A Chord Guitar - 5 Minute Tutorial

[Transcript]

In popular guitar music there are basically two ways of playing an A Major chord, a more popular way, which I actually prefer not to do, and a less popular way, which works better with other fingerings of other chords. In this video I'm going to present both of them to you and let you make your choice. Whatever you do, I'm going to share the process for practicing this chord. It's basically the same exact process for the past three chords that we've used.

In any event, let's talk about the first two ways, the two ways that you can play this chord. Now, the more common way is to do this, all three fingers in a row. Again, I don't like this. The less common way is to do this, so first way, second way. The first way has advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that it's very easy to play all three fingers in a row like this. Yeah. I totally get that.

But one massive ... actually two massive disadvantages ... Look how far your first finger is away from the fret. If you're paying attention to how you sound when you're playing these chords, and if you hear string buzzing, you'll know that the farther the first finger is away ... Sorry. The farther any finger is away from the fret, the higher the chance that there's going to be some fret buzz. This means that in order to play this chord, this style of A chord, you have to press down pretty darn hard. As far as I'm concerned, tension's kind of an enemy in regards to playing guitar and with so many other pursuits in life. I would much rather be relaxed than tense.

I avoid that one all together. I chose a different way of playing an A chord, which looks like this. It actually works really, really well to get to a D chord. You know, my index finger is closer to the fret. Still a little bit farther away, but it's still closer, and it sounds better. I have a higher chance of playing this chord without buzz than I do the other one, and without tension. Now, again, I'm not going to get in your way. If you want to play an A chord the other way, do it. Just do it the way that works best for you.

I'm going to show you how to play both ways now. Okay. The way that I do not prefer is the one that's like all in a row. You're going to take your ring finger, put it on the string second closest to the floor on the second fret. You're going to take your middle finger, put it on the string third closest to the floor on the second fret. Then you're going to take your first finger and put it on the string third closest to the ceiling, also on the second fret. It's second fret, second fret, second fret. It's all in a row. If you're totally smitten with this way to play the chord, you're good, and you should move on to the next video.

If, however, this doesn't seem totally satisfying and you're willing to kind of experiment a little bit, stick around. Let's talk next about the way that I prefer to play an A chord. Here's how you're going to do that. You're going to take your ring finger, put it on the string closest to the floor on the second fret. Then you're going to take your middle finger, put it on the string third closest to the ceiling, also on the second fret. Finally, you're going to take your first finger and put it on the string third closest to the floor on the second fret.

Now, you might be tempted just to leave this finger this far back. Okay? Here's my advice. Think of that first finger as like an annoying younger sibling who's always like, "You're going to take me to the party. Right? You're going to take me to the party. Right? You're going to take me to your party. Right? Even though there's grown ups there, you're going to take me to the party. Right? You're going to take me to the party. Right?" Think of it as a nag that always wants to get as close to the action as possible. If you can do that, this A chord will sound great.

Okay. No matter which style of A chord that you pick, it doesn't matter. The process remains the same for how to practice them. In the next video we're going to talk about how to practice this A chord, and I think you've got a really good idea of how to do that, but let's go over it nonetheless.