A Major Chord on Guitar, Piano and Ukulele – How to Play it

The A major chord is built from a root note (A), a major third (C), and a perfect fifth (E):

A chord [Musical explanation]

The A major chord is a major triad with formula 1 – 3 – 5. Therefore, to build it we need A (1), C# (3), E (5):

This is due to the fact that a major chord is made up of 2 third intervals:

If we apply this principle to the A chord we obtain that:

Thus, this confirms that the A major chord is defined by:

Root (A) – Major Third (C#) – Perfect Fifth (E)

A Guitar Chord

The A chord guitar has the following shape on the fretboard:

Let’s analyze in detail this chord diagram above to make sure that we understand how to play the A on guitar:

Let’s start by analyzing the 3 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 4 (D), 3 (G) and 2 (B) we have to place the fingers 1 (index), 2 (middle) and 3 (ring finger). Note by the way the number 1 in black on the left that indicates on which fret we start playing the chord.

On the other hand, at the top we see that we have the characters:

X  A  E  A  C#  E

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  5  1  3  5

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the A chord on guitar. But it is highly recommended to know it in order to understand the musical theory behind each chord.

By the way, I have noticed that lately the A major chord on guitar is played by interchanging fingers 1 and 2, as shown below:

Other ways to play the A guitar chord

In addition to the diagram shown at the beginning of the article, we can also find the A chord in the following fretboard positions:

A major triad chords and inversions

Triads

First Inversion (A /C#)

Second Inversion (A /E)

What chords are in A major?

The A major scale harmonized results on the following chords:

A (I) – Bm (ii) – Cm (iii) – D (IV) – E (V) – F#m (vi) – Gº (viiº)

A Ukulele Chord

Here you can see as well the A uke chord diagram:

A Piano Chord

To play the A chord on piano we only need to find the same music notes on its keys:

Music scales in which the A major chord can be found

• A major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • A Bm D♭m D E G♭m A♭dim
• E major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • E G♭m A♭m A B D♭m E♭dim
• D major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • D Em G♭m G A Bm D♭dim
• F# minor natural scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F#m G#dim A Bm C#m D E
• C# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C#m D#dim E F#m G#m A B
• B natural minor scale (armonizada por tríadas)
  • Bm D♭dim D Em G♭m G A
• D harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Dm Edim Faug Gm A B♭ D♭dim
• C# harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C#m D#dim Eaug F#m G# A Cdim
• E melodic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Em G♭m Gaug A B D♭dim E♭dim
• D melodic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Dm Em Faug G A Bdim D♭dim

A Major Chord PDF

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