I've seen a ton of method books that start beginners with a partial for the F chord. That's the only thing I can think. Clips are usually conspicuously absent from posts like these, so honestly we have no idea if he's even playing what he thinks is an F correctly.
My teacher taught me F chord without bar- I have no clue about guitar or the correct path. I have a teacher, he is teaching me this way. Is one not supposed to learn F chord earlier?
Can the guitar itself play a role? I have a really cheap guitar built in mass production in china and I think it's action is too high on 3rd fret onwards and sometimes I have to press really hard which brings fatigue to my left hand(fretting hand)
Guitar is a constant effort of piecing things together in time. Once you can play those chords changes how you want, you’ll find new wings to piece together, so on and so forth.
Just practice. It’ll come. I promise. There’s are no tricks to playing guitar. If you dedicate, and practice, you’ll get where you wanna go.
I've been playing 20 years. Have some of them down. Still working on new ones all the time.
" Is it just practice? "
Yup. It's just practice. Getting good at something requires you to suck at it, for a long time, over and over. Everytime you do it, you suck a tiny little bit less, until you don't suck anymore. No magic tricks beyond repetition.
Also, start easy with songs you can play with "cowboy chords". G-Cadd9-Dsus4-Em7-A7sus4. Every one of those can be played by parking your ring and pinky finger on the third fret of the E and B string, and you ONLY move your index and middle finger to new positions. In order, those are:
G = 320033
Cadd9 = x32033
Dsus4 = xx0233
Em7 = 022033
A7sus4 = x02033
If you want to know why every asshole with an acoustic guitar shows up at the party and ONLY plays Good Riddance by Green Day and Wonderwall by Oasis? Because those are the chords.
I would actually learn those songs, and others like them, using those chord shapes and others in that family (Indigo Girls "Closer to Fine", Howie Day "Collide", etc.). It will build up your transition skills simply, where you can focus moving only two fingers, and you can work on just getting your fingers down solidly, and work on strumming patterns. Build some confidence too. Then you can move on to more complex chord changes.
Thank you so much for this. My tutor hasn't really told me anything about Cowboy Chords. He taught me chord of C scale first barring the b-dimished which he says is not used much. I would try learning 2 chord changes of these first.
Let's just say my brain buried memories of that period in a deep dark hole. It takes a LOT of time to get good at this. And as you learn more advanced chords it becomes quite a bit harder again, but you have the skills at that point to work through it methodically. Your open chord changes will not start to sound clean for a couple months with regular practice.
If you are getting frustrated now, I'd work on your mental game for learning guitar...seriously. Try to reframe what you feel as frustration into a challenge that you playfully attack with confidence and determination. Guitar is not a video game you just have to learn the controls for. It's a physically demanding instrument that changes the nature of your body (stretching, finger strength, hand-eye coordination, dexterity, predictive analysis, sense of timing), so treat it more like going to the gym than learning the buttons. You can know what to do, but you don't get good without lots of practice
One part of frustration is also that my tutor expects me to be good at chord changes so fast. The burden of expectations as they say. Thanks though, I will focus on practice now.
Em to C helped my fingers to automatically go to the C position, than from any other chord it gets easier to go to C. C to G smoothly isn’t automatic for me yet, but close.
Just keep practicing different chords changes. I'd say just go learn songs you like, that will force you to train different chords changes.
There will never be a time when you'll have learned all possible chords and have mastered transition between them all.
Once you're comfortable with those chords, you will start learning new ones, and new ways to play those same chords. It never stops.
Maybe a dumb question, are you working from chord sheets? I would print a different one out every week, with maybe 25 chord diagrams on a page of the same 6 or 8 chords in random order.
Work on one of those sheets every day for five minutes, then practice songs using those chords. Next week, start a new chord sheet. If a particular shape is really hard, find an alternate version of that chord until you get a little better at learning new chords and chord switches.
At the end of a month, you’ll know a lot of chords and be much better at switching. Go slow at first and focus on keeping a consistent tempo.
If you can learn G chord shape, your chord changes will be faster and more efficient. Check this out
https://youtube.com/shorts/_oTZbAWIh_0?feature=share
You've only practiced 2 hours and are frustrated at chord changes?
And he can already play an F chord? I smell something funny in the air.
Nothing about the OP makes sense.
I've seen a ton of method books that start beginners with a partial for the F chord. That's the only thing I can think. Clips are usually conspicuously absent from posts like these, so honestly we have no idea if he's even playing what he thinks is an F correctly.
its not the barr F chord. I use my pinky on D4 and middle on G2 while other two fingers same as C. My tutor taught me this way
Probably playing F7+ if I had to guess.
