+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.
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
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).
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!
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.
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.
@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.
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!
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.
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.
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?
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.