difficult key for beginners if barre chords aren't well known. Here's the group in ascending order:

F _ Gm _ Am _ Bb _ C _ Dmin _ Em7b5 _ F

Here's the progression used in the vid:

F_ Bb_ C_ Dm_ Gm_ Am_ Em7b5 _ F

1 3 2 4 5 6 7 8

See video 2 if you need a hand with barre chords - the guitarist's nightmare and deservedly so :).

Tip: If you need to play a song in F but don't want too many barre chord sounds, you can play in F with a Capo and use open strings.

Place the Capo on fret 1 and use the E family shapes. Sometimes it might be necessary to stay in the key of F if the vocals (or vocalist) demands it :).

A Wah-Wah with some delay is used for effect here, and each chord is strummed just once. The Wah I use myself (and recommend) is the Jim Dunlop Standard Wah. It's a pretty good little moveable box :).

Persist with the barre chords if you have a problem with them. They are not mastered overnight.

Don't 4get to check out video 2 if you need a few tips on learning and playing them.

p.s. Any Thin Lizzy fans out there might recognise the first 4 chords we use here as the same progression used in their classic track 'Southbound'. Not the same chords (Southbound is in a different key), but the same chord interval sequence.

F Chord Group - Video 1 Guitar Only

We've come against all the chord shapes in this group bar one (pardon the pun :).

That's the 'B' chord. This is an A shape chord moved up the fretboard and a barre is used.

Here's the rearranged chord group progression used here:

E||--1--| --0--| --3--| --1--| --0--| --1--| --3--|
B||--1--| --1--| --3--| --3--| --1--| --3--| --3--|
G||--2--| --2--| --3--| --3--| --0--| --2--| --3--|
D||--3--| --2--| --5--| --3--| --2--| --0--| --2R-|
A||--3--| --0--| --5--| --1--| --3--| --x--| --x--|
E||--1R-| --x--| --3R-| --x--| --x--| --x--| --x--|

F >>> F _ Am _ Gm_ Bb _ C _ Dm_ Em7b5 _ F
1 3 2 4 5 6 7 8

E||-------------------|--1----------------|--0----------------|
B||-------------------|--1----------------|--1----------------|
G||-------------------|--2----------------|--2----------------|
D||-------------------|--3----------------|--2----------------|
A||-------------------|--3----------------|--0----------------|
E||-------------------|--1----------------|--x----------------|

.........................F ..................Am

--3----------------|--1----------------|--0----------------|
--3----------------|--3----------------|--1----------------|
--3----------------|--3----------------|--0----------------|
--5----------------|--3----------------|--2----------------|
--5----------------|--1----------------|--3----------------|
--3----------------|--x----------------|--x----------------|

..Gm................. Bb..................C

---1----------------|---3----------------|--1----------------|
---3----------------|---3----------------|--1----------------|
---2----------------|---3----------------|--2----------------|
---0----------------|---2----------------|--3----------------|
---x----------------|---x----------------|--3----------------|
---x----------------|---x----------------|--1----------------|

...Dm.................... Em7b5 ........... F

Practising Barre Chords - Video 2

When you are learning barre chords at first, it can take a few weeks to get them right if you are just starting off with them. They are traditionally hard to play for almost every player in the beginning.

What you need to do to get them under your fingers is to practise playing them on a DAILY basis. Even a few regular 20 minute sessions with them repeated throughout the day will work wonders. The key here is to play and practise them daily.

It takes a while to build up the strength in your hands and the callouses on your skin. The skin toughens up on the area of your fingertips that you need. It can be a bit 'stingy sore' in the beginning but that will disappear after while.

Make sure NOT to overdo it and take regular breaks when learning them. Gently shake your hands out on a regular basis when practising them. Do say 2 minutes on 2 minutes off for 10 minutes and so on.

IMPORTANT: Any pains or cramps in the hand stop playing immediately!

After all the bad news on barre chord difficulty here's a great bit of news about them to make it all worth it! The 2 chords above and EVERY barre chord are totally moveable, so when you get these right, then you can move them around up to 12 times to get a different chord each time. You can name the chord from the root note.

The chords below A, G#m7b5, D minor, Eminor are used to demonstrate in vid 3.

E||--5--| --7--|
B||--5--| --7--|
G||--6--| --7--|
D||--7--| --6R-|
A||--7--| --x--|
E||--5R-| --x--|

....A....G#m7b5

E||----5--|--7---
B||----6--|--8---
G||----7--|--9---
D||----7--|--9---
A||----5R-|--7R--
E||----x--|--x---

.....Dmin...Emin

R = Root

The best way to practise barre chords is to fret the chord shape and pick out each string individually making sure that each note is ringing out clearly. This is the hard part. You need to stick with it!

When you are sure that each note is clear then you can strum the whole chord. Do give it time to achieve this - it can take weeks, But once you have it mastered it, it sticks with you and you'll have no problem playing barres. Remember we all have this hurdle to cross in the early stages :)!

Then when you are fairly comfortable with playing the shapes, practise changing from one to the other using a metronome set at a low speed, say around 90 *bpm.

Barre chords are well worth the effort to learn as you can move them around onto every fret giving a different chord each time. So if you can play a barre chord shape in 1 position well, it means you can play 12 chords! So each time you learn a new shape you learn 12 chords at once. Keep this in mind as an incentive when you have a problem learning them.

There are only around 5 major barre chord shapes to learn and they get a lot easier as you progress.

In the G#m7b5 shape used above, the 3rd finger barres 3 notes, the tip of the index finger touchs the A string to mute it and the low E string is not played. You can lie your right hand heel of palm over it at the bridge to deaden it too.

*bpm = beats per minute

Lesson Questions, Feedback & Comments

Muris Varajic	15th August 2007
Instructor	Another great chapter in the Chords serial David!!

lliber	16th August 2007
Member	keep em coming

Andrew Cockburn	16th August 2007
Theory Instructor & Moderator	Nice! The wah adds a definate touch of class

shredmandan	16th August 2007
Member	Good Job

David OToole	17th August 2007
Instructor	Yo guys how are yez all - I'm only getting to the forums now and then here with the big move on, but working on getting back to normal asap. Yes Andrew I like me oul wah now and then - actually one of my fave 'Wah heads' is Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy, so it was bit of a coincidence that the Lizzy reference I mentioned above was there. It wasn't planned honestly . Talk to yez soon guys + thanx 4 the encouraging posts! David