# F, the F major guitar chord

F major is the first full barre most players meet, and the reason plenty of them stall for a week. It’s the E shape carried up one fret, with the index lying flat across all six strings to do the job the nut used to do. Don’t squeeze with the thumb alone: roll the index a little toward its bony edge and let the weight of the arm help. If the B and high E strings buzz at first, that’s normal, since they sit under the softest part of the finger.

F

## How to play it

- Index finger flattened across the low E string (6th), B string (2nd) and high E string (1st), 1st fret.
- Middle finger on the G string (3rd), 2nd fret.
- Ring finger on the A string (5th), 3rd fret.
- Pinky on the D string (4th), 3rd fret.

## Changes to practice

Holding F still is the easy part. Songs need you to _arrive_ at it in rhythm, so in Strumhold you practice F as changes, alongside the rest of the E-shape Barres set:

- [F ↔ F♯m](https://strumhold.com/chords/f-sharp-minor/) F major to F♯ minor [Drill](https://strumhold.app/#/drill/pair/F%23.min.E~F.maj.E)
- [F ↔ Gm](https://strumhold.com/chords/g-minor-e-shape/) F major to G minor in E-shape [Drill](https://strumhold.app/#/drill/pair/F.maj.E~G.min.E)

## Same root, different color

- [Fm](https://strumhold.com/chords/f-minor/), F minor
- [F7](https://strumhold.com/chords/f-7/), F dominant 7
- [Fm7](https://strumhold.com/chords/f-minor-7/), F minor 7
- [Fmaj7](https://strumhold.com/chords/f-major-7/), F major 7

## Hear yourself get faster

Strumhold listens to your guitar through your device's mic, a headset, or a line-in from your audio interface. You drill a chord change to a metronome and it scores every single change. Free, no account, works offline.

[Drill F in the app](https://strumhold.app/#/drill/pair/F%23.min.E~F.maj.E)