Very Frustrated

My fingers just dont move that way. A simple F Major and I'll be damned if I can Get my fingers in that position. Just can't do it. Were's my tuba!

Hey Uncle Sonny...
Your not the only one to have trouble with the F chord... I would guess that the F chord problems is the most posted problem in the forums..
Gordon

Originally Posted by: unclesonnyMy fingers just dont move that way. A simple F Major and I'll be damned if I can Get my fingers in that position. Just can't do it. Were's my tuba!

Just keep at it. That was hard and still is for me too, and after months of struggling with that ( and plain avoiding it some) it's finally beginning to sound like a chord (sometimes).
Some one said it helps to practice Dm7 first, then go to F.

Take it slow -- very, very slow if necessary -- and isolate the specific finger movements that are giving you trouble. Go very slow and deliberate (move your fingers in place with your picking hand if you need to) and repeat, repeat, repeat. Don't burn out on long practice sessions -- lots of short practice sessions over time. You'll get there! :-)

Tom

Thanks everybody for the input. It's tough when the eyes see it and the mind thinks it but the fingers say NO! Having a hard time getting these fingers to move in ways they were never asked to move. I would assume that the muscles that move lets say the pinky away from the ring finger are very weak and need to be built up. I'm tryin'

I'm also a beginner here and had a tough time with that one at first. Sometimes I would wonder if I would ever get it but your hand does eventually start "getting it" and it comes much easier. It's rewarding once you see that your practice starts to pay dividends. Persistence and patience.

Originally Posted by: tsphillipsTake it slow -- very, very slow if necessary -- and isolate the specific finger movements that are giving you trouble. Go very slow and deliberate (move your fingers in place with your picking hand if you need to) and repeat, repeat, repeat. Don't burn out on long practice sessions -- lots of short practice sessions over time. You'll get there! :-)

Tom

What Tom said... that's it exactly. You know, a lot of people won't do it... we've all been there... "ok ok, I can get it... I... opps! Ah, crap! Hang on, I got it.. no! wait.. twang!..." and it goes on. BREAK IT DOWN! I swear to god, you will learn chords so much faster when you are wiling to make hideous sounds on your guitar as you put one finger down, play through the "chord", make sure you aren't messing up... ok, it sounds bad but the strings are playing cleanly, add the next, repeat... and build it up SLOWLY.... putting your fingers in all at once is just too much at first.

Think your fingers can't reach? Spread your fingers apart with your hand in front of your face palm outward... now turn your hand around, keeping your fingers spread out, and lay them across your fretboard.. you'll have lots of reach, and your first finger is even making the "bar" just like its supposed to!

Stick with it, you'll get it... seems hard/impossible at first, but it will come with time.

Cal

Thank You everybody. Deliberate, slow and steady. Ok maybe it will take more than a week to learn how to play. I'm here to stay!!

To be honost, it took me way more than one week to play barre chords properly. It took me at least one whole month to train my finger, it's not easy!

And to be playing barre chords the way I do today it took me another half year. Take it at your own pace and be patient!

Originally Posted by: tsphillips......... Don't burn out on long practice sessions -- lots of short practice sessions over time. You'll get there! :-)

Tom

So do you think lots of short practice sessions are better than 1 or two long practice sessions per day?

I think I'm doing both...long practices made up of short sessions.

I do a morning and an afternoon session. I consider them long...at least they're much longer than I ever thought I would practice or ever did when I was a kid (dropped the guitar in the early 70's, picked it back up 11 months ago). But those two long sessions are broken into at least three, and as many as five shorter parts; e.g., GT lessons, scales, chord changes/progressions, songs, finger exercises, etc. These parts of the long sessions are in turn divided into their own short segments; e.g., individual songs or different scales.

It all adds up to a lot of time but the time goes by quickly and there's no fatigue. Practice is varied and if one part is going badly or is boring or otherwise isn't much fun (rarely the last two) it's not long until I move on to something else.

BTW, the short segments have scheduled amounts of time and the timer I use doesn't start until fingers are on the strings. There is very, very little time wasted or frittered away. I built up gradually; basically starting from scratch at 10 minutes a day. Now I often hit three and a half hours daily and the time is still increasing.

I think this is working very well for *me*. I never dread starting practice and once into it I have a ball. :)

Hey John... just reading through your post and remembered that you were worried about hand problems from too much practice in another thread... the way you're approaching is excellent, and I doubt if you'll have any issues at all.

Cal

Hi Cal!

I did run into some fret-hand problems in early fall. I was practicing a particular Cmaj scale at the first frets and forcing the stretch. I got a fair amount of stiffness and some pain out of that. I finally concluded that I could be leading up to some real damage so I dropped that scale and some other big-stretch scales out of my routine. Within a week the symptoms were gone. :) I do have some stiffness in my fingers but I'm convinced that that is part of my advanced age. ;) The good thing is that, although I often wake up with finger stiffness, the guitar practice makes it better. Those kind of results I like! The practice I do now, much longer than those in the fall, don't seem to have any negative effects. But as I posted above, the length of the practice sessions grew over 11 months to where they are now...

Study scales and you will find that you are not tieed down to any specific chord pattern.

Hi matonanjin,

When it comes to moving your fingers, many short sessions are the way to go. The hand movements need to be automatic -- engaged without conscious thought -- and that takes time for connections in the brain to form. (Likely in the cerebellum, at a minimum, but I think the exact process for motor memory consolidation is not yet fully understood. There are some other complications, like what else one is practicing, but they probably are not worth worrying about in this context.)

"Cramming" might be an acceptable strategy to get through a test the next day, but is not a good strategy when you really want to know something long-term.

The underlying principle should be that one strives to practice something as often as possible, not for as long as possible.

Tom

Hi unclesonny,

I just posted this in another thread:

Barre chords are a notorious barrier, and once you break through it a whole world of songs will open up to you. It's only a matter of strengthening your grip. It just takes time.

When I switched from acoustic to electric it made a big difference, because the strings on an acoustic tend to be heavier gauge and higher off the neck, making them harder to press down.

Try practicing your F barre chord shape up higher on the neck, where the string tension isn't so strong (it's always harder to play barre chords near the nut). Try using the same fingering but start at the 5th or 7th fret. It will also help your wrist be more comfortable. Then you can start moving it back towards the 1st fret again.

-Carl.