F, five ways up the neck
Each form on its own
This is the open E chord moved up one fret, with your index finger doing the job of the nut. It sounds six strings, and its lowest note is the root, F.
This is the open D chord moved up three frets, with your index finger doing the job of the nut. It sounds four strings, and its lowest note is the root, F.
This is the open C chord moved up five frets, with your index finger doing the job of the nut. It sounds four strings. The full C shape would put a root three frets above the barre, which is further than a hand can reach, so the lowest note of what remains is A, the 3.
This is the open A chord moved up eight frets, with your index finger doing the job of the nut. It sounds five strings, and its lowest note is the root, F.
This is the open G chord moved up ten frets, with your index finger doing the job of the nut. It sounds five strings. The full G shape would put a root three frets above the barre, which is further than a hand can reach, so the lowest note of what remains is A, the 3.
F has five forms on guitar: E at fret 1, D at fret 3, C at fret 5, A at fret 8 and G at fret 10.
Each of these five shapes is an open chord, C, A, G, E and D, moved up the neck until it plays F. Read left to right and they climb: E at fret 1, D at fret 3, C at fret 5, A at fret 8 and G at fret 10. Two of them have the third as the lowest note, because the full shape would put a root three frets above the barre, and a hand cannot reach that far. Guitarists call this system CAGED, after the order in which the five shapes appear as you climb.
The last lesson moved the E shape and the A shape up the neck. There are three more open major chords a hand can carry in the same way: C, G and D. Guitarists call the system of all five CAGED, after the order the shapes fall in as you climb. For F, the E shape sits at the first fret, the D shape at the third, the C shape at the fifth, the A shape at the eighth and the G shape at the tenth. After that the E shape returns at the thirteenth fret, an octave up, and the cycle begins again.
Each letter names a shape, not a sound. An F played with the C form has no C in it. It is the grip your hand learned on the open C chord, with a barre where the nut was. Two of the five forms are usually played on fewer strings. The full C and G shapes put the root three frets above the barre, which is further than most hands can stretch, so in practice you play the upper strings only, with the third in the bass rather than the root. The diagram shows which strings each form uses.
Learning five ways to play one chord is worth the effort, because together the shapes cover the whole neck. Wherever a melody has left your hand, one of the five is within a fret or two, and it contains the same three notes in a different arrangement. The reference page for F major also shows each shape on its own, with the notes it doubles and the notes it leaves out.