How to Play an F Chord in No Time - A Quick Guide to Most Beginning Guitarists' First Chord Nemesis

What if there was a simple way to take the fire out of the F chord? I'm here to tell you, there is.

The trick sounds counter intuitive: instead of muscling your way through the F chord, we're going to learn two other related chords first. These chords will help your hand become accustomed to doing the two things that make the F chord difficult at first.

Once you've had a chance to work these two chords for a while, you'll find the F chord naturally comes into your hand.

So, without further ado, please let me introduce you to: the F major 7 chord and the D minor 7 chord.

Hang on, hang on-I know those chords at first sound intimidating. But trust me, they're both a heck of a lot easier to finger than the F chord that's been driving you crazy.

So, let's get busy making F chord miracles happen.

The F major 7 will be our first stop for two reasons: 1) it's easier to play than D minor 7 and 2) we can actually use F major 7 in many situations where the dreaded normal F chord is called for. So it's a substitution that sounds really beautiful and helps you begin playing any song that calls for an F before you can really get the full F to sound.

To make an F major 7, you basically create a diagonal line with your index, middle and ring fingers. The index finger goes on the 1st fret of the 2nd string. The middle finger goes on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string. And the ring finger goes on the 3rd fret of the 4th string.

To play the full F major 7 chord, you strum those three fretted strings plus the open 1st string. So, four strings in all combine to create F major 7. Go ahead and strum it now.

Sounds nice, doesn't it? It has a really sweet, almost haunting sound. This chord will often work instead of the full F chord. Try it out whenever you come across an F chord in a song, and see if it works for you.

Now that we've learned F major 7, it's time to learn D minor 7.

D minor 7 is a little harder, because it contains that two-string bar on the first fret that makes the regular F chord so challenging until you've built up your finger strength and calluses a bit.

However, the D minor 7 doesn't involve using the ring finger to fret that 3rd fret 4th string F note. Which means it's a simpler chord than the regular F and doesn't require as much finger separation and stretching to reach the full chord.

Here's how to make D minor 7: use your first finger as a bar over the 1st fret of both the 1st and 2nd strings. That's the tricky part. You might have to work on it a bit to be able to make both notes sound nice as you play those strings.

To finish up the D minor 7 chord, use your middle finger to fret the 2nd fret of the 3rd string. And then just play strings 1 through 4 with an open 4th string that gives you the D bass note.

So that's D minor 7-a mysterious minor-sounding chord that, if you look closely, resembles a piece of the regular F chord.

If you can't play both of those chords separately, you'll never be able to play the regular 4-string F all together. So work at it until both of those chords-the F major 7 and the D minor 7-come into your hand and stop giving you problems.

Since the regular F chord is just the combination of both the D minor 7, including its pesky first-fret two-string bar, with the F major 7's diagonal extension of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers across the 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings, you'll find your hand readily making the regular F without fear or frenzy.

And that's how to make a regular F chord in a nutshell!

Come on over to Nashville guitar lessons to learn more about how to get better at the guitar.

Matt Coffman lives in Nashville, Tennessee and wants you to be the best you can be on your guitar. Find our more at http://www.stringloveguitar.com