The F chord is the barre move that all beginners dread. You can avoid it, thereby limiting your repertoire. But, if you really want to learn how to play the guitar, then sooner or later you will have to learn how to play the barre. Moreover, there is nothing complicated in it. If you practice regularly, you will quickly master the F chord.

Fingerings and notation of chords

Chords are indicated by capital Latin letters (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). F is F major. Additional letters and numbers after a capital letter indicate a particular chord variation. For example, the letter m means that this is a minor consonance. The number 7 indicates that it is a seventh chord, etc.

Unlike the piano keyboard, the guitar neck allows you to play the same consonance in different positions. Fingering is used to specify how a chord should be played. It looks like this.

Fingering example

The fingering shows where on the neck you need to press a particular string.

The structure of major and minor triads F

F major (F) consists of sounds: fa (F), do (C), la (A).

F minor (Fm) consists of their sounds: F (F), C (C), G-sharp (G#).

The notes included in the consonance must be memorized in order to play a chord anywhere on the fretboard. This is very useful when you play in an ensemble or rock band with two guitars.

F (F major) and Fm (F minor) on guitar

Pick up the guitar and start pinching the chord fingerings.

F major in first position

Take the barre on the 1st fret. With your middle finger, press the 3rd string on the 2nd fret, place your ring finger and little finger on the 3rd fret, on the 5th and 4th strings.

F major in 1 position

Play a chord. Probably the first two strings sound muffled or not sound at all. If this is true, then slightly bend and turn your index finger towards the guitar deck. Find the optimal position at which all strings sound. In this case, in no case do not turn your index finger into a crooked claw. It should be either straight or gently curved.

IMPORTANT! thumb position

When playing barre chords, place your thumb in the middle of the back of the fretboard. So your effort will be focused on the fingers, and not on the hand and forearm. In this position, the hand will get tired much less.

F minor in first position

Fm differs from F only in the position of the middle finger. When playing a minor triad, it remains free.

F minor in 1 position

F on the 3rd fret

You can take F from the 3rd fret. In this case, the fingering will be similar to the D major form. Try placing your fingers as shown in the image below and play a chord.

F major on the 3rd fret

Fm on the 3rd fret

The minor triad in F from the 3rd fret has the form of a D minor chord. In practice, it is not used due to the fact that it is inconvenient to move from this position to other consonances.

F minor on the 3rd fret

F with a small barre at the 5th fret

And this variation of F is similar to C major. Only played not on the 1st, but on the 6th fret.

F major with small barre on the 5th fret

Fm on the 5th fret

Such an unusual Fm fingering can only be found in the compositions of guitar freaks like Robert Fripp and Frank Zappa. An ordinary F-minor guitarist would never play like that.

F minor on the 5th fret

F and Fm c barre in eighth position

Fingerings F and Fm with the barre in 8th position are used when playing the electric guitar in cases where the instrument needs to be given a brighter sound to the instrument.

Applications look like this.

Major triad.

F major in 8 positions

Minor triad.

F minor in 8 positions

F and Fm after the 12th fret.

After the 12th fret, all chord fingerings are repeated because the notes on the guitar fretboard are repeated. They just go up an octave. For example, an F at the 17th fret looks the same as one at the 5th.

F major on the 5th fret F major at the 17th fret

If you can't play F major

Beginners usually put off learning F major until the last minute. If you find it difficult to hold the barre, there is another way to play F major on the first frets. Look at the fingering and play the strings as shown.

Alternative way to play F major

Please note that the first 2 strings must be clamped with one index finger.

IMPORTANT! About difficulties

Learn the barre anyway. The method of playing F-major described above is necessary so that your learning does not slow down. But this fingering is not a full-fledged replacement for the usual F major.

Popular F Chord Variations

Because the F consonances are played with the barre, there are not too many popular variations. In practice, guitarists use variations with a sharp and a fifth chord. More rarely - nonchords and seventh chords.

Major seventh chord in F (F7)

The fingering for this variation is as follows.

