How To Play The A Chord

Beginner Grade 1 Module 1: A & D Chords + Play Your First Song!
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Is it possible for fingers to be too sausage like to play this cord?!

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Hi again Elizabeth, please describe the specifics of the difficulty you’re having. Or (and even better!) post a photo of your hand forming the chord.

The A chord feels tricky at first…three fingers in one fret. Everyone struggles with this at first. Keep at it, you’ll get it!

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i am having trouble getting all my fingers in the same fret and i am having trouble getting my first finger close enough to the fret

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I’ve always use 2 finger to cover the 3 strings when playing the A chord. I don’t have big finger either. You can either cover the D and G with one finger or the G and B. I do it both ways depending on which chord I’m going to next.

You can also use just one finger as a bar but that interferes with playing A7 and Asus chords

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thanks for the help!

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Although Stitch is right that you can play the A chord in different ways, I would advise you to work on the fingering as taught by Justin at this stage. In the next lesson he will teach you about anchor fingers - you’ll get into trouble with that if you use other fingerings. Sure, it’s absolutely possible to play guitar without anchoring, but it sure as hell helps at this early stage.

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Hi Elizabeth, the A chord, especially this fingering is challenging. As you observe, your first finger cannot get close to the fret wire. It should still be possible to get a clean-sounding chord. It might just take longer than you hope!

That said: please feel free to post a photo of your fretting hand. That can provide information that wouldn’t otherwise be evident, and help folks give better feedback. :blush:

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thanks for the help judi!

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For some reason the A and D chords sound buzzy. Do you have any tips?

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It will either be the finger placement or the setup of the guitar is too low and the strings are buzzing against the frets. For most beginners it’s most likely finger placement.

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thanks for the help

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I can’t go back to the how to play the d chord video

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Hi, are you using the app or the website?

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Website

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Here you go
https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/how-to-play-the-d-chord-b1-105

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this A major chord is extremely hard, i cant seem to play it at all(my index finger seems to be the main issue), but should i move on and continue onto the next lesson or keep trying until i can get it?

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I suggest you watch all the videos in Module 1. At the end of the module there is a recommended practice routine and guidelines on what you need to achieve before moving on to the next module.

Keep chipping away at the A chord, even if you just do 2 or 3 minutes a day on it, you will get it in time.

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I like to keep as many lesson practices in my day as I have time for. That means I watch through a few lesson videos and set my practice according to to those. Once I feel something is good enough, I remove that from daily practice and move a new item in, possibly needing to watch the next video.

For something like these early chords, you will use them a lot and won’t need to maintain a refresher practice. Some you will find you rarely use and may need to refresh a year from when you had it in the daily because it shows up in a song you want to learn.

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Hey!!!

I’m pretty new to playing the guitar. I’m struggling with chords because pressing the strings hurts my fingertips a lot, and sometimes I can’t press them hard enough.

Is this normal? Do you have any tips on how to press the strings properly without so much pain?

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Hi, the good news (although it sounds kinda bad) is that this is normal at this stage, and it will get better. Your fingertips are very sensitive and they are not used to getting a lot of pressure. They need time to build calluses.

As long as your fingertips are soft, 2 things will happen while you play:

  1. The pressure of the strings will create a dent in your fingertip. As this dent gets deeper by continuing to play, the string will sit nicely in it, which in turn will result in you needing to press harder in order to push the string against the fret.
  2. As you press harder to get the string to ring out, your fingertip will flatten and spread out, causing it to touch the strings below and above - not what you want.

So, for now, the key is to do shorter sessions, but multiple times a day if you want to, so your fingertips get the time to return to normal in between. Better play 2 x 15 min/day than 1 x 30 min/day.

Once you start building calluses, your fingertips will toughen up and the pain will go away.

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