So, I’ve seen the A chord done a couple of different ways, and I’ve even done it differently over the years. I’ve seen people use three fingers, whether that’s 1, 2, and 3, or 2, 3, and 4. I’ve also seen guys just use one finger to kind of barre those three strings. Both ways don’t feel fully natural, and I don’t get a consistently clear tone with either method. Which do y’all prefer, or is there an easier way?
“A” chord?
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My 2 cents. It is better to be versatile. It will help in the long run. I’d try all 3 styles but not exactly for A. I’d probably use say for C (same shape but 3 frets up) - 1,2,3,4 or 1,4 - as you will need the 1 for catching the 1st string note.
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I do finger 2 on the 4th string, finger 1 on the 3rd string, and finger 3 on the 2nd string (all fret 2 of course). So fingers 1 and 2 are switched from the way most people learn. I learned this way from Chris Eldridge a few years ago, and since then I’ve observed it’s the way a lot of people do it. I much prefer the tone and feel of it too.
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Most natural for me is probably 2-3-4. My hand usually doesn’t cramp up this way. The downside is that it’s much less convenient to do hammer-ons/pull-offs on the B string, which happen a lot in songs like this:
James Taylor remedies this problem by making his A chord in a bit of a twisty way, using his index finger for ornaments:
I’d love to be able to do it like that, but hammers/pull-offs are super awkward for me that way. Maybe I could get used to it if I practiced enough. Right now, for those purposes, I’ve been using probably the weirdest choice here:
It’s almost like a scrunchy D chord. I saw a friend of mine do this and I thought I’d try it out. It works for doing ornaments with the middle finger, though it still just feels a little cramped. I’m trying to get out of the habit of using this all the time for standard rhythm. For just playing rhythm on the A chord, I’d gravitate towards the 2-3-4 version or the version Libby suggested.
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For me, it depends on the chords I’m moving from/to. I find myself often actually using 2-E, 1-A, 3-C#. I think maybe I picked that one up learning Fire and Rain. Works nicely for hammer-ons. But I’ve played all the mentioned variations over the years.
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