Grand major seventh chord in F

To get F7, hold down F and remove your little finger from the neck.

F-sharp minor (F#m)

F sharp minor is the most popular variation of F consonances. It is clamped in the same way as F minor, but not on the 1st fret, but on the 2nd.

F-sharp minor

Large nonchord in F (F9)

F9 is clamped like F7 with little finger on string 1, 3rd fret.

Large nonchord in F

F fifth chord (F5)

Note that only three strings need to be played in a fifth chord. The rest you have to jam with the palm of your left hand.

The F5 fifth chord can be played in either 1 or 8 positions.

1 item

F quint chord in 1 position

8 position

F fifth chord in 8 positions

In the musical environment, quintchords are called "fifths", or "power chords" (from the English power chords).

INTERESTING.

Some guitarists drop the 6th string down a tone. Thanks to this, the fifth chord can be pinched with one finger.

This technique is called drop-tuning. It is often used by musicians working in heavy genres of rock music.

F major in drop tune

Exercise "Popular Sequences"

Before you start learning F songs, spend some time practicing transitions from barre to open chords and back again. The most a big problem beginners - the inability to quickly hold all the strings with the index finger and put the rest of the fingers in the right positions. But you can get rid of this problem only with the help of regular training.

Below is the sequence of chords you need to practice playing.

Open Chord Sequences

Most popular progression: Am F C E.

Having learned this combination of consonances, you can easily play songs such as “Everything is going according to plan”, “I was looking for you”, “Whistle”, “My enemy, be afraid of me”, “Half” and a dozen others.

Combination: Dm F E.

As you play this sequence, you practice the transition Dm - F, and then F - E. When you change position for the first time, keep your middle finger on the 3rd string. Move only the index and ring fingers and little finger. For the second change of position, simply move your hand without changing the position of your fingers.

It turns out that you pinch E-major with your middle, ring fingers and little finger. This is incorrect in terms of E fingering, but very convenient in practice.

Sequences with barre

First sequence with barre: F C G.

When you play it, you are practicing the transition from one type of barre to another. If you ever plan to pick up an electric guitar, then you should definitely master this sequence.

Next set of chords: Am, G, F, E.

Here, all chords must be played with a barre. It turns out that you are moving down the neck. In this order, these 4 chords played with the barre are sometimes referred to as the "Spanish progression".

The third barre progression includes a sharp chord: F#m, Bm, A, G.

If you have mastered the two previous chord progressions, then playing this one will not be difficult at all. F#m is often found in songs. And almost always he is paired with Bm.

TIP: Think ahead

When you are about to play a song, look through the sequence of harmonies before you start playing. Imagine how you will replace one chord with another. Find comfortable positions. Where to play with open strings, and where to get a barre.

It's better to sit for half a minute learning the chords than to stop in the middle of a song trying to find the right fingering.

In the future, when you already have some experience, the entire process of analyzing sequences will take a fraction of a second. But at the beginning of training, this should be given more time.

Popular guitar songs using F chords

Below is a list of popular songs that contain F, F7, F#m, Fm. First, take 1-2 songs to study. Learn them so that you can play from memory. Expand your repertoire gradually. Try to add only the songs you like. Because they are more fun to play.

• Chizh- "Phantom"
• civil defense- "Everything goes according to plan"
• Chaif- "Oh-yo"
• Bi-2 and Chicherina- "My rock and roll"
• Night sniper y - "You gave me roses"
• army song"When is the order?"
• Buckwheat- "Love me Love"
• Nirvana- "Smells like Teen Spirit"
• Movie- "Blood type"
• King and the Clown- "I'm jumping off a cliff"
• Lube- "You carry me, river"
• beetles- "Battery"
• Aria- "Lost heaven"
• Movie- "Good night"
• 5'nizza- "Soldier"
• 25/17 - "Star"
• A. Prikhodko- "Faith"
• Natalie“Oh my God, what a man!”
• M. Krug- "Kolschik"
• "Golden ray of sunshine"

Attention! Enhanced level difficulties

If you feel strong enough, then try playing the opening riff of the song "Song 2" by the band Blur. This song uses the fifth chord F.

