D Chord Guitar

[Danel Potvin]

Justrecently started playing acoustic guitar. I'm having some difficulty mastering the 'A' chord. My fingers seem to be squished together which makes me struggle to hold the strings in place and as close to the fret as i can, most of the time im obstructing the bottom string and not getting a clear note. Is there an easier way to do an A chord? Or is there any tips to striking the perfect chord without crippling my fingers?

If you use 3 fingers, and they're squashed, use middle, ring and pinky, as together the are slightly smaller than index, middle and ring. I tend to teach it with index on 3rd string 1st fret, for an easy change to E. However, the chord works with two fingers, liberally spread over the three strings on that second fret. In this case, you have choice. Middle and ring work well. Some players actually prefer playing this with just one finger, but it's an acquired art, and not for beginners.

The answer is contained in the first words of your question "Just recently started..." Yes, chord fingering can seem very clumsy and unnatural. Check with a teacher or experienced player that you are positioning your hand correctly, then keep practicing. If you have unusually big fingers, guitars with a wider neck are available. But don't jump to this solution too quickly.

I've been playing for 20 years. Whenever anyone asks me why they're having problems holding a chord, EVERY TIME WITHOUT EXCEPTION it's been because their wrist and elbow position sucks.

All beginners tend to start playing with the neck supported by the pad of their palm, because it feels natural to hold the neck like that. The problem is that this completely prevents you getting your fingers round the fretboard properly. This is the number one beginner's fault - and because most people learning guitar teach themselves, it's also the number one fault you see in folk clubs and elsewhere.

If you need to support the neck with your left hand, by definition you're not holding the instrument properly. You should be able to take that left hand away and the guitar goes nowhere. If it doesn't, adjust how you're holding it with your right arm, look into "classical" position, and/or get a strap (playing standing up with a strap can be much easier).

Finally, your elbow should usually be fairly close into your side, because that rotates your hand so that the fingers naturally align parallel to the fretboard. - this is usually what you want for decent reach along the frets. But for the A chord you can push your elbow out slightly, and that rotates your hand so that the fingers run more across the fretboard, which lets you more easily get those three fingers next to each other.

You shouldn't have to hold your fingers very close to the fret to sound a note. Typically notes (including the notes within a chord) are fretted roughly half-way between two frets. So your mistake might be trying to press all three fingers directly against the fret wire.

If you hear some noise (known as 'fret farts') while doing this, you might want to take your guitar to a music shop and ask them to set it up for you. It might be that the action on the instrument is too high (meaning the strings are too far from the fret board), making it more difficult for you to produce a clear note.

Of course, a simpler way to diagnose that kind of issue would be to ask someone who plays the guitar (a teacher or friend) to play that a chord, and see if they can sound a clear note on each string while holding the chord.

Since an E Major chord is often used with an A Major chord, the relationship between your middle and ring finger should stay the same, using your pinky finger for the A chord on the second string and using your index finger for the E chord on the third string.

Try to use "classical guitar" hand position where thumb rests in the middle of the back of the neck and the thumb and the fingering fingers are the only places where your hand touches the neck and the whole hand 'hangs' almost perfectly perpendicular to the neck

There's actually another good reason not the play the top E. The first postition open A chord on properly tuned guitar (I'm not using word perfect for a reason as guitar cannot be tuned perfectly - it is all only approximation and compromise - many beginner don't realize that) is typically the most out of tune chord out of the basic open chords. And the worst interval is precisely the top C# and E. On some guitars it sounds better then on anothers but in general it is problematic in studio ect.

Some years ago I made a concerted effort to bring up this weaker area of my playing. I have since put a lot of time and effort into building my knowledge of guitar chords and understanding guitar chord theory.

And thankfully, doing so has had a profound effect on my guitar playing. I now feel much more comfortable and confident playing a range of guitar chords all over the fretboard. But one additional and significant benefit, is that my lead guitar playing has also improved.

It will help you to create more sophisticated solos. It will also allow you to play alongside the track you are accompanying, rather than on top of it. And this will make your solos sound more melodic and effective.

Finally, if you have any ambitions for writing your own music, I would strongly recommend learning the basics of guitar chord theory. It will help you to construct interesting and impactful chord progressions that will represent the type of music you are trying to create.

As such, here I will be covering the basics. This will give you the fundamentals of guitar chord theory you need to become more comfortable with chords and how they are constructed. Over time you can build on this to take your guitar chord theory knowledge to the next level.

As such, the information outlined here is largely theoretical, rather than practical. Yet once you understand this information, it will make learning different chords and using them in your playing much easier.

So whether you are looking to improve your rhythm guitar skills, write your own music, or develop as a musician more generally, I hope you find the information included here useful. Here are the basics of guitar chord theory:

If we take the example above, you can see that C is the first note of the scale, and D is the second. As a result, E is then the third note that you encounter. Similarly, when you are trying to find the next note a third up from E, you count in the same way.

If you find the above confusing, then you can also think about skipping out or jumping over alternative notes in the scale. In other words, you play the note of C, miss D, play E, miss F, play G, and so on.

And this is because of intervals. As noted above, a triad is formed by taking 3 notes, all of which are a third apart. Yet this triad can sound totally different, depending on the intervals between the notes.

As you can see, there are 2 frets separating many of the notes in the scale, and only 1 fret separating others. This is very important when you begin to create triads from different notes of the scale.

For even though the notes in any given triad might be a third apart, the actual intervals between the notes change, depending on the note on which you start. We can see this by comparing a triad starting on the note of C, with one starting on the note of D:

In this first diagram the starting note (or root note) of the triad is C, shown above in the light blue colour. As you can see, there are 4 frets separating the notes of C and E. There are 3 frets separating the notes of E and G. And between the notes of C and G, there are 7 frets.

Between D and F, there are only 3 frets (or 1 and a half tones). Conversely, between the notes of F and A, there are 4 frets (or 2 tones). And so just like the triad built on C, the distance between D (the root note) and the A is 7 frets, or 3 and a half tones.

And when you do so, you will hopefully be able to hear the differences in the way they sound. The major triad will have an upbeat and happy sound. Conversely, the minor triad will have a more sad and melancholic sound.

The different sounds between these two triads results from the different intervals between the notes which appear in the triads. This is an important concept when it comes to guitar chord theory and one which is covered in more depth below.

As noted above, when you form a triad starting on the note of C (in the key of C major), you form a C major triad. When you do the same but you start on the note of D, you form a D minor triad.

The first note in the chord is always referred to as the root note. And it is this note which determines the name of the chord. So the root note for a C chord is C. The root note for the chord of D is D, and so on.

The perfect fifth is always 7 frets, or 3 and a half tones higher than the root note. Perfect intervals are associated with musical consonance and resolution. The presence of this perfect interval gives the chord a stable and harmonious sound. The chord is devoid of dissonance or tension.

However, like the major triad shown above, this minor triad also contains a perfect fifth. So although it does have a more downbeat sound, like the major triad, it also sounds stable and resolved. It does not have a dissonant or tense sound.

The next step to better understanding guitar chord theory is to apply this idea to all of the notes in the major scale. This will help you to appreciate the relationship between the notes in the scale and how they stack together to form different triads.

The only change you need to make, is to go back to the notes at the beginning of the scale to create the triads, once you reach the 7th note of the scale. In the case of F for example, the notes in the triad are F, A and C. In the case of G they are G, B and D.

If you do go through this process, then hopefully you will discover two things. The first of these is that when you harmonise the major scale, you end up producing a combination of both major and minor triads.

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