How do I not know Fm by now?

joeybug

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I've been playing for just over six months and I just came across Fm, it's not a hard chord, just means I need to practise more and get my fingers used to a new shape. It's my latest Challenge over at my blog, but I'm wondering, how could I play for six months and not know Fm...or for that matter, be able to skip learning E that well?! Bb I'm pretty sold on because of learning the Molokai Slide (thanks Stan!) and since then, other songs, oh well, time to write some muscle memory!

Anyone doing anything for World Book Day, Miss D went to school dressed up as the elephant in The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl, she loved it!

Joey
 
Fm was actually one of the first chords I ever learned because the first song I tried to learn, Pearl Jam's Soon Forget, had this chord (I played it 1013). I had a hard time transitioning in and out of this chord for a long time. It might have been after a year or so of playing before this chord became easy for me. Not sure why. I think I actually had an easier time with B and E chord shapes than this one for some odd reason.
 
I do not see Fm too often but we have been working on "Hey There Delilah" and that has F#m.
 
Just saw your blog. Very nice! I'll check it more often. :D
Cheers,
Skottoman
 
I often substitute Fm6 (1213) for Fm, or even Cdim at times.
 
I feel like I see Fm most often on old 1920s-30s tunes. It's a great chord. :)
 
That's an easy question. The answer is that nobody plays songs in the key of G#, so you rarely need it. Sometimes I play Em as a barre chord. If I ever need an Fm, I'd just move that chord shape up one fret.

Cool blog, BTW.

Thanks for the info, I guess at some point it'll be weird to not know most of the chords except the really obscure ones, just struck me as odd that I know F and F#m but never did Fm!

Fm on a gcea uke is one of my favourite chords.
I call it the 'dreamy chord' :)

I like the way it sounds in the song, so hopefully I'll come to like it once my fingers obey my brain!

I got used to playing Fm in 'Aint She Sweet' as in the the Ukulele Mike Lesson:

'Just cast an eye....'

Will have to check that out!

Fm was actually one of the first chords I ever learned because the first song I tried to learn, Pearl Jam's Soon Forget, had this chord (I played it 1013). I had a hard time transitioning in and out of this chord for a long time. It might have been after a year or so of playing before this chord became easy for me. Not sure why. I think I actually had an easier time with B and E chord shapes than this one for some odd reason.

The first *hard* chord I learnt was Bb, or at least that's what I thought when I first tried it!

I do not see Fm too often but we have been working on "Hey There Delilah" and that has F#m.

I know F#m, still struggle with it, but have used it before!
 
Just saw your blog. Very nice! I'll check it more often. :D
Cheers,
Skottoman

Thanks, I keep it pretty updated and it motivates me to do more with my Ukes!

Fm is a fantastic chord. You certainly don't have to be playing in Ab to use it. I'm possibly a little too fond of the C C7 F Fm progression. Go, Fm.

I think I'll grow to like it when my fingers obey my brain more! I shall have to try that progession to see if it helps with the muscle memory, the progression in the song is Dm, G7, c, Fm, C, A7 and at the end it's Dm G7, C, F, A7, Dm, Fm, C

I feel like I see Fm most often on old 1920s-30s tunes. It's a great chord. :)

I think the song is an old tune, it's When I Fall In Love by Victor Young, says it was written in 1952, which to me is old!
 
Fm is a fantastic chord. You certainly don't have to be playing in Ab to use it. I'm possibly a little too fond of the C C7 F Fm progression. Go, Fm.

I'm with you there kem. That's a sweet, sweet progression and you can always throw in the Fm on many old-time songs that use the c, c7, f transition...'when the saints', 'hot tamales' etc etc the list is loooooong. Keep working at it Joey cause it's a beautiful chord and you'll appreciate it and love it as you get using it more. Like kissing said, it's a "dreamy" chord :)
 
Maybe you have reached a stage where you can look at how a chord is made and your brain wont melt down, and think about things like finding which finger you are using to make "the third" in a major chord, and moving it back a fret to make it a "minor third" to see how it sounds. Its hard to do on the Fm chord because the nut is in the way, but try it with a D chord and a G chord. Don't be frightened of the names, they are only names.
If you can work it out, then you can use it when you are having a little noodle with a new arrangement to see how it sounds, without getting caught up in the terminology. Sometimes changing a major chord to a minor chord is very useful in getting a "sound" you like or underlining a lyric that is sad or important, if you can work it out without looking at a chord book you can have a lot more fun. Many really famous musicians just do it and let someone else spend a long time talking about whether or not it fits into the rules of music, probably most of them could not tell you the names of the chords they are using anyway.

