How to Play the A and Am Chords

Hey, everybody. It’s Aaron from freeandeasyguitar.com. This beginner lesson here is going to be on two more chords, a major chord and a minor chord. In the last lesson, we learned about the E major chord and the E minor chord. I reminded you that the E chord is the major chord is kind of happy and the E minor, the minor chords get sometimes sad. Now if you're wondering if that was all the cases, this is to learn A major chord sounds like kind of happy. This is an A minor so just like with the E major and E minor, the A major sounds kind of happy, A minor, kind of sad. So we’re going to start off with A major chord now. A lot of times when you hear chords named you won’t even hear if it’s a major. You’re won’t hear to say that so if you hear someone just an E chord or just an A chord or just a G, you can assume that it’s a major chord. So if someone says “Hey, play an A chord,” they mean they play an A major chord which is just this. [Demonstration] Okay, so I’m going to teach you that right now. A few people that I’ve talked to that had been taught by other teachers are told to play like this, put your pointer finger on your fourth string second fret, your middle finger on your three string and your ring finger on your second string. [Demonstration] Personally I think that’s a bad way to play it because if you look at this from the previous lessons I told you, the good way to fret a note is to keep your finger as close to right above this step like a step on the ladder as close as you can. Now, if you make your A chord like that, you notice that your pointer finger is all the way up almost at the top of the fret. There is a way you can avoid that and that is by playing it in a different way and that’s the way I want to teach you. Take your pointer finger, I want you to take your pointer finger, go to your third string and stick it right there by half way up that fret. So, I told you right here you want to slide a little bit. The one reason you’re sliding up is so your middle finger can come over top into your four string on the second fret and then your middle finger you have to kind of twist your hand up a little bit because your ring finger is going to sneak up onto the second string right here on the second fret. So you look at that ring finger is there, pointer finger is there and the middle finger hits right there, that’s an A major chord. [Demonstration] Now, the A root note which is where it gets its name is the fifth string, sixth string, five right here, open, that’s an A note because it’s an A string. It’s where it gets it name from. Like I’ve said before as a beginner, if you strum all six strings not many people are going to know and you're going to be fine. So don’t focus on specific strings right now just strum them all. That’s you’re A chord. [Demonstration] With your A chord, you take your fingers off, put them back on, put your ring finger right on the bottom of the second string on the second fret, pointer finger right there on the third string second fret and ring comes out here. Now if you're wondering why I’m doing that just trust me and learn it this way because here in the few videos when I talked about basic chord progressions I’m going to show you a really cool thing about how you can play an A like this and things you can do with it. It’s going to make a lot easier to get this mother chords. I want you to play it right like this. [Demonstration] Now when you play your A chord, this fifth string here is going to sound like this. [Demonstration] Because it’s open, the next string down your four string which is also called your D string, your middle finger is on the second fret so it’s going to sound like this. [Demonstration] The next string down is your three string and it’s also your G string that your pointer finger is on the second fret so it’s going to sound like this. [Demonstration] The next string down is your two string and your ring finger is on the second fret. It’s going to sound like this. [Demonstration] And your high E string has nothing once it’s open so it sounds like this. [Demonstration] We put that together you have this. [Demonstration] Or all together. [Demonstration] A major chord. Now, the A minor chord is a little different. You’re going to take your pointer finger and you’re going to stick it on the second string up. There are two strings. They are also called your B string on the first fret. Then your middle finger and your ring are going to go down just right next to each other on the second fret so your middle finger is on this fourth string up second fret. And your ring finger is only third string up second fret and this pointer that we talked about is on your second string first fret. This is an A minor chord. [Demonstration] The five strings sound like this because it’s open, four strings sounds like this because it has you’re middle finger second fret. Your three string which is your G string has your ring finger and second fret so it sounds like this. And your second string, your B string sounds like this because your pointer finger is on the first fret. [Demonstration] Then your high E. [Demonstration] It’s open. [Demonstration] Good sounds up there, so all together. [Demonstration] It’s your A minor chord, so remember major chord or just called an A so you’ll either hear it called an A major or just an A chord. It sounds like this happy, major happy. [Demonstration] Or your A minor chord which is kind of sound sad. [Demonstration] Okay, and later we’re going to learn about how you can incorporate minor chords or major chords into a song if you want the song to be happy song or sad love song, song on graveyard, that type of thing. So remember if you have any questions on these chords, you can send me an email to questions@freeandeasyguitar.com. Or as always, log in the forums, sign up and talked to the thousands of people in there, make a post, ask your questions and either myself or lots and lots of the other people in there. They’re helpful and we’ll answer your question, so keep on picking. Good luck to the guitar and check out freeandeasyguitar.com, take care.