Bringing it Together | Free Online Guitar Lesson

lesson summary

Lesson 7 of 15 in our Basic Guitar Series: Bringing it Together

Steve teaches the primary chords in the key of A major as well as some additional chords. You will also practice playing in the key of D. At the end of the lesson, the new chords are applied to a fingerstyle pattern.
Chapter 1: (1:16) Introduction Welcome to Steve's 7th episode in this beginner guitar course. Hopefully you've already completed your warm-up exercises and are ready to start learning. Let's go! Chapter 2: (16:35) "A" Chord Family In this lesson we’re going to review a bit from the past then move on to the “A” chord and some additional finger picking. In past lessons, you learned the “G”, “Em”, “C”, “Am”, “D7”, and “D” chords. Please take a minute to review these chords.

As you remember, we went through quite a few different progressions in the “D” shape (“D”, “Dm”, “D7”, “D6, etc). Now we’re going to explore similar progressions but in the shape of “A”.

As is the case with any chord, there are many different ways to hold it. Steve demonstrates a few different methods:

• Stacked Fingers - Finger 1 on the “D”, Finger 2 on the “G” and Finger 3 on the “B”
• Barred Fingers - One finger laid across the second fret of each string (“D”, “G”, and “B”)
• The Steve Method - Finger 1 on “G”, Finger 2 on “D”, and Finger 3 on “B”. With this approach, your first finger is behind & in between the other two. This works well if you have bigger fingers.

Regardless of your finger positioning, you’re hitting the exact same five notes (three that are fretted and two open strings).

• ”A” – Open “A” string
• “E” – “D” string, 2nd fret
• “A” – “G” String, 2nd fret
• “C#” – “B” string, 2nd fret
• “E” – Open “e” string

You might notice that we have an available “E” note that can be played as well (open “E” string). Feel free to throw this in for a bit of a deeper tone.

On the board you will see two columns of chords. Remember that lower case roman numerals (“ii”, “iii” and “vi”) are minor chords. The upper case roman numerals (“I”, “IV”, and “V”) are major chords. An easy way to remember this is to hold your hand up with the “I love you” sign with your thumb facing up. You can count through the scale and figure out the minor & major chords. For instance, in the key of “G”, you have “G”, “Am”, “Bm”, “C”, “D”, and “Em”. With your hand, your pinkie is “G” (major), ring finger is “Am” (minor because the finger is down), middle finger is “Bm” (again the finger is down), pointer finger is “C”, thumb is “D” and the non-existent finger is “Em” (hey your non-existent finger isn’t up, is it?!).

As you’ll see, the “B” minor is the 6th step in the key of “D” and also the 3rd step in the key of “G”. Once we learn that (this lesson of course!), you will know enough to play the first six chords in the key of “G” and all but one to play in the key of “D”.

Oh no, incomplete 7th Chords!
“D” is the 5th step in the “G” scale. If you play “D 7th” instead, it will have a very incomplete sound. It is close to being in the key of “G”, but a little bit off. To complete the progression, try playing a regular “D”. This will complete your D7th chord and finish off the scale nicely. The same will happen if you play an “A 7th” in the key of “D”. It will sound very unfinished until you play the “A” major chord.

”A” and “A” Minor Transitioning
Instead of playing the typical “key of D” progression, let’s say you want to throw a suspenseful “A7” in place of the “A”. Well, you’re going to need to resolve the “A7” with an “A” unless you want to drive everybody nuts. To play an “A” minor, you will flatten the “A” a full step on the “G” string, 2nd fret to a “G” (open “G” string). This transition is particularly easy if you use the “Steve Method” of holding your “A” as mentioned above. If you barre the “A” then it may be a bit more difficult to transition. Regardless, the point is that you should be fretting your chords not only to be comfortable but to make your transitions easier.

”A” / “A Major 7th” / “A Dominant 7th”
Just like with the “D” progression, we can simply change one note to move between different chords in the “A” family. To play an “A Major 7th” you simply flatten the “A” note on the “G” string a half step (remember, flattening it a full step (two frets)) will create an “A7” chord). So now, for the ”A Major 7th”, you will be playing the following:

• ”A” string, open
• ”D” string, 2nd fret
• ”G” string, 1st fret
• ”B” string, 2nd fret
• ”e” string, open

To move to an “A7” (also called “A” Dominant 7th), you simply lift up your finger on the “G” string. Easy, huh? This will leave you with an “A7” chord:

• ”A” string, open
• ”D” string, 2nd fret
• ”G” string, open
• ”B” string, 2nd fret
• ”e” string, open

There you go! You’ve learned the “A”, “A Major”, “A Minor”, “A7”, and “A Major 7” chords!

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