How to play the F chord on guitar

The F major chord is one of those rites of passage you have to go through as a beginner guitarist. Let’s be honest…the F barre chord sucks when you first try it! But help is at hand as I’ll share with you the alternatives for the F barre chord if you’re just getting started out.

But even if you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll find some new F chord ideas here. Let’s first just be clear on exactly what an F chord is.

F Major Chord Theory

An F major chord is a 3-note triad, consisting of the notes F, A, and C. These are identified as the Root (F), third (A), and fifth (C), named as such because they are the first, third and fifth notes of the F major scale:

F MAJOR SCALE

You can think of the chord coming from the F major scale. From any major scale, if you take this first, third and fifth notes and combine them together, you have a major chord.

F MAJOR CHORD (SCALE)

Notice how the distance between the Root and the third (3) is two whole steps (a major third) but the distance between the third (3) and fifth (5) is a whole step plus half step (a minor third).

Put those three notes together and you have an F chord (or F major triad). Here is the F chord in the open position:

F MAJOR TRIAD (OPEN POSITION)

F Chord Finger Position

Let’s start with the first shape, the F major seven chord (Fmaj7):