Frigging F chord! I am refreshing this since I'm still not getting anywhere with learning a thumbed F, and since I'm trying to decide whether to keep at it or give up and go back to trying to play the barre chord well.

Let me just spell out what I'm trying to practice to eliminate the small possibility that I've misunderstood what a thumbed F is:

- index finger on E and B strings, first fret
- middle finger on G string, second fret
- ring finger on A string, third fret
- little finger on D string, third fret
- thumb on low E string, first fret.

The problem is the high E string - when I rotate my hand far enough round that my ring and little fingers can reach their places, my index finger lifts slightly on the high E and it ends up muted.

For what it's worth, I often try playing this with a capo on the fourth or fifth fret, with a view to lowering the action and making the horizontal stretch smaller. And I know that going up the neck makes the neck slightly wider though. Both the high and low positions seem equally impossible to me.

Willie-o is now my guitar teacher, and he thinks that my hands are too small for the thumbed F and that I should concentrate on the barre. But I haven't quite given up, for two reasons:

1. I can see the advantages of the thumbed F - easier to change between it and C and G, and the ability to get the scale notes A, D, and G by lifting fingers.

2. I keep seeing here the claim that learning this and other thumbed chords is a question of practice and wrist mobility, not finger length.

So again my basic question is - is this really a chord that anybody can learn if they keep at it? Or are there some - like maybe me - who it won't work for.

I play a folk-sized Seagull, and while my hands are a touch on the small side, I'm not a candidate for the circus or anything...

Marion