+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.
1 Like
John @johnghadimi
First of all welcome to the community 
I changed (well the luthier did) changed my 12âs to 11âs on my acoustic which made it easier to play.
Michael
2 Likes
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).
2 Likes
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!
2 Likes
I learned all three versions of playing the A chord. and the 2,3,4 is the easiest and most comfortable for me to play so Iâm sticking to it. If youâre a beginner try all three versions and see which one works best for you.
1 Like
Welcome anzez!
The downside to the 2,3,4 fingering is that your 4th finger wonât be available to play an Asus4 chord, which is a very popular chord/embellishment in many guitar styles.
The Asus4 chord embellishment is covered in Grade 3.
2 Likes
@anzez Welcome to the forum Anze
I have to agree with Fast-Eddie on this. Asus4 isnât the only embellishment youâll be missing. dom7th chords will be impossible. So sometime easy is the best way.
1 Like
I have to say Iâm feeling a lot better about the A chord over the past week or so - it may sound odd, but one thing that really helped was keeping my fingernails trimmed and focusing on fretting the strings with my fingertips. Before, I was âfat-fingeringâ the high E string pretty often. After focusing on this and putting the time in, my A chord is clearer and the E chord feels like a breeze!
4 Likes
I had long fingernails since I was about 13. I can remember my dad threatening to cut them off while waving the nail scissors in the air. He thought it was pretty funny when Iâd run from the room. Here I am years later, finally learning to play guitar and had to cut my nails super short. If only Iâd known then that short nails were required, maybe I could have convinced him to get me a real guitar when I asked. 
I am glad your A chord is improving, and I donât find it odd at all. only on one site have I found in my search of how to play guitar sites have I found any mention on the first page that you need short nails! Most sites must still assume only short-nailed guys learn guitar.
1 Like
With big fingers you can still use 213 fingering. I find I can cover the 3 strings with fingers 2 and 3 but still leave finger 1 down on the G string as it allows much faster changes between A and E, A and D chords. Finger 1 is your pivot finger so keep it there ready to use.
1 Like
Hello, I am doing some recheck before my grade 1 exam and I found I got a little bit problems with A major⌠when I am playing it 2-1-3 the 1 is on string âtoo farâ and its doing a little buzzing sound. Any idea how to fix it? When I focus on it I can get closer between 2 and 3, but when I am doing OMC I can hear buzzing, sometimes. I can better hold G or C than A major. 
Fingers seems too close on one fret to me. Anyone had similar problem?
2 Likes
Sort of true.
I often use 2, 3, 4 and for an Asus4 I slide my little finger from fret 2 to fret 3. It isnât an easy move and I would not recommend it to beginners.
I am unsure that the buzzing will be due to finger 1 being too far back. It is possible to play clean notes with your fingers back from the actual fret wire. It is perhaps more likely due to interference from fingers 1 or 3. Try making micro adjustments to hand and finger position and your overall grip around the neck.
2 Likes
Hello Richard,
Took me 2 days to figure out and you are right. I did small wrist rotation and its much much better. Took a photo so everyone can see which direction made fix for me, its really a little angle, but it does lot. Have a nice day and thank you. 
4 Likes
Hey Maidie, are you still visiting this site regularly? How have you got on over the last 2 years?
Iâm new here and just done the A&D session, I was looking through older posts for tips on finger placement in A.
How did you manage with this technique, I know it will get better for me but Iâm finding getting good pressure on the G string tricky especially when sliding back to make room for my other fingers.
1 Like
This helped me, thank you. I was rotating the opposite way thinking it would add more pressure to finger 1 as I had a similar issue to you
2 Likes
Hello, I seem to be struggling with getting my first finger tucked in close enough to the 2nd fret. Itâs been tough so far on trying to push hard enough to get that note out. Any suggestions on loosening up the fingers to get it tucked in there or will it just come with time and keep practicing and getting the strength to push down hard enough where it doesnât hurt anymore.
1 Like
Hi @nyralltheway , and welcome to the forum! First of all, you shouldnât need a lot of pressure, so it sounds like you ate pressing too hard (donât worry, everyone does at the start). There are a few things to consider:
-
How do you place your fingers on the fretboard? Your fingers should be more or less perpendicular to the fretboard, and you should toch the strings with your finger tips. This could free up some space behind fingers 2 and 3 to get finger 1 in there.
-
How much pressure do you use? You should only apply enough pressure to get the string down on the fret - you donât need to push it all the way down to the fretboard. Try out, string per string, how much pressure you need to let it ring out clearly by just putting your finger on the string and gradually increasing pressure. As putting more pressure on your finger tips will make the spread out/flatten, only using the pressure needed could give some more space for finger 1.
-
How long do you play in one session, and do you experience the same problems at the beginning of your session as at the end? As your finger tips still have to grow callouses, they will tend ti get more of an indentation of the string after a while, making you having to press harder and your finger tips flattening/spreading out more. A couple of shorter practice sessions instead of one long one until you grow callouses could help.
But most importantly: donât give up, youâll get the hang of it. Weâve all been there, and weâve all conquered this - you can too
1 Like
Itâs funny that I found the A chord simpler to do than the D chord. Although the finger placement is a bit strange I found that most of my problems were from not pressing too hard while with the D chord my finger placement is usually the issue.
2 Likes
It could also be your guitar setup. I had the same issue, and so did my girlfriend.
In her case, the solution was to switch to Silk and Steel strings.
In my case, I took advantage of the free setup offered by the dealer, and had the tech lower the action.
This solved the problem for both of us.
1 Like