I'm in the process of learning some music theory in the form of Ukulele Fretboard Roadmaps and it has helped me so far in learning why the chord are the chords they are (I'm stuck on #4 but I just did a video asking for help on my blog) I just felt that having played for 6 months and knowing the "hard" chords like Bb (thought that's pretty much the only B chord I know other than B7) and most of the regular E's, though I will admit I still have to stop and think to do E major, I would have come across this by now, it's not a "hard" chord, as I said and as others have said, I guess it just made me stop and think while playing and that hasn't happened for a month or so, but it will continue to happen, because I don't know ALL the possible chords and I doubt I ever will!

Thanks for the advice!
 
I'm with you there kem. That's a sweet, sweet progression and you can always throw in the Fm on many old-time songs that use the c, c7, f transition...'when the saints', 'hot tamales' etc etc the list is loooooong. Keep working at it Joey cause it's a beautiful chord and you'll appreciate it and love it as you get using it more. Like kissing said, it's a "dreamy" chord :)

I do like the sound it makes in the song, kinda "dreamy" in the middle of quite a poignet part of the song, so I'm sure that just as when I first encoutered an E7 and took forever (well, like two weeks) to learn that, this will soon become easy to me!
 
I first encountered the Fm learning Rainbow Connection. It starts in G for the first half and then modulates a half step to G#. I still can't play the second half very well but am working on it. Thanks for the reminder, I had kind of "put it away" to learn easier songs.
DAP
 
Well - we had a jam last night and did some new songs. Lo and behold they had a Fm - go figure.
 
Can't say I really knew what Fm was myself till I looked here. Then I realised it is part of a tune I'm learning and it turns out to be the very chord that has me stumbling to a halt almost every time. The tune is 'The Long Way Home' and I have it as notation and tab but no chords as it is a fingerpicking melody.

The transition into it is ok as it is 2020 (holding with index and middle finger) - 3020 (ring finger on 4th string so the other two are still in position) then slide down to 1013 (with little finger employed on 1st string). Then it gets tricky as the sequence is 1013 - 3013 - 1003 - 3003 - 0003 - 3003. I've simplified that a bit but is the basic progression. The whole thing happens twice in the tune, I should be pretty good at it after a thousand more trys!

Because I am impatient though I put a crappy example up on the tube - you can easily tell where Fm is, it is where I first go wrong, ha ha (and it's likely I was drifting ever so slightly in a vodka haze - softening the trailing edge of my day) :eek:

 
Can't say I really knew what Fm was myself till I looked here. Then I realised it is part of a tune I'm learning and it turns out to be the very chord that has me stumbling to a halt almost every time. The tune is 'The Long Way Home' and I have it as notation and tab but no chords as it is a fingerpicking melody.

The transition into it is ok as it is 2020 (holding with index and middle finger) - 3020 (ring finger on 4th string so the other two are still in position) then slide down to 1013 (with little finger employed on 1st string). Then it gets tricky as the sequence is 1013 - 3013 - 1003 - 3003 - 0003 - 3003. I've simplified that a bit but is the basic progression. The whole thing happens twice in the tune, I should be pretty good at it after a thousand more trys!

Because I am impatient though I put a crappy example up on the tube - you can easily tell where Fm is, it is where I first go wrong, ha ha (and it's likely I was drifting ever so slightly in a vodka haze - softening the trailing edge of my day) :eek:



Good video! Yeah, I could tell where the Fm's were, but you're also better at it than me and that's a cool strumming technique, I have so much to learn still!
 
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