Keys F dur (F major) and F moll (F minor)

The table shows the harmonies that can be used when playing in the keys of F.

Key	Basic chords						Additional chords
F major	F	B	C	Dm	gm	A	Am	D
F minor	G#	C#	D#	fm	A#m	C	cm	F
F sharp major	F#	B	C#	D#m	G#m	A#	A#m	D#
F-sharp minor	A	D	E	F#m	bm	C#	C#m	F#

• Although F major is often used in songs, compositions very rarely begin with this consonance.
• Among all the chords, the F variation (F-sharp, F-sharp minor) is the most commonly used in popular music (for example, Movie- "Blood type", Rage against the machine- "Bulls on the parade", etc.).

What to remember

1. F-major with barre can be replaced with another fingering, but only for the first time.
2. Once you learn the F major, you can play the barre and any other chord. This technique will greatly expand your technical capabilities.
3. In F chords, you only need to memorize one fingering (with barre on the first fret).
4. The combination of Am, F, C, E chords allows you to play dozens of popular songs.

When studying solfeggio, students have to deal with many scales. One of them - F-sharp minor - will be considered in our article. It is not too complicated, since it contains only three characters with a key, unlike scales and sequences, which can have up to seven basic characters, not counting double-sharp and double-flat.

F-sharp minor: signs

Gamma is the most common minor sequence, and, as already mentioned, contains only three signs in the form of sharps: fa, do and sol.

On the basis of this, the whole sequence is built. It is designated as F# moll or fis-moll, which is common in guitar scores or chord fingerings.

The tonic note is fa#, the subdominant is si, and the dominant is do#. On these three steps, the main triads of the scale are built, which will be discussed below.

Parallel Major

Like all the others, the F-sharp minor scale has a parallel major. This is A major. The detection technique is very simple. So, for a minor, one should build a semitone upwards from the last sign at the key. In our case, this is a semitone from sol #, which gives a pure note la.

Two methods can be used to determine the parallel minor. The first one involves building a small third down from the tonic (in our case, from a pure note la we get fa #. The second method is to count the third from the right in signs with the key. This will be the desired minor corresponding to major.

Many composers have turned and are turning to these keys. There are also many of them among Russian classics, since these keys have a very warm sound for human hearing.

Varieties of the minor scale

Like any other minor scale, F-sharp minor has three main varieties: natural, harmonic and melodic.

The difference between these types of scale sequences is that in the natural minor, the forward and reverse order is played without changing signs.

In the harmonic scale, when constructing a direct and reverse sequence, the VII step rises by half a tone (for the F-sharp minor scale, we get mi#).

As for the melodic minor, when playing an ascending scale, the VI and VII steps rise by half a tone, and when descending, the increase is canceled (a becar sign is put in the scale itself). For F minor, such steps are D and E.

Minor chords and triads: general principles of construction

When looking at building triads and chords, the general principle is that when you create a chord, you simply add a note offset up or down to the triad. In the simplest case, this is the tonic, an octave higher. But, depending on the type of chord, the interval between the note from which the construction is made may be different.

In the case of the F-sharp minor scale, the tonic triad contains the notes F#, A, and C#. If, for example, it is built with the tonic of the first octave, adding an F-sharp in the second octave will give the simplest chord.

For a triad based on a subdominant, this will be a combination of notes si-re-fa#, for a dominant - do#-mi#-sol#. Please note: the triad on the fifth degree is always built on the basis of the harmonic minor, since it is this degree that is responsible for the sound of the dominant seventh chord, and in it, as you know, the seventh degree rises by half a step.

In general, for all minor triads that are built up, there is a single rule. From the main note, a small third is first built, and from the next - a large third. If you look at the construction of a triad down, it is easy to see that it is one of the inversions (when each triad is built from each next note, moving the previous one an octave higher).

