Good evening everybody. First thing first, I’m sorry if my English is not perfect, I’m not a native speaker.
That being said, I’m in my first days of learning how to play the guitar… and I have a question. I have an acoustic guitar, and I find quite difficult to play the D chord and the A chord without placing my fingers in the perfect spots so that the chords sound clear and without any error. My question is: when do I know that it’s time to move on to the other lessons? As I have understood, Justin says to not fossilize on just playing the chords… but I don’t know if it is the case to at least learn how to do them without errors - even if slowly - or not…
Welcome to the forum Giorgio.
You shouldn’t wait to to move on. It’s better to have more than 2 chords to practice for a few reasons.
It gives you more options when doing the one minute changes exercise and also by changing up the chords you’re practicing you calluses won’t get grooves in them.
Once you can change reasonably well with the A D and E chords you can start learning easy songs.
May be because of my small hands, but with the 2-1-3 method I feel like I have to bend my wrist more at a sharp angle to be able to place my fingers properly, which cause wrist/forearm fatigue
It is unlikely to be due to small hands, but more likely to be improper grip.
See if you can take a picture of your hand holding the A chord and we can give you a bit more guidance. Be careful to maintain position as you get your picture.
Bring your thumb down toward the center of the back of the neck. This should help push your hand forward a bit and make you bend a little more where the fingers meet the palm.
This kind of fiddling is something we all need to do to make our own adjustments for hand and finger differences.
On the good side, you now know how to mute string 1 in the case you don’t want it sounding ( I do that more often than let it ring)
Try lifting the neck of your guitar up. This will straighten your wrist.
Can’t tell from the picture but it looks parallel to the floor. Should be at a 20 to 40 deg angle.
Ya got some good info to help ya out there Wilson.
Ya might also consider there are a few ways to play the A chord. Perhaps another version could be a better way for you to play it?
fwiw, I play my A mostly with a barre (any finger) across them three strings. Generally muting the high e string.
I’ll also use fingers 123 or 234 to play it (personally, I find 213 my hardest way to play A). I’ll even play it with 2 fingers, generally 1, and 2, sometimes 2 and three. I just find I can span them 3 strings w/2 fingers so why not. This is my best method for getting the high e string to ring clean too. This is me though. ymmv.
All my point is, is that there’s more than one way to play the A chord.
Keep at it. You’ll get it.
Hey all, I’m struggling to play the A chord well as I have quite big fingers and can’t seem to get them all to fit altogether on the same fret on three strings in a row, I sometimes substitute for either an Asus2 or A7 chord or I might try are barre the three strings but even then it sometimes sounds a bit weird as they still mute.
Hey @tregan219 , just some advice – you have to figure out a way to learn the standard A chord, it’s such a basic and common chord, you don’t want to rely on substitutions.
Using the mini-bar with index finger is a possibility, but you also want to learn it using 3 fingers. Actually, you could try using only 2 fingers, where one of them frets 2 strings at once. Some people play it this way. If your fingers aren’t fat enough to do this, then they are not too fat to play it with 3 fingers
You could also try using middle, ring and pinky on strings 4, 3 and 2, respectively.
If you continue to struggle, post a picture (or short video) of your attempts.
Hi Terry, another observation: it can take quite a while for fingertip calluses to fully develop. And as they do, you’ll find less of your fingertip “squishes” onto other strings. In Grade 1, I’d expect you’re playing 30 - 60 minutes per day. I found that as I increased my practice time (this was after a year or so of playing) that my calluses became significantly more sturdy!
I’ve been struggling with a wrist issue lately, and my practice time has been limited by that. And, last month I was away from guitar for about 3 weeks…I was surprised at how soft my calluses got during that time.
So: don’t give up on practicing 3 finger grips. And it’s fine to practice the barre too. You’ll eventually need both!
Hi everyone,
I’m a beginner and I’m struggling with the A major chord. When I bend my fingers, there’s a big gap between my index and middle finger, and my middle finger angles toward my ring finger. Because of this, it feels really hard to place my fingers correctly.
Other chords like D, E, Am, and Em are “easy” for me, so I’m wondering: is this normal anatomy and I just need practice, or could this make the A chord harder? Any tips or alternative fingerings or just Stick with 2-1-3? I am playing guitar just for 2 weeks now…
Thanks!
There are many grips to play the open A chord. Justin teaches the 2-1-3 fingering, as he feels its the best fingering for getting a clean sound. But if it doesn’t work for you, you could try alternatives, there are 3 main ones:
Single finger barring strings 2, 3 and 4 and muting string 1.
Fingers 1-2-3 on strings 4, 3, 2.
Fingers 2-3-4 on strings 4, 3, 2.
There are others, too, but these are the most common, I think. Personally, I prefer either 2 or 3, which don’t mute string 1, so the sound is exactly the same as the 2-1-3 version.
( I do that more often than let it ring)
