A new version if this lesson is available with my Beginner Grade 3 Course!

A Chord Variations To Spice Up Your Guitar Playing.

Back again for another cord exploration shape!

In this lesson - we're exploring variations of the A on your guitar.

The A Shape has fewer variations than the previous grips of the CAGED system. You have to do a bit of diggin', and you'll find some cool stuff with this shape! There are some useful and practical things you can do to this chord to spice it up!

💡 Practice your chord variations until it happens naturally when you're playing. Spend at least a week working on it before moving on to another chord shape. Don't rush it and have fun! :)

A Shape Variations On Guitar

Play around with this shape. It can be as simple as lifting, adding, or moving one individual finger around to get a new exciting sound!

Lifting of Finger 1 will gives you an A7. Sometimes, this will sound better than the regular A! Lifting the first finger off is a bit more rootsy & blues rock sounding. Try quickly hammering it on to see how it sounds!

Try putting your first finger down in the first fret on the third string. You can hear the difference it makes - it has a more jazz sound to it! Lifting your second fingers will give you a significant variation - try it out on your guitar and use your ears to assess the sound it gives! Experiment and see what works for your preference. :)

Try using your thumb to mute the thicker string. Or - rest your strumming hand on that particular string. Step outside of the box and try new ways of doing things. This is what leads to a new chord discovery you might dig!

There are going to be times where lifting off the whole chord is going to sound cool! Embrace it and look for those little places to use unusual chord variations.

🚨 Log in to your account to download all the chord diagrams I show in the video. You'll find the download in the resource section. Having visuals will help you understand the positioning of each variation!

How To Add Variations To Your A Shape

This all applies to both the A minor and major chords - but they don't substitute one for the other. Your ears will always tell you if something's good or not more than the theory behind it.

If the theory says yes - but your ears say no - then don't do it. And the other way around! It's essential you do things that sound good more than what theoretically works.

🔑 Remember, the key thing here is to put this exploration into practice! Find some songs that you like and that use the A chord. See how many of these different variations you can use, and that would make sense for your playing style.

I hope you're enjoying this chord explorer series so far - we've got one more to go to complete our CAGED chords. Next lesson - we finish with the E Shape. See you there!