So it turns out that the triad down from the tonic F-sharp gives a combination of f#-do#-la, but only two octaves lower than the standard upward reversal. When building down, first a perfect down fourth is used, and then a major third is added to it.

Instead of an afterword

If you look at the F sharp minor scale itself, it is very popular among many composers and performers, only because it corresponds to its parallel A major. This is especially pronounced among guitarists, since the A-major itself in the fingering is one of the simplest chords and is taken with just three fingers on the second fret, holding the second, third and fourth strings.

With F-sharp minor, the situation is somewhat more complicated, because in order to extract a standard chord, you need to master the barre technique.

For pianists, this minor scale, even with high-speed performance, does not cause any particular difficulties.

There are quite a few examples of using this key in conjunction with a parallel major, even rockers playing glam or soft metal music, for the most part, turn to these scales and sequences based on them. In addition, both keys are suitable for both male and female voices. It is not surprising that it is in these genres that most of the compositions based on the standard “Italian square” (A major-F # E major) and its varieties are found.

In this article, we will continue the conversation about musical notation - we will study accidentals. What is alteration? Alteration- this is a change in the main steps of the scale (the main steps are do re mi fa sol la si ). What exactly is changing? Their height and slightly the name changes.

Sharp- raises the tone by half a step flat- lowering it by half a tone. After the note is changed, then one word is simply added to its main name - respectively, sharp or flat. For example, C-sharp, F-sharp, A-flat, E-flat etc. In notes, sharps and flats are indicated by special signs, which are also called sharps And flat. Another sign is also used - natural, it cancels any alteration, and then, instead of sharp or flat, we play the main sound.

See what it looks like in sheet music:

What is a semitone?

Now let's look at everything in more detail. What kind of semitones are these? Semitone is the shortest distance between two adjacent sounds. Let's take a look at the piano keyboard as an example. Here is an octave with signed keys:

What do we see? We have 7 white keys and the main steps are located on them. There seems to be a rather short distance between them, but, nevertheless, there are black ones between the white keys. We have 5 black keys. It turns out that in total there are 12 sounds in an octave, 12 keys. So, each of these keys in relation to the nearest neighbor is located at a distance of half a tone. That is, if we play all 12 keys in a row, then we will play all 12 semitones.

Double sharp and double flat

In addition to simple sharps and flats, in musical practice, double sharps And double flat. What doubles are are double step changes. In other words, double sharp raises the note by two semitones at once (that is, by a whole tone), and double flat- lowers a note by a whole tone ( one tone is two semitones).

Natural- this is a sign of the cancellation of alteration, it acts in relation to doubles in exactly the same way as to ordinary sharps and flats. For example, if we played f-double-sharp, and then some time before the note F bekar appears, then we play a “clean” note "F".

Random and Key Signs

So, let's sum up.

We talked about accidents: we learned what accidents are and what signs of accidents are. Sharp- this is a sign of increasing by half a tone, flat- this is a sign of lowering a note by a semitone, and natural- a sign of cancellation of alteration. In addition, there are so-called duplicates: double sharp and double flat- they raise or lower the sound at once by a whole tone (a whole tone are two semitones).

That's all! I wish you continued success in your musical education. Come to us more often, we will analyze others interesting topics. If you liked the material, click "I like" and share the information with your friends. Now I suggest you take a break and listen. good music performed by the brilliant contemporary pianist Yevgeny Kissin.

Ludwig van Beethoven - Rondo "Rage over the lost penny"

in magical and wonderful world music, every step brings new impressions, unique emotions. Despite the apparent insignificance of the distance to the adjacent piano key (semitone) - this is precisely the smallest step of music, this interval is very significant if we talk about the harmonic component.

musical angles

One can draw a parallel with photography: one step to the side brings with it a change in perspective, and sometimes the object appears in a completely different, hitherto unseen light.

And since sound waves and light are the driving force of photography, from the point of view of physics (and, as you know, it is useless to argue with the exact sciences), these are phenomena of the same order and often obey the same laws, which means that a change in indicators can cause a similar effect.

