Originally Posted by: GibsonDoolsI am just starting out. I have found that I can deal with the basic chords until I tried the F Major chord.
It is kicking my butt. I know practice makes for muscle memory etc. I just can't get it right. Any advice is welcome.

The strings at the first few frets are actually harder to press down because they are so close to the nut, so you could "build up" to the F-bar chord by playing bar chords higher up on the neck and getting used to performing the technique correctly, and then once you have the technique correct, you can start working on strength and moving it down the neck. Another option is to use lighter string gauge. Heavier strings sound better in my opinion, but there is a price to pay with the bigger sound... So possibly switch out to lighter strings for now while you are getting used to the proper technique.

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