How To Play The A Chord

+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 :grinning:
I changed (well the luthier did) changed my 12’s to 11’s 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 I’m sticking to it. If you’re 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 won’t 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 isn’t the only embellishment you’ll be missing. dom7th chords will be impossible. So sometime easy is the best way.

1 Like

I have to say I’m 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 “fat-fingering” 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!

3 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 I’d run from the room. Here I am years later, finally learning to play guitar and had to cut my nails super short. If only I’d known then that short nails were required, maybe I could have convinced him to get me a real guitar when I asked. :smile:

I am glad your A chord is improving, and I don’t 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 “too far” 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. :smiley: 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 isn’t 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.

1 Like

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. :slight_smile:

1 Like