F Chord Fingering

Maybe your wrist is too high. If so, try dropping it a little to make your fingers even more perpendicular.

Thanks. That seems to help somewhat, at least until I try to get my 1 finger down on strings 1 and 2 - then the other two fingers 'fall down' a little and I'm muting adjacent strings. Guess I've got to keep working that 1 finger!

BTW, is it possible to have hands that are too big for a particular neck? - my fingers are long and thin (I wear an XL glove), and sometimes it seems like there's just not enough room for all of them on the fretboard. Or Is this how most people feel when starting out? Honest to god though, when I look at pictures/videos it sometimes looks like the players have hard plastic dots on their fingers (and I don't mean right at the end, more like the 2 o'clock position when looking at your left hand sideways, with fingers vertical). Do callouses actually develop there too over time?

Thanks again

I've been using the following finger for an F chord:

xx4312

not sure if that is alright or not, but hey.

Not sure if I can explain this well but when your fingers are perpendicular, and firmly anchored, try 'rolling' your index over a bit so that you're not pressing with the soft underside of your index finger but with the harder, bonier edge.

I wouldn't worry about the size of your hands. After many years of teaching, I've never actually had a student who was unable to learn because of hand size. Lack of natural dexterity, yes, but hand size, no.

It's true, though, that wider neck guitars, such as classicals are easier for avoiding touching adjacent strings by mistake, but the downside of that is in stretching across the wider neck as in a simple G chord.
Don't let your hand size unduly influence the type of guitar you play - persevere. It never ceases to amaze me when I see someone with big fat fingers - zooming all over the fretboard of an electric without even a hint of fret buzz.

I've been using the following finger for an F chord:

xx4312

not sure if that is alright or not, but hey.
I believe that's an F# chord, with X X F# Bb C F#

That is, if your numbers are indicating the frets being played, and not the fingers playing them.

Margaret

Thanks Fretsource, that's pretty much the answer I was looking for. I'll keep plugging away!

I've been using the following finger for an F chord:

xx4312

not sure if that is alright or not, but hey.
I believe that's an F# chord, with X X F# Bb C F#

That is, if your numbers are indicating the frets being played, and not the fingers playing them.

Margaret

No, my numbers are indicating the fingers I use on each string.

I've been using the following finger for an F chord:

xx4312

not sure if that is alright or not, but hey.
I believe that's an F# chord, with X X F# Bb C F#

That is, if your numbers are indicating the frets being played, and not the fingers playing them.

Margaret

No, my numbers are indicating the fingers I use on each string.
In that case, you probably should try to switch to the index (1st finger) covering both the B and high E strings at the first fret. It gets you ready for the barre F chord later on.

Margaret

^^What exactly does that mean? I understand that X means that you don't play the string, but what about the #s?

^^What exactly does that mean? I understand that X means that you don't play the string, but what about the #s?
Those are the actual notes, being played, if you fret xx4312. These are the notes, which constitute an F# chord.
Try fretting xx3211, which is both the fingering and the frets.

^^What exactly does that mean? I understand that X means that you don't play the string, but what about the #s?

Each place represents a string, with left to right being top to bottom as you hold the guitar, or fattest (lowest) string to skinniest (highest) string.

The numbers tell you which frets to hold down on each string

As you know, an X means to not strum that string, or to mute it.

An O means the string is played open, or not fretted at all.

So one form of a G chord is 3 2 0 0 3 3

The low E string is fretted at the 3rd fret, A string at the 2nd fret, D and G strings are played open, B string is fretted at the 3rd fret, and the high e string at the 3rd fret.

This does not tell you the fingering.

Typical fingering for the above chord might be the middle finger on the low E string, index on the A string, ring finger on the B string, and pinky on the high e string.

Margaret

^^What exactly does that mean? I understand that X means that you don't play the string, but what about the #s?

# means 'sharp'.

So F# means F sharp. It's the next note up from F.

Notes names are weird - because they are based on giving basic letter names to only 7 tones (or notes) out of the 12 that we use. The other ones are called sharps or flats.

They aren't actually inferior in any way - or weaker or something - it just reflects that 7 out of the twelve were considered to be a more favoured team (called the key of C) and got all the best names.

There's a bit more too it that that, but sharps are as good as any other note - they're not weaker anything. :shock:

Cheers,

Chris

Glad you caught that, Chris.

I thought Kevin was using the # sign to mean "numbers", never considered that he was asking about the sharp sign I had just used. :lol:

Margaret

^^I did mean it as numbers. :P Haha double meaning...

So lets say it's XXX45O/EADGBE

So you'd likely put your index finger on the 4th fret, G...and your ring finger on the 5th fret B, and just play GB and E.

I think I get and, and as for flats. I don't think I should probably study that right now, it'll prob come to me later.

Thanks to the both of you.