Don't shoot me!

We got sidetracked a bit in Shamble's "VOW" thread so I'm bringin' this over here where it can't harm anybody. Sorry Sham.

There are three or four ways to play an "F" chord, and I know that at least two of them cause folks grief. When I first started, my index finger was not strong enough to do a full barre F. I just used the first 4 strings. Since I didn't have a lot of right hand control either I would often accidentally hit the open E and A string as well. When my mother would hear this she'd hit the roof! Bad enough that my models were Woodie Guthrie and Jimmie Rodgers rather than Mozart (or even Benny Goodman) but now she was hearing her kid play a "WRONG" and an "INAPPROPRIATE" note. Naturally the E is just wrong, but the fifth string A, although in an "F" chord, makes for a very bad first position inversion, and just doesn't sound tight.

She insisted I at least cover the fifth and make it "A". Tricky, but after about five days I managed it, using the ring finger on the fifth and little finger on the fourth. Still strummed sloppy though and kept hitting the open E. Still couldn't barre. She'd say "can't you play an "F" on the bass"? Only with my thumb, I thought. I tried. It sounded awful and I muffled the high strings when I tried. Not having Segovia around to tell me I HAD to barre it was a help. Within a couple of days it was working. Within a week I'd gotten it. I was playing a classical Goya (G-13) with a medium width neck and I don't have large hands or long fingers. I did however work like a sunnava gun for several days on it.

The REAL Payoff? I'd also learned F#,G,Ab,A,Bb and B with only one hand position. Give it a real try...it's a heck of an accomplishment.

Rick