The wisdom of the classics

This circumstance, as a rule, is neglected by pop songwriters, whose creations, at the request of the performer, can be transposed into any key. Using our system of images, one can liken such a composer to a photographer who does not care if the frame is underlit or overexposed - after all, he shoots the same landscape.

Classical composers, and after them the entire academic school, were well aware of the above circumstance, especially since among them there were scientists in the field of physics and chemistry. The classics were very scrupulous about choosing the tone of their works. The tonality was often included by them in the name itself, which means that it could not be changed in any way at the whim of one or another capricious performer.

colorful music

And such outstanding figures of musical art as Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, being endowed with the so-called “color hearing”, perceived each key as a certain color scale.

The phenomenon of color hearing is explained by the existence of the psychological phenomenon "synesthesia", which refers to the process of an involuntary response of one type of receptor to the stimulation of another.

Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin used the term "tonality" to refer to the color range inherent in a particular musical key. Not without interest is the fact that the word "tone", which is the root of the lexeme "tonality", is also used in fine arts and photos.

In addition to color associations, Scriabin gave tonalities such epithets as "spiritual" tonalities, such as, for example, F-sharp minor, F-sharp major and "earthly, material", including C-major, F-major and others.

Color tone

Colors, in turn, for Scriabin, were symbols of the fundamental components of the universe. So, red in this system is associated with the "color of hell", purple and blue - denote spiritual component being. Based on this unique worldview, Scriabin wrote the symphonic poem Prometheus. The score of this work, in addition to the instruments of the symphony orchestra, included a party of light. At the premiere of "Prometheus" in 1910, for the first time in history, light and music equipment was used. This event anticipated the widespread use of such equipment in concerts today, as well as all kinds of laser shows.

However, Scriabin was deeply mistaken, arguing that the color-sound perception of all owners of such hearing is no different from each other.

Many composers had an individual vision of sounds and tonalities, sometimes radically different from Scriabin's ideas.

A bit of theory

In this article, we will consider only one key - F-sharp minor - and compare the ideas about this key among different composers.

To begin with, let's give a little theoretical background on the tonality itself. It has the Latin designation fis-moll. The key of F-sharp minor has signs at the key - sharps F, C and G. Random signs may vary depending on the type of minor (natural, harmonic, melodic, etc.). The F-sharp minor (natural) scale consists of the following sounds:

• f-sharp;
• salt-sharp;
• C-sharp;

Despite the fact that this tonality is not among the most common, there are many examples of musical art written in this vein. Among the well-known musical works written in this key: "Piano Sonata No. 1" by Schumann, etudes in F-sharp minor by Scriabin and Leshgorn. One cannot ignore Scriabin's Piano Concerto Op. 20. Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in F sharp minor No. 1" is also widely known.

Taste and color...

So, Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin gave the following description of the key in F-sharp minor: he saw the tone F-sharp in bright blue. The composer called this color "the color of pure consciousness".

It is also worth noting that Scriabin called his "Sonata in F sharp minor for piano No. 3, Op. 23" "States of the Soul", where each of the four parts is named after a certain emotional experience.

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov saw this tonality in a pale grayish-greenish color.

The Soviet composer Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev compared F-sharp minor with the skin of a ripe orange.

The Belgian composer and musicologist Auguste Gevaart, who did not have a color ear, but compiled his system, consisting exclusively of the keys of the major mode, wrote that the expressive potential of the minor is not particularly rich, unlike the major. F-sharp minor, in his opinion, is dull, foggy and blurry.

In 1977-1978. students of the Tver Musical College I. Bynkova, M. Dobrynskaya, T. Zaitseva, E. Zubryakova, S. Shcherbakova, N. Yakovleva set out to refute Gevart’s statement, and in the course of analyzing a number of musical works to identify the characteristics of the circle of minor keys. In the process of this study, F-sharp minor was given the characteristic "excited".

The following conclusion is logical: how many composers - so many opinions. That's how different F-sharp minor can be! Instrumental music is mostly abstract and perceived subjectively. But therein lies its beauty!