How To Play F Major Chord?

Janvi Arora

8 August, 2024
7 min read

Today, we are handling the daunting task of helping you understand how to play the notorious F major chord. Till today, you might be playing a number of chords with ease, but none of them could become a nightmare like this one.

Lots of beginners think about avoiding it altogether for the sake of not halting their progress. We know when you first started learning guitar, you too might have thought it was something relatively easy to learn, but my friend F chord is the one that can make you question your decision to choose guitar as an instrument to learn.

But fear not, with the help of this blog, you are not only going to learn how to play the F major chord, but we are also going to give you essential tips on how you can make sure that the tiring process of learning this chord won’t last long enough for you. So, let’s begin!

Importance Of F Major Guitar Chord

F major chord is the one that introduced guitar beginners to challenging barre technique, which is the ability to hold down more than one string with just one finger. To produce a clear tone in the barre version of the F major chord, you need to put in equal amounts of strength and coordination, which comes from tons of practice.

How To Play F Major Guitar Chord?

The F major chord forms a triad with a root (F), a major third (A), and a perfect fifth (C). The easiest way to play the F major chord is playing it in the first position, and here’s how you should play it:-

Step – 1: Place your index finger (1) on the 1st fret at the 2nd string.
Step – 2: Place your middle finger (2) on the 2nd fret at the 3rd string.
Step – 3: Place your ringer finger (3) on the 3rd fret at the 4th string.
Step – 4: Place your pinky finger (4) on the 3rd fret at the 5th string.
Step – 5: Now play strings from 2nd to 5th.

F Major Chord Shapes

Given below are the different F major chord shape variations that you need to learn to master the F chord for every fretboard location.

i. F Major Chord Three-note Version

Step – 1: Place your index finger (1) on the 1st fret at the 2nd string.
Step – 2: Place your middle finger (2) on the 2nd fret at the 3rd string.
Step – 3: Place your ring finger (3) on the 3rd fret at the 4th string.
Step – 4: Strum the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings.

ii. F Major Chord With High E String

This is the second variation of the F major chord where you will be using one more string to make the sound more resonating and fuller than the previous version where three 1st, 5th, and 6th were not played. You will be using the index finger (1) as a barre on the 1st fret to hold 1st and 2nd string.

Step – 1: Place your index finger (1) on the 1st fret at the 1st and 2nd string.
Step – 2: Place your middle finger (2) on the 2nd fret at the 3rd string.
Step – 3: Place your ring finger (3) on the 3rd fret at the 4th string.
Step – 4: Now strum strings from 1st to 4th.

iii. F Major Chord Barred Version

In this version of the F major chord, you will be using all strings. This is the ultimate version of the F major, and you will be using this version when playing songs from multiple genres. This is the version that is considered to be the hardest by beginners, making them stuck on this for a long time.

The biggest challenge for playing this version of the F major chord is that you need to place the index finger (1) in such a way that it forms barre on not just one or two strings but on all 6 strings of the guitar. When doing so, some of the strings may not sound right as the finger is not pushing the required pressure on them. Moreover, you have to form a barre near the headstock, which requires a lot of pressure in the first place.

Step – 1: Place your index finger (1) across the fretboard to form the barre on the 1st fret.
Step – 2: Place your middle finger (2) on the 2nd fret at the 3rd string.
Step – 3: Place your ringer finger (3) on the 3rd fret at the 5th string.
Step – 4: Place your pinky finger (4) on the 3rd fret at the 4th string.
Step – 5: Now strum all six strings from top to bottom.

iv. F Major Semi-Barred Version

If you are not able to play the above barre version of the F major chord, then you can practice playing this semi-barre version in which you don’t have to play the 6th string to form this chord.

Step – 1: Place your index finger (1) on the 8th fret in such a way that it forms a barre on the 1st string to the 5th string.
Step – 2: Place your middle finger (2) on the 10th fret at the 4th string.
Step – 3: Place your ring finger (3) on the 10th fret at the 3rd string.
Step – 4: Place your pinky finger (4) on the 10th fret at the 2nd string.
Step – 5: Now strum 1st to 5th strings.

Find here the lesson related to 12 String Guitar and F Major Chord by Torrins.

Tips For Playing F Major Guitar Chord

Given below are a few tips that will help you in conquering the F major chord and lessen your struggle.

Boost Your Moral

One of the first things you need to do when you are feeling like giving up the F major chord is think about how far you have come as a beginner and how many new things you have learned over the past couple of months during your guitar practice sessions. Remember the time you first practiced hard to make sure that the chords you were playing sounded right.

Barre Will Raise Your Bar

The F major chord introduces you to the world of barre chords but it also gives you a foothold onto the next level of guitar training. Yes, learning barre chords is challenging, but without learning how to play them, you are not going to proceed further in your learning.

Practice Playing F Major On Acoustic

When you play the F major chord on an acoustic, you will hear a clear sound, and it will be easier to see where you are making mistakes. In addition to this, the strings present in acoustic guitars are placed a bit above the fretboard. Thus, pressing them down at the exact spot is a bit of a challenge. But once you win over this one, playing the F major chord on an electric guitar is going to be a piece of cake.Here you can find beginner electric guitar lessons.

Lower The String

If you are practicing for quite some time and still not able to play F major then it might be the time for you to lower the action of your guitar, meaning placing strings closer to the fretboard. Once the action is adjusted, you will be able to play the F major chord correctly while applying less pressure on the string.

Practice F Major Step-by-step

As we showcased here, you should first learn how to play the 3-note version of the F major chord. Once you are comfortable with it, you should move to the 2nd version which is putting barre on two chords. Moreover, when you practice F major, make sure to play each chord individually, and after you get a hang of it, start playing the strings together. Repeat the same exercise with three string barre versions and make necessary adjustments to get a clearer sound. You can also read Ways to Chord Change here.

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Frequently Asked Questions

F major is not hard to learn, but a few variations of it can be pretty tricky, such as the barre versions of the F major chord. The thing is, if you are learning guitar just for fun or as a hobby, then learning the basic three-string version of F major is acceptable. But, if you are serious about it, then you need to give time and practice to the barre version of the F major chord as it is the best sounding one of all of them.

F major 7 is said to be the version in which a root note, a major third, and a perfect fifth, along with a major seventh, are present. The chord names are F, A, C, and E, respectively, and when combined together, they form F major 7. When you play this chord, it will sound more like a ticking time bomb, creating a sense of urgency in music.

To be honest, there is no other chord present in guitar and piano that could replace the sound of the F major chord. On the other hand, there’s a way to avoid the F chord, but for that, you need to use a capo on the 3rd fret. Once you put the capo, you can play the D major chord instead of the F chord.

The difference between the F major and F minor chord comes all the way down to a simple change in the 3rd scale. When you are playing an F major chord, it will have 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale. On the other hand, The F minor chord contains 1st, 3rd flattened or lowered, and 5th notes that are exactly similar to the major scales.

When learning guitar chords, it is best to start with the major chords, and once you are able to play all the major chords, you move to their minor versions. The same criteria are defined for F major and F minor. As a result, you first need to learn F major and then F minor.