Guitar Lesson 05: your second chord (A) and switching
Taught by Fret, your Change Your Strings Guitar teacher ·
A major uses three fingers, all at the 2nd fret, on the D, G, and B strings. Strum from the open A string down, and skip the low E. Then practice switching between Em and A. Both live at the 2nd fret, so your hand barely moves. Switching is the real skill.
What you need
Watch JustinGuitar's walkthrough in the video above, then read the breakdown.
One chord is a sound. Two chords is music. Your second shape is A major, bright and open where Em was moody, and once you can move between them you are really playing.
Build A major. All three fingers go at the 2nd fret, on three neighboring strings.
A major: index (1) on D, middle (2) on G, ring (3) on B, all at the 2nd fret. Skip the low E (X). The open A and high e ring.- Place your index finger on the D string (4th) at the 2nd fret.
- Place your middle finger on the G string (3rd) at the 2nd fret.
- Place your ring finger on the B string (2nd) at the 2nd fret.
- Arch the three fingers so the open high e still rings clearly.
- Strum from the open A string (5th) down. Do not hit the low E (6th).
e |---------------0--B |------------2-----G |---------2--------D |------2-----------A |---0--------------E |x-----------------
Three fingers in one fret is a tight squeeze at first. Go slow, press on your fingertips, and pluck each string to be sure nothing is muted.
Now the part that matters most: switching. Here is the good news. Em and A both live at the 2nd fret, so you are not leaping around the neck, you are rearranging fingers in one spot.
Em for comparison: fingers 2 and 3 on the A and D strings, everything else open.- Em: middle and ring fingers on the A and D strings.
- A: index, middle, and ring fingers on the D, G, and B strings.
e |--0-----0--B |--0-----2--G |--0-----2--D |--2-----2--A |--2-----0--E |--0-----x--
This is exactly Batio's metronome trick in miniature. He told Tom Morello to nail an exercise slowly, then move the tempo up one click at a time. Do that with the switch: clean first, faster later. A steady, forgiving pick helps while your fretting hand does the hard work. A Dunlop Tortex .60mm pick is a cheap, flexible place to start. Batio's own signature pick is a stiff 1.3 mm jazz pick built for shredding, the opposite of what a strumming beginner wants, so save that one for later.
Practice this
For five minutes, play Em, strum four slow times, switch to A, strum four slow times, and repeat. When you switch, move all your fingers as one shape, not one at a time. It will feel clumsy at first. That is normal. Count out loud so your strumming stays even while your hand learns the move.
Where you are
In Lesson 04: your first chord (Em) you played a single shape, and now you can move between two. These two chords alone power countless punk and rock songs, the home turf of players like Billie Joe Armstrong. Keep your guitar in standard tuning (E A D G B E) so both chords ring true, and see how a shred master like Michael Angelo Batio built speed on this same clean-first foundation. A simple downstroke strum is coming next to turn these switches into a groove.