E Guitar Chord

An E major chord is made up of three different notes: E is the root note, B is the perfect 5th, and G# is the major 3rd. In this guitar lesson you will learn the E guitar chord in several different places along the guitar neck:

First we begin this guitar lesson with an E major open chord shape:

E guitar chord

This chord diagram shows the fingers index (1), middle (2) and ring (3) holding down this chord, but it can also be played using the pinky, ring and middle fingers as shown in the video. This is called an open chord because it contains several strings that are not fretted (played open), which gives this particular E major voicing a full and lush sound.

Next, you’ll learn a “D shaped” E major chord which is played on the G B and e strings. After this we’ll take a look at an E barre chord beginning at the 7th fret of the A string, using your ring finger to hold down the D G and B strings at the 9th fret. To finish off we examine the 12th fret position E major barre chord and octave shapes.

E major octave chord shape:
E Major Octave Chord Diagram

E major barre chord:

E major bar chord

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A Guitar Chord

An A Major guitar chord is made up of three different notes. The root note is A, the perfect 5th is an E note and the major 3rd is a C# note. In this video guitar chord lesson you will learn the A guitar chord in several different positions on the fret board:

First you will learn the simplist type of an A guitar chord, which is an A5 powerchord, which consists of only two different notes: the root note (A) and the perfect 5th (E). This powerchord is neither major nor minor in sound and therefore works well when played with both major and minor scales, as all powerchords do!
For the open position A guitar chord there are three possible fingerings that you can use:

1 – your pinky (4), ring (3) and middle (2):

A Major Guitar Chord

2 – your ring (3), middle (2) and index (1) fingers:

An A guitar chord using the ring, middle and index fingers

3 – your index finger (1) only:

A guitar chord open position using index finger only
After this, we take a look at a barre chord and partial thumbed A guitar chord, beginning at the 5th fret of the E string:

A Barre Chord
Thumbed A guitar chord:

Thumbed A guitar chord

This A thumbed chord might be hard to play if you have small hands or a hard time holding down the E string using your thumb, but keep trying since it’s worth it to master this thumb technique! This guitar lesson finishes with another barre chord shape, starting at the 12th fret position on the A string (an A note). This chord is an octave version of the open position A chord, which means that all the notes are played up one octave higher (an octave is a distance of 12 notes).

Remember that all of these chord shapes contain the same notes that make up an A guitar chord: A, E and C#. Be sure to sign up for your free guitar chord book if you want to print these diagrams and TABs off.