[MUSIC]
All right, now we get to do
one of the funnest chords in the,
well the quote open chord category and
in fact,
really this chord is a closed chord.
But it happens down in
open chord territory.
So, the close nature of it, and
I'm talking about the F chord,
is one of the things
that creates a gateway to
some of the coolest things
we can do on the guitar.
And that is to move chords around,
to move one shape and
take it to other positions to
create other chord sounds.
But foundation of it is actually
to learn the F chord, and
this is usually a chord, I know for
me this was a spot that was,
it took me a little while to
kinda get it all together.
The callouses were building,
still building when I had
first attempted this chord.
And the challenge of the position
on the neck where this chord
actually resides, down here,
in a couple of forms,
it's just something I wanna
just encourage you right
from the get go,
just to persevere and be relaxed.
And this is a good opportunity to
just kinda really get in tune,
again with your body, and
how you're holding your guitar and
pressing down the strings and
not being too forceful.
Who knows, it might just go really,
really easily.
Every time I play this chord, [LAUGH]
I'm reminded of all of those things.
And that this gateway chord, this is
a chord that takes us into what are known
as bar chords and those are the movable
cords I was talking about.
So, let's just go right
to how I think the best
way to sort of relate to this thing is,
the F chord.
And that is this.
First of all, I kinda think of
an F chord as really an E chord.
E and an F, they look virtually the same
except by their position on the neck.
So, they're kinda one
in the same in my mind.
They exist in the same file folder.
So, I would say,
[MUSIC]
we start with an E chord.
Here's a common fingering for the E chord,
which we've learned, all right?
[MUSIC]
And then as I showed you on some of
the other chords where we can
maybe redistribute the fingering
to get different advantage,
let's do that with this E chord now.
Now we're gonna like move everything,
I'm gonna take my index finger out.
And I'm just gonna
switch all of the notes.
So we have E, B, another E, G sharp, and
then we have our open B and E, all right?
So all I did was I just
redistributed the fingering
[MUSIC]
to look like that.
So now we're still
talking about an E chord.
[SOUND] But
now we're heading up to the F chord.
And all that means, and
remember between the notes E and F and
also the notes B and C,
there is only a half step, all right?
There's no sharp or
flat in between those notes.
So, all we gotta do is move up one fret.
Cuz remember,
each fret represents a half step.
[SOUND] So, here's redistributed
fingering of an E chord.
Now, I'm gonna focus on these three
strings, five, four, and three.
These are the ones that I'm holding down,
that I'm fretting, all right?
So this is again the B note,
the E note, and the G sharp.
Now I'm gonna move them
up just a half step.
[SOUND] Okay.
This right here is the core of
the new F chord, all right?
And the only thing I'll do next,
not the only thing, but
the next thing I will do is, okay,
if we wanna fill this out to be more
than just these three notes,
if you can grab these three notes and
just play them, so I just went from E
[MUSIC]
up to
F,
[MUSIC]
all right?
And then,
now I've got my index finger back.
If it was E it would be like it was there.
[MUSIC]
Now, what if I went up to
[MUSIC]
F?
And this kinda bar, this is called a bar.
There's a little bit,
here I am, all right,
I'm tucking it right up against the back
of that fret, and I'm just gonna play.
[MUSIC]
Here's a five note F chord.
All right, now I'm starting,
it has a C in the bottom, here's the root.
[MUSIC]
So.
[MUSIC]
And even, so
you could play the top four notes.
You can actually, in this scenario,
that bottom note being a C,
don't emphasize it too drastically,
it works well.
[MUSIC]
But you can see that it's taught as
an open, it's one of the group of open
chords, but it's actually a closed chord.
We are closing down all
the strings on a fret, all right?
[SOUND] Now it's not got a lot of bass
information here because our highest note,
[SOUND] that's a root,
and our lowest root note.
Pardon me.
Our lowest root note is here.
[MUSIC]
Then we've got our fifth, which is C.
And remember in this pool of notes,
this scale,
we go up the ladder from F we'd have F,
G, A, E flat, C, D, E, F.
So, every other note of the triad,
of the first five notes would be F,
A, C, remember?
Do, do, mi, so.
Okay, so the C note, F,
A, C, root three five.
[MUSIC]
Now we've got a C note there,
two C notes in this particular voicing.
[SOUND] So we have C and
F and A, which is our third.
A C, there's another C, and another F.
[SOUND] Right, so
there's the easiest way that I
can think of to learn
to tackle that F chord.
And also check out where my thumb is.
[SOUND] I'm just giving myself some good
support, I'm still playing with my tips,
I've got a nice curl in my hand.
[MUSIC]
And with a little
well-aimed strumming,
well-aimed right hand technique,
[MUSIC]
a little alternating bass.
[MUSIC]
And you've got the ability
to play on an F chord.
[MUSIC]
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