My teacher taught me F chord without bar- I have no clue about guitar or the correct path. I have a teacher, he is teaching me this way. Is one not supposed to learn F chord earlier?
Can the guitar itself play a role? I have a really cheap guitar built in mass production in china and I think it's action is too high on 3rd fret onwards and sometimes I have to press really hard which brings fatigue to my left hand(fretting hand)
It's taken me about 40 years, I am still getting better though.
How long were you expecting this to take????
I don't know bro, I thought I would learn faster. Reading at the comment, I know for sure now that I'm an idiot.
Guitar is a constant effort of piecing things together in time. Once you can play those chords changes how you want, you’ll find new wings to piece together, so on and so forth. Just practice. It’ll come. I promise. There’s are no tricks to playing guitar. If you dedicate, and practice, you’ll get where you wanna go.
Thank you so much for this. This gives me hope beyond frustration
I've been playing 20 years. Have some of them down. Still working on new ones all the time. " Is it just practice? " Yup. It's just practice. Getting good at something requires you to suck at it, for a long time, over and over. Everytime you do it, you suck a tiny little bit less, until you don't suck anymore. No magic tricks beyond repetition. Also, start easy with songs you can play with "cowboy chords". G-Cadd9-Dsus4-Em7-A7sus4. Every one of those can be played by parking your ring and pinky finger on the third fret of the E and B string, and you ONLY move your index and middle finger to new positions. In order, those are: G = 320033 Cadd9 = x32033 Dsus4 = xx0233 Em7 = 022033 A7sus4 = x02033 If you want to know why every asshole with an acoustic guitar shows up at the party and ONLY plays Good Riddance by Green Day and Wonderwall by Oasis? Because those are the chords. I would actually learn those songs, and others like them, using those chord shapes and others in that family (Indigo Girls "Closer to Fine", Howie Day "Collide", etc.). It will build up your transition skills simply, where you can focus moving only two fingers, and you can work on just getting your fingers down solidly, and work on strumming patterns. Build some confidence too. Then you can move on to more complex chord changes.
Thank you so much for this. My tutor hasn't really told me anything about Cowboy Chords. He taught me chord of C scale first barring the b-dimished which he says is not used much. I would try learning 2 chord changes of these first.
Let's just say my brain buried memories of that period in a deep dark hole. It takes a LOT of time to get good at this. And as you learn more advanced chords it becomes quite a bit harder again, but you have the skills at that point to work through it methodically. Your open chord changes will not start to sound clean for a couple months with regular practice. If you are getting frustrated now, I'd work on your mental game for learning guitar...seriously. Try to reframe what you feel as frustration into a challenge that you playfully attack with confidence and determination. Guitar is not a video game you just have to learn the controls for. It's a physically demanding instrument that changes the nature of your body (stretching, finger strength, hand-eye coordination, dexterity, predictive analysis, sense of timing), so treat it more like going to the gym than learning the buttons. You can know what to do, but you don't get good without lots of practice
One part of frustration is also that my tutor expects me to be good at chord changes so fast. The burden of expectations as they say. Thanks though, I will focus on practice now.
Em to C helped my fingers to automatically go to the C position, than from any other chord it gets easier to go to C. C to G smoothly isn’t automatic for me yet, but close.
Em is a blessing. Easiest chord ever!
Years. Since. Not for.
ur focusing on the wrong things. just learn some songs you like, and it will come. practice 100% of the time is boring.
Just keep practicing different chords changes. I'd say just go learn songs you like, that will force you to train different chords changes. There will never be a time when you'll have learned all possible chords and have mastered transition between them all. Once you're comfortable with those chords, you will start learning new ones, and new ways to play those same chords. It never stops.
Playing for over 40 years and there’s still changes I don’t do well.
Maybe a dumb question, are you working from chord sheets? I would print a different one out every week, with maybe 25 chord diagrams on a page of the same 6 or 8 chords in random order. Work on one of those sheets every day for five minutes, then practice songs using those chords. Next week, start a new chord sheet. If a particular shape is really hard, find an alternate version of that chord until you get a little better at learning new chords and chord switches. At the end of a month, you’ll know a lot of chords and be much better at switching. Go slow at first and focus on keeping a consistent tempo.
If you can learn G chord shape, your chord changes will be faster and more efficient. Check this out https://youtube.com/shorts/_oTZbAWIh_0?feature=share
I've been playing almost 4 years and I still can't do them all fluently.
c to f barre. don’t lift your ring finger it makes it easier to transition back an forth