Do Guitar Chord Fingerings Matter?

Enjoy charts and tables below, with transcript…

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If you play an A Major chord like most people, you’re missing out. I’ll show you why, and what to do about it.

I encourage you to catch the video version of this article while it’s available so you can watch me demonstrate these concepts. You can find the video right here:

Chords exist in context. Am I right? We typically won’t play a song that consists of a single chord, because that would be…boring.

So, if we want to play chords well in context, this begs the question – do guitar chord fingerings really matter? Let’s find out.

I’m going to list three Major keys that are pretty common with guitar players: the keys of A, E and D Major. Which chord do all of these keys have in common? The A Major chord.

In the key of A, the A chord is the Tonic, the I chord.

In the key of E, the A chord is the Subdominant, the Major IV chord.

And in the key of D, the A chord is the Dominant, the Major V chord.

It’s a pretty widely-used chord.

And yet… a lot of guitar players are really making more work for themselves with the fingering they use. 

Now, when we fret a note, it’s best to press down as close to the fret as we can, for a clean articulation.

Unfortunately, some of the guitar educational materials I’ve come across teach the A chord with fingers 1, 2, and 3 in a row.

Even if we slightly adjust to fingers 2, 3, and 4, the situation is not improved by much, because there’s not quite enough room for our adjacent fingers to be well-situated on the second fret in these configurations.

So, what do we do?  For almost 30 years, I have taken the approach I’m about to show you, and it is truly a game-changer. And it’s actually really simple. Check it out.

I use fingers 2, 1 and then 3. A better way to get situated is to place 2 and 3 on the 2^nd fret, like you’re voicing an open A7 chord and then drop in the 1^st finger, wedging it right between those other two fingers.

Again, not all three notes will be right up next to the fret, but this is still a vast improvement to what we had before. Remember, even if a finger is not right next to the fret, it can still sound clean; it just needs to press harder, the further it is away from the fret. 

So now that you’ve been exposed to this new fingering for the open A Major chord, what can I do to validate its usefulness?

That’s right – I’m going to place it in context.

Remember how we talked about the keys of A, E and D? Let’s say I wanted to move from A to E and back, whether that’s in the key of A or the key of E. Both scenarios apply here.

Watch what happens if I use the “old” way of fretting the A chord.  If I start with the less optimal fingering, I have to lift all three fingers to move to the E chord.  Then when I go back, I again have to lift all three fingers. Doable, but not ideal. (The accompanying video demonstrates this clearly.)

What if I tried our new and improved fingering?

The first finger stays on the 3^rd string and provides an anchor point because although it slides down a single fret, it doesn’t have to be lifted from the string. Way better. (Watch the video for the economy of movement.)

Ok, how about the transition from A to D and back? Even though I do have something of an anchor note on the 2^nd string with my 3^rd finger, the other two fingers have to re-locate entirely both ways.

It works, but is there a better way? Yep. Our new way.

Try it, and then watch with delight as only one finger needs to lift up to relocate as the other two fingers provide anchor points both directions.

So, not only is it a cleaner articulation to play A Major this way, we have a much cleaner transition to and from a couple very closely-related chords.  So yes, I believe guitar chord fingerings do matter.

This may be significant to you, or it may not.

But if we’re going to play this chord a few thousand times in our lifetime, wouldn’t it be better to play it more effectively? And wouldn’t it be nice to gain even more visual independence from this chord in context?

Hopefully this gave you a window into my approach to teaching the guitar, and how I like to zoom in for more precision and artistry, which enhances our musicianship and just helps us PLAY better.

Side note: here at GuitarSerious Fun, I published an article/video called “Do Guitar Chord Voicings Matter?” I encourage you to check that out as well.

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