How to Play 5 Strings on the Guitar with only 4 Fingers?

by Luke
(Canada)

How can you play 5 strings at the same time while using only 4 fingers (example F chords)?

Dana:
Hi, Luke. The answer is that the 1 finger (left hand index) lays flat across 2 strings while the other fingers keep their customary boxed shape.

Look around the internet for pictures of the F chord; it is a "barre" chord (laying the 1 finger across the guitar neck like a bar), but there are smaller forms of it. The easiest of all is a "baby" F chord, just 3 strings, with finger 1 pressing down strings 1 and 2, and finger 2 pressing on string 3. That might be a good place to start, to get the feeling of the F chord.