Does the "F" Chord CHALLENGE EVERYONE?

[johnd]

Good point. Playing a song where I have a mixture of open and barre chords can be a bit tricky, which was partly why I asked the question... my F (or A & B using the same shape up on 5th/7th fret which sound nice) tend to a lot quieter than playing E or regular A.

[Monk of Funk]

Originally Posted by johnd

Good point. Playing a song where I have a mixture of open and barre chords can be a bit tricky, which was partly why I asked the question... my F (or A & B using the same shape up on 5th/7th fret which sound nice) tend to a lot quieter than playing E or regular A.

Ya, quieter, and also, playing up on the 5th for your A, will let you do more. You can add that ninth up there with your pinky, and you have more of a range to do stuff like playing a A maj ninth and stuff like that, or the high D shaped Emaj, with an A root. You have a larger range between your low root note, and all the other higher notes you could hit in the same hand positioning, which I find is more useful, than having notes below your root that are available. But that can depend also on the tune, and how you finger also.

Like I said, I play barres like the A on 5th, by fretting the low A with my thumb, and the high A and E with my index, and the other 3 as one would guess after that. I play those almost exclusively that way, except for times where I might wanna hammer on a A7, then I need to do the standard barre with index, and hammer on the rest.