Fm Chord Lesson: Easy Shapes for Beginner Guitarists

The Fm chord doesn’t appear too often but it’s one you need to know. I always tell my students “you need to know all of the major and minor chords if you want to call yourself a guitarist” so let’s get stuck in! 🙂

In this free Fm chord lesson you will learn:

• How to play a standard F minor chord correctly
• An easy 1-finger version of the Fm chord that’s ideal for beginners
• Two great alternative versions for of the Fm chord

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The standard way to play the Fm chord

In its full form the F minor chord looks like this:

As you can see, the Fm chord is too difficult for beginner guitarists to play so we need to look at some easier options.

All of my students struggle with the F minor chord when they first encounter it, so don’t worry if you find it tough, that’s normal!

An easier way to play the Fm chord

This first version of the Fm chord is a simple reduction of the chord above:

This Fm chord is easier to play than a standard one, but you will still find it quite tough to play.

Beware the detail here – you must avoid playing strings 5 & 6 for this to sound correct. Here’s a quick refresher on string numbers:

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A super-simple Fm chord

I love this way of playing the Fm chord. It’s well suited to people who are very early on in their guitar journey:

This is a much simpler version of the Fm chord (it’s a pure minor triad). It doesn’t sound as full as the two earlier versions of Fm chord we looked at, but it will do the job until your skill improves to a point where you can play one of the other harder (and fuller-sounding) versions of the F minor chord.

Note that with this version you can simply use 1 finger to press all 3 strings down. Take care and ensure you don’t play strings 1-3 as that will ruin the chord.

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The Best Easy Versions Of This Chord

A simple and funky Fm chord

You can slide the above shape up to the higher octave. This sounds great in jazz/funk styles. Get your hands moving up to the 13th fret and give it a try! 🙂

Another cool F minor chord alternative

Technically this last version isn’t an Fm chord, it’s actually Fm7, but it’s a good alternative all the same. Give it a try:

Can you hear the difference compared to the other versions of the Fm chord? It’s now up to you to decide which one suits your current level of ability and works best for the piece of music you are playing. This video does a good job of highlighting different ways to play the Fm chord.

Here are some other cool-sounding Fm chords
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Thanks for reading

I hope you enjoyed this free lesson, have fun playing these different types of Fm chords! 🙂