Hello Andy & Welcome!!!
What you’re noticing isn’t too uncommon… the text above the TAB clearly says Beginner. Justin often simplifies some of the fingerings to make it a bit easier on us! Many times, later in the video he mentions that the finger placement is changing in his more advanced version. Or he’ll demonstrate slides, hammer ons or pull offs (Justin calls ‘em flick offs) that aren’t in the TAB, but are in the original song.
My advice is to use your ears & to play what sounds good to you!
Have fun!!! 
Tod
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Not sure what Justin means by an Open A. I could be wrong, but I’m still in Grade 1 and I don’t think this kind of thing has really been explained yet. Can anyone elaborate?
I didn’t go back and listen to the lesson, so don’t remember the context, but I remember the riff.
“Open A” likely is in the context of the string being played. In this case it would be string 5 being played unfretted, or “open”.
The other context is with the A chord you learn early on. It can be called “open A” because the 5th string, the root note, is not fretted.
Thank you for the reply. I understand what you’re saying with the 5 string being played “open,” I guess I just don’t understand what this has to do with an “A.”
Same thing to the second part of your response. Why does the 5h string correspond with an “A chord”? The A chord we’re taught has nothing to do with what is called an “open A” here. Am I making sense?
Don’t worry about it, you’re getting confused with some naming conventions which is beyond this lesson. You are correct that the A chord has nothing to do with the open A string in this lesson. The open A string is the note A, that’s why it’s called the A string.
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