Okay now that you know some cool chords in open A. If you don’t I’d encourage you to read the last post. I’m gonna get into the chord science and theory a bit, but if all you want is the chord shapes skip to the end. Like I said before, I’d encourage you to learn why this works and maybe even find a few chords of your own.

So grab a cup of joe and let’s learn some more chords!

So back to our stock A major chord:

If you want to alter this for a modern sound which is also easy to play try A2. This is a basic favorite of contemporary guitarists. Why play a major when you can play a 2 chord, right?

Sounds great on an acoustic or slow picking on an electric. Try the chorus effect. Pretty, huh?

Here we’re using the open strings: A, B and E:

Theory of Altered A Chords (Geeky academics. Skip if you want.)

What makes it a “2”? All we’re doing is taking that major 3rd (C#) and playing a 2nd instead (B). The advantage of using B and “2” type chords is that we can get all kinds of cool new shapes and sounds. There’s a lot of confusion over which 2 chord is which, so I’ll tell you in very clear terms then you can know what you’re playing when you play the chords in the final chart:

• A2: Altered triad. No 3rd, just root, 2nd, and 5th (ABE)
• Aadd2: Has a 3rd and a 2nd (ABC#E).
• Amaj9: An Amaj7 with a 9th (or 2nd) on top (AC#EG#B).

The way we construct new chords is knowing what notes are in the key and playing around with them. Piano players will understand the A2 on the piano, because you can visually stack the notes into chords.

Here are the notes in the key of we get to work with:

Experiment around! As long as you keep the open A in the bass, try other positions up the neck.

The Good Stuff

Here’s a few for your learning pleasure:

Can you find any more? Try different things. Even if you don’t know the theory, use your ear and see what you like. Let me know what you find!