How To Play The A Chord

No issues at all thats my preferred way to play it :wink:

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Hello @Zaidy120 and welcome to the Community.

People have used different fingers for the A chord for years.
I use multiple variations depending on the chord I am changing from / to.

Hope that helps.
Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher

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Hello again from Australia,
I posted my first message a couple of hours ago, to the ā€˜robotā€™ it turned out, and missed the topic I was trying to ask about. Here is my second attempt (a repeat), I hope where it is relevant this time, and with finger numbers added.

Iā€™m fumbling around here during a first visit to the Community, though I did have some interaction on the Forum about two years ago. Iā€™ve more or less re-started at the ā€˜startā€™, as not much ā€˜hands on stringsā€™ since then, and not much since 1974 when I first bought a guitar (sold to a mate in the 1980s).

Iā€™ve been looking at finger positions for the A chord, and the diagram of four versions that I saw this morning. About 3 years ago, a chap who knew what he was doing suggested I learn the A chord as 324, and not use my index finger, as otherwise Iā€™ll need to ā€˜unlearnā€™ as soon as I run into barre chords based on A. That is still a way off, but my question is this:

Is the idea of using 324 (or 234) for A a good starting point? My fingers at age 70+ are not as compliant as they might be, and a bit on the short side anyway. Iā€™ve been trying 234 for several days, but the switch to D is pretty slow.

Over to the Community, and thanks for the facility.

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Hi Bernie,

Welcome to the Justinguitar Community :slight_smile:

Regarding the fingering, if you decide to follow Justinā€™s lessons, heā€™s consistently teaching the 213 version as it ties in with the fingering of the open D and E chords, i.e. 1st finger can be used as an anchor finger in chord changes, thus making the changes easier. (Of course, the concept of anchor fingers is not limited to these 3 chords.)

If you decide to take Justinā€™s course, you will learn about the first finger A chord which is sort of an introduction to A shape barre chords. And in Justinā€™s method, A shape barre chords are typically played with the 1st and 3rd finger anyway, so you may not need to use the 324 fingering.

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Thanks, Jozsef.

I appreciate your clarification, and will keep going as in the lessons.

Cheers, Bernie.

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@scarfinga

I would guess that it is a minority of players who use three separate fingers for the A-shape barre chord. Most lay either their 3rd or their 4th finger flat across as a preference. This does mute the thin E string but that is no big issue - unless there is a specific reason for needing that note, such as playing arpeggiated chords with melody notes needed. I do use the 2, 3, 4 variety for the open A major chord, but it has nothing to do with being useful for barre chords and is simply to do with efficiency of movement when making certain chord changes.

Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Moderator, Guide & Approved Teacher

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Thanks for your help last week, Richard. Iā€™ve stayed with Justinā€™s 213 recommendation when practising the A/D changes. Iā€™m a fair way off studying barre chords and mainly was chasing hints to make things simpler when I do reach that point. Iā€™m starting to wake up that there are plenty of variations of chords that people use, not just those in chord charts. Cheers, Bernie.

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A valuable insight, Bernie. First and foremost a chord chart presents the notes to be fretted to make a chord. Secondly, they may indicate a recommended or common fingering for the chord.

As you progress youā€™ll find that based on the preceding or following chord certain fingerings make things easier (as @Richard_close2u said) and certain fingerings will make certain chord embellishments possible to play.

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Did anybody else find the A chord much easier to do than the D chord?

Still working on perfecting the D chord but the fingering position of the A chord seems to be more straightforward, even if it is slightly cramped. Using Justinā€™s preferred fingering of 213.

I only know A, D & E chords at the moment so Iā€™m still pretty new, however, thatā€™s been my experience so far.

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Hi Lewis, welcome to the community. Thatā€™s great that your A, D and E chords are coming along well. Iā€™m sure there are plenty of folk in the community that have found the A chord easier than the D chord and vice versa. Speaking of the community how about introducing yourself and sharing your back story here:

Introduce yourself ā€¦

Introduce yourself. Then look around, make yourself comfortable.

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New here. Been learning for a month and just started the Justin program. I completed module one. I see by the discussion here there is much discussion about the A cord.I had been playing it with fingers two and three fairly well. Right not I am trying to reprogram myself to the 213. It is definitely a challenge to get all three fingers in the fret. I will keep trying. After two days I can get close to 30 A to D clean strums in a min, so I must be on the right track.

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Hi All. I have been playing some guitar before (a while ago) and play the A-chord different from anything I see. The standard 1-2-3 or the better 2-1-3 I see used on all learning sources. But I am used to playing it 1-3-2, so actually in the same shape as the D-chord but then with all fingers on the same (second) fret ofcourse. This works fine for me and fā€to me also feels natural when switching from A to D or the other way around. As I am revisiting learning guitar basics from the ground up and after that getting more advanced (hopefully), is it worth the trouble learning the A-chord 2-1-3? So I am wondering, will I run into trouble later on when I stick to 1-3-2? Thanks for your thoughts!

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Edwin @cleancourt
First of all welcome to the community. :grinning::+1:
The 213 Justin teaches is to use 1 as anchor finger to make it easy for beginners to play E and D. I just moved to grade 2 and very recently started to use 123 basically as I found it much easier and faster to change to and from. There is another option 111 ie partial barre, Justin does mention it further down the road and have noticed the experienced players at the guitar club tend to play 111.
I think it comes down to what you are most comfortable with. See Richards earlier post with the various fingering.
Michael
PS will have to get my head round your 132, not sure about that, will have to pick up my guitar and give it a go

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Only you will be able to answer that question. Have you already run into trouble because of it?

Personally, I canā€™t remember ever having placed fingers 1 and 3 on adjacent strings at the same fret.

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I think for early learning, Justinā€™s 2-1-3 method makes a lot of sense with the anchor finger switching to D and E. itā€™s worth getting that bedded in and then begin to switch up as you need to depending on the song youā€™re playing. I have to say Iā€™ve never gone 1-2-3 but the 1-1-1 barre is really useful. 1-3-2 sounds quite odd I have to say but only you know how it affects your changes.

In your case if youā€™re revisiting changes and are comfortable with how that works to other open chords then go for what works. So in other words my opinions kind of irrelevant!! :joy:

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If youā€™re following the course I would stick to the fingering Justin is teaching in the lesson as he does it for a purpose. Later on you will explore other fingerings as covered in How To Play The A Chord - #47 by Richard_close2u. Iā€™ve see me play one song recently where Iā€™ve used 213 and 123 fingerings based on the chord changes. Itā€™s good to learn various fingerings and not get stuck to a single option but that will all come to you as you progress through the course.

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+1 on adjusting the action on your guitar. I did that as well as swapping the strings out for thinner ones. Definitely helps with the pain/frustration and removes some of the barriers to progress.

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John @johnghadimi
First of all welcome to the community :grinning:
I changed (well the luthier did) changed my 12ā€™s to 11ā€™s on my acoustic which made it easier to play.
Michael

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If this helps anyone on this thread, this was the one that I had Guitar Center swap out for me (in addition to lowering the action).

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I put those exact strings on my acoustic and it was a big improvement in playability. Still much harder to play than my electric though!

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