Open A Chord Guitar Shape: Chart and Fingering

The open A Major chord is one of the first guitar chords that guitarists learn. This is a very important shape in any guitarist’s chord library. The image below contains the musical notation, chord chart, tabs and scale degrees for the standard open position A chord.

A Major Chord Standard Open Shape

How to play the open position A chord

  • Place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string.
  • Place your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string.
  • Place your 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the 2nd string.
  • Strum from the 5th string down.

Open A Chord Info

  • This is one of the most common guitar chords and one of the first shapes that guitarists learn.
  • It contains the notes (from the 5th string down) A, E, A, C# and E.
  • This is the shape that the root 5 barre chord is based on.
  • It contains the 1 (root), 5, 1, 3 and 5 in the key of A.
  • It is a Major chord.

Further Reading