Tips for proper form for barre F chord? (And other barre chords)

On day 6, it seems that trying to master barre chords might be a bit much.  Perhaps you should slow down and start over, trying to master some basic open chords first?  A favorite among many chordie members is www.justinguitar.com ... good luck, and welcome to Chordie!!

The one tip I can give you is to learn all your simple chords, Am, Em, E, etc using your 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger as opposed to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd finger.  When you get used to that, then your barre finger will always be free to barre.  I learned using the first three fingers for open chords and it is very hard for me to change after all these years.  You are new enough to start this from the beginning before you develop bad habits.

Thanks guys for the advice. This justinguitar.com is WAY better than the guide I whipped through in my first few days playing.

Bensonp, I'm very interested in what you said, because logically it makes a lot of sense. But it is opposite to everything else I read/watch... Does anyone else recommend this?

Hello will236, I am with bensonp on this, learn to use your 2nd,3rd,4th fingers. This is not a bad way to play a G chord as well, it makes the change to a C chord quite easy I found.
You seem to be prgressing very well after only 6 days, take your time and everything will fall into place and you will wonder what you made such a fuss about.
Cheers
Bushy

It sound to me like you are trying to learn all the chords at once. There are a lot of songs that have just three or four chords and if you already know GCand D, or EA and B you can play them. I'd stick to some of these untill you work up a little strength and dexterity in your fingers. I don't want to discourage you from the barre, I just spent a lot of time in my beginning trying to learn ALL the chords instead of enjoying what I found easy. That can be a discouraging route. Try to find songs you want to play that have the easy chords with only one hard chord in the bridge, and slowly work your way into playing those Barre chords.

I can attest to this being a KEY component to learning your barre chords FAST!!
i started out using fingers 12&3 to do my open chords but my online teacher (Marty Schwartz) recommended using the Middle, Ring and Pinky fingers for open chords.

Mon-o-man did that change my world!!! I could switch from barre to open chords ultra fast!!
And it made my hand stronger as well, which helped me when I started doing scales!

Dm

i've been playing barre chords for 40 years now (up-to 4 hours a night) and i've never suffered with cramp, except once when i got it between my thumb and forefinger (after i got hit by another guitarist as we passed on stage!)
i've always used the forefinger to barre, sometimes i leave the top string out it depends if i need the bass note. i cant get my thumb around to hold the E string anyway!
capo's are good, but they make you lazy. i only use one for tonal effect.

phill

I'm a "long time listener, first time caller".  I haven't played in decades and am just starting again.  In regards to the Bensonp tip about learning 1st position chords with the 234 fingers,  I would like to repectfully disagree (just to show my Irish).  While it makes sense if you're going to transition to barre chords, if you're strumming the 1st position chords, the pinky finger is the only link to the sus4 and the 7th and also the "walk down" on the low (E A )strings.
I like to keep my index finger in contact the G string as much as possible.  Every instruction book or fingering chart has the index finger on the G string for the E and the D, but not for the A.  If you play the A chord with the index finger on the G, bird finger on the D and ring finger on the B, all you have to do is slide/pivot the index finger.  (Play Gloria by Them and see how easy it is). 
If you're using the barre for electric rock or blues, you still use the pinky to do the chunka-chunka Chuck Berry lick.
Anyway, I think I got carried away.

bonedaddy mentions B7th as a chord to watch out for...why? there are several ways to play every chord all a player needs to do is find them, then the easiest one and finally the one that sounds best for the piece they're playing. it all comes with time, experience and practice. a lot of people get problems with "B minor", i don't understand why, it's just A minor up two frets with a barre!

icecubetray3pack mentions "A" chord shape, here's a tip and i know a lot of players use it, instead of using 3 fingers to play "A", use just one across all 3 strings. it will take a bit of practice, but once you get it it will help with barre chords, and your half way there to play "F sharp minor", (as used in Pretty Woman). as for muting strings, well you'll get that, sometimes it even adds to the effect.

try playing "F" without barring at all, don't play the bottom E string, but play the top E, it gives you "F major 7th", and fills in the sound and gives an extra dimension...i often play "G" the same way, it will give you "G6th" try it.

phill

Absolutely.  Almost every chord you learn at the nut can be played anywhere on the neck so long as you can get all four fingers involved.  Freeing up that index finger frees up the rest of